Rebuilding Journal

[Anonymous]

Like someone else said, don't be embarrased, most of are here because we've been in your situation too!   I lost a job and then went through bankruptcy.  Now that I understand credit reports and what got reported, I can look back and see that my BIGGEST MISTAKE was not contacting my creditors.   I felt overwhelmed and like I'd never get out of the hole, so just avoided it....  If I had contacted them, I could have probably saved myself from having a lot of late payments,  collections and charge off's which all made my credit scores plummet.  So, DO CONTACT EVERYONE that you owe money!!!    

I didn't read everyones posts, but if no one else mentioned this, what helped me most was to make a budget and stick with it - using the envelop system was the easiest way for me.    When I just used my debit card, I didnt even realize how fast and where my money was going.   Now that I'm sticking to a strict budget, I am amazed at how much more money it seems I have for the things that HAVE to get paid!    (Btw, my budget does include a small  for clothing/beauty/entertainment, so I'm not completely without a life)    My goal too, is to buy a home.    The budget is really helping me save towards that goal.    

Good luck, be pro-active about taking care of your bills and hang in there!    There is hope and light at the end of the tunnel.  

[TimeToRecover]

Hurray and Applause to you for tackling your uphill battle.  And it will feel like a battle.  BUT the reward at the end is well worth it.

Everyone has given great advice.  I don't want to be a naysayer but I do want to prepare you of  one thing.  When an account is in disbute with the CRA it is not counted in the scoring so be prepared to see up and down fluctuations as you go thru the process.  But keep working and plugging away.

Getting the 2 revolving accounts will help you with the rebuild while you work on the baddies.  Treat the new CC's well.  Try to not charge more then you can pay off or if you have to carry a balance keep it below 10%.  

My only other advice woulld be don't be in to much of a hurry to apply for additional cards.  I say this because if you start apping to soon you may get approvals but the limits will most likely be "toy" limits.  if you are patient and wait until your report has been cleaned up you can apply and get better limits initially.  The CC forum can make a person want to apply after reading others successes but keep strong to your own goal.

[Anonymous]

Some updates, some questions.

I started my TU dispute 9/4/14, as of today the status says that they need more time for manual processing.   Ex and Eq i started the dispute 9/8/14 and as of today it is still not finalized.  Along with dispute with CB's I allso sent DV letters  to the CA's.  I get a letter last week from Enhanced Recovery that is simply a bill and states that i have 30 days to dispute or debt will be valid.  Do I send another DV letter or should I send a letter stating that the bill they sent is not sufficient, i do have the certified mail reciept showing when they recd my DV letter.  I am just unsure on how to proceed with them.  Also I am thinking that I should wait until after the CB's finish investigating my disputes to see if Enhanced Recovery remained on my credit.  Any suggestions?

In the meantime here are some of my FAKO score updates, Only in my sig are my myfico scores

Fako score on 9/3/14 is 461, Fako score on 10/2/14 is 512

Vantage score on 9/3 is 431, it is now at 457 as of 10/2

I have no idea why my Fako score would increase since i only paid a portion of my Cap1 charge off amt and the Fingerhut and opensky are not even reporting. I also only paid 5.00 twice on my SL which are currently being rehabbed.

[Anonymous]

If only I had of started in the high 500's i would be so golden now,  Look at my sig you can see my highest increase came from TU with a 108 point jump in 30 days.  But what makes me happier is that across the board 6 collection accounts have been deleted from my file, which means i have no accounts listed in collections as of today.  The only baddie left is a capital one charge off that i already made 33% payment on and will continue to pay.  It wont be deleted as I have read that Cap 1 can be a pain.. Oh wait and i have a car repo that reports only to TU that i will battle with in a few months.  The rest are Student Loans that are currently being rehabbed.  So I have a lot more to do but the wealth of info on this site regarding how to deal with Collection agencies has been priceless. I will be getting another secured card thru Merrick in the next two weeks. 

[Anonymous]

Today for the first time in the new millenium my score is over 600,

Okay maybe I am exagerating about how long it has been but EQ myfico alert states that my score is 615.  The reason is that I pd 1/3 of the Cap 1 bal that has been charged off.  Now I thought and remembered reading that paying a debt in coll is only good morally but does nothing for your score... well the credit GODS must be with me because it has helped me.  And to think that I was not going to pay the balance I owed them right away.  Now I am going to pay it off and leave a 20 dollar balance, just to see how that might affect my score.  So my hope now is that TU and EX are also updated and i see more of a score update.

I also wanted to add that after my last score jump on 10/3 i app'ed for a CreditOne cc and was denied thru their pre approval offer. According to them as of 10/4/14 my score with EQ was only 502.. I am scratching my head over that one!!

[Zorasmiles]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Today for the first time in the new millenium my score is over 600,

Okay maybe I am exagerating about how long it has been but EQ myfico alert states that my score is 615.  The reason is that I pd 1/3 of the Cap 1 bal that has been charged off.  Now I thought and remembered reading that paying a debt in coll is only good morally but does nothing for your score... well the credit GODS must be with me because it has helped me.  And to think that I was not going to pay the balance I owed them right away.  Now I am going to pay it off and leave a 20 dollar balance, just to see how that might affect my score.  So my hope now is that TU and EX are also updated and i see more of a score update.

I also wanted to add that after my last score jump on 10/3 i app'ed for a CreditOne cc and was denied thru their pre approval offer. According to them as of 10/4/14 my score with EQ was only 502.. I am scratching my head over that one!!

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Awesome keep up the good work!  Super proud of the progress you're making!

[Anonymous]

Well here I am 5 weeks into my rebuild and I have made great improvements. I am pretty sure the great jumps in my credit score will slow down now. I app'ed and was approved for a Walmart store card with 500 cl. Whew..to me that's a nice reward. No more apps until I can get a prime cc with a min limit of 1k. Now I look forward to finishing my sl rehab and maintaining the opensky, FH and Walmart card. I am Addicted to this site. You guys are Ahmazinggggh!!