*Warning Long Post!*
Ok, its been quite some time since I've been active on the boards...went thru a series of life changes since 2012 and now I'm back to the drawing board again.
Here's my situation in a nutshell.
Currently MyFico.com says my Experian Credit Score is 635 (its up from about 518 from back in December), Equifax is 611, Transunion is 617. Back in May I joined a credit union in Milwaukee (Educators) and every three months I've gotten free credit reports and scores. According to Educators my Transunion score is just a 587 (up from 561) in May. Any idea why the numbers are so different between Myfico and Educators? I was positively devastated when I got the score from my credit union! I also monitor my scores thru other websites like CreditKarma, CreditSesame, CapitalOne and CreditOne. All of those sites have my score somewhere between 623-652. So imagine my devastation when I got the report/score from my CU! I did look over the report and noticed that many of my CC balances and monthly bill totals were outdated and several months behind whats currently displayed on my reports/scores from the websites I mentioned. For a long time my Fico score was much lower than all the other websites but in the last few months (since I've paid off credit card debt) MyFico.com has risen significantly. As a matter of fact, within the last week my score went from a 612 to a 635 and this score is with my creditone CC still at a 80 plus percent UTI. I'm dying to see what it goes to when the statements hit the credit institutions this week (CreditOne reports on today actually) so I should know within the next few days. The CU report shows high balances on all my credit cards...my current (and accurate reports) right now show very low balances for all but one card...CreditOne.
When I got my most recent report from my credit union I had only one "baddie" on it...a cell phone charge off from VZW which I intend to pay in the next few weeks. Its $380. I also had some very very late payments (150 days) from my student loan debt (which I paid off in full last month) a few 60 day late payments on my current car loan (Capital One, which will also be paid off by the end of this month, I currently owe about $750 on it and I am current), and some personal loans from a few years ago which had 30 and 60 day late payment statuses on before I got them current and paid them off.
Also, at the time of the credit report my utilization for each credit card I have (5 total) was very very high. Currently one of them has been closed (BestBuy) and is paid off in full...at the time of the report I owed $234 on it and it only had a 300 limit. Three of current ones have a UTI of less than 20 percent and the biggest one (CreditOne) is sitting right around 50 percent today. By the end of the week the CreditOne card will be down to about 20-25 percent as well. Every two weeks when I get paid I pay on something, by the end of the month CreditOne will be around $100 total. I am NOT playing you guys. I've worked very very hard to pay off these credit cards and I'm eager to see what a difference it makes in my scores. I had thought it might be a good idea to perhaps get a small loan thru my credit union to establish some type of history with them so that I can build a relationship in order to get financing for a car in a few months (I'm getting a new Fusion very soon) and after talking with them several times I'm kinda conflicted as to what to do. A few weeks back I spoke with one loan officer who thought a small secured loan of $500 would be a great idea. The loan officer I talked to today suggested that I skip the secured loan and get a credit card with the CU. I'm inclined to agree with the loan officer from today.
The one thing I'm certain of doing is paying this VZW/National Recovery bill off...its essential as my credit union will not approval a loan at all if a charge off is not at least paid off. My loan officer today told me some things that kind of thru me off though. They are as follows:
1) Paying off my charge off will increase my score. I was always under the impression that intially the charge off payment would hurt me...because it makes the account "new" again. The bill was just placed into collections Oct 2013 so its honestly not that old, but I worry it will drop my score some intially.
2) I should cancel at least two of my credit cards. CreditOne and Capital One are my two oldest cards, I acquired both when I tried to rebuild my credit the first time in 2010. Both have always been current and I've gotten CLI for both, though the highest one is only $1100. She says currently it looks like I have too much credit...even though one of the cards is a store card (Target) and newer Capital One card that is about to give me another CLI. I'm afraid if I cancel the oldest two my score is going to drop significantly. If I'm gonna drop two of them I think it will be the first capital one card (I only got a CLI to $500 with it since I got it in 2010 and the Target Card (no CLI ever and it still sits at $200 limit), The CreditOne card has a high APR but they are always giving me CLI increases.
3) A score close to 650 will net me a 3.99 percent interest rate with the Credit Union as long as the charge off is paid. See why I'm working so hard? My current car loan has a 14 percent interest rate! I wouldn't know how to act with a 3.99 percent APR on a new or slightly used car.
So now I'm going to start working on GW Letters for my student loans (which at one time had 150 past due on them when I lost my job), paying National Recovery (and trying to do a PFD), writing GW Letters to Captial One Auto (for the late ones) keeping my credit card balances super low as well.
My questions though are this:
1) Any luck with getting National Recovery to completely remove a charge off? Either way I'm going to pay it off, but it would be so much better if I could just get it completely removed? I had thought about paying off the bill and possibly opening another account with Verizon, but my current job has a great discount plan with Sprint and I'd have unlimited data with them.
2) Any luck getting Capital One to budge on anything as far as late payments and GW letters? I've been current on all my bills since about March or so. Nothing late, always more than the minimum payments, etc.
3) Should I go for the credit card offers from my CU? APR is 13.9%, but they want me to close out at least two of my current cards to obtain one thru them. $500 CL right off the bat.
4) I talked to my CU about possibly purchasing a car now thru someone else (probably CapitalOne again) and refinancing it within 6-12 months and my loan officer explained that refinancing the car would actually be easier for me than trying to purchase one from them. THey have awesome rates (1.9% for all approvals done on black friday for example) and other incentives to bring your rate down (like purchase point reductions etc.) Sound like a good idea? I really really need another car and don't think the Honda will make it thru another Wisconsin Winter.
5) Is it possible to realistically get my score to say 650 plus between now and say Nov 28th, even if the CU score is the most accurate? My loan officer said that in order to get the 3.99 percent APR most buyers have to be at a 650 but she explained that if I have a pretty good relationship with the CU (i have a savings/checking account with them) that they would probably still approve the loan if I was close to the 650 mark (say around 635-640)
I'd say I'm on my way (again) to a full recovery. I love my CU, they have great benefits and I'm trying to rebuild my credit with them so that eventually I can get this new car and buy a home in a few years. Wish me luck! I thank God for the job I currently have, I've been doing it for about 15 months now and I have been financially successful.
Currently, I have the following bills:
One Main Financial (always current, never late, $180/month) owe about $2400 will be paid off by January!
Cap One CC $75/500 (owed/limit)
Cap One CC $87/500 (owed/limit)
Target CC $32/200 (owed/limit)
Credit One $590/1100 (owed/limit) -will be at $290 after I pay them tonight!
Rent $445
I love a good challenge! Cannot wait to get all these bills paid off. I know I've given you folks a lot but ANY help would be greatly appreciated! Ive come a LONG way (almost filed for bankruptcy) but I'm roaring back! Wish me luck (and help me PLEASE!)
