Stagnant Scores

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone, 

I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and it's truly a long and tedious journey. 

My current credit scores are: 

Credit Karma - EQ: 556 | Transunion: 552

Experian Fico 8: 606 (using self-reporting boost feature)

I only have 2 collections now (I was able to get 2 others (medical) paid off and removed recently, but it did not help my score):

NCA/Rise Credit: $1,430 

ERC/Sprint Mobile: $1,295 (not showing in EQ)

Both are nearly 2-year-old collection accounts. The other 2 that were removed were more recent. 

I have a total of 61 late/missed payments: 5 of which are credit card (I tried GW letters but was not successful). The other 56 are from Student Loans. I have a total of 7 student loans (FedLoan split them by semester) and I missed 8 monthly payments (8x7=56).  I was in general forbearance for at least 2 months (or 14 of these payments), but FedLoan refuses to remove the lates. I disputed this with all the credit bureaus, but they haven't removed them. I'm currently making payments on the loans. 

I currently have 5 derogatory accounts (aside from the lates above):

2 charged-off USAA Credit Cards (Total $6,168; pay arrangement set and may drop off in 2021)

Charged-off Wells Fargo ($3,862; pay arrangement set and may drop off in 2020)

Charged-off GM Financial Auto Loan ($2,857 remaining bal.; making payments and may drop off in 2023)

Previously late payments for closed Citi Financial Loan ($0 bal; may drop off in 2020)

Somehow these charged-off amounts are being calculated against my utilization on Experian. 

Active Accounts:

2 Credit One Credit Cards ($450 & $800 limits)

Cap One (just had a CLI from $300 to $500 last month)

FNBO/TCF Secured Credit Card ($300 limit; had for 3 years, but has not graduated) 

MoneyLion Loan (1 payment left) 

Util: 18%

AAOC: 3.5 years (Credit Karma)  / 6.6 years (Experian) 

Inquiries: 2

Currently in the market for an auto loan, but don't want to pay a high interest rate. 

I'm thinking that applying for either a Kohl's account or a Navy Federal Credit Union Secured Card may help increase available credit. 

If someone could provide some insight on what I else I could do to rebuild credit that would be greatly appreciative. 

Thanks!!

[dynamicvb]

Welcome to the forum. That number of lates has to be quite a hit. Are they 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or something else? How old are they? And what month/year was the first in the string? I'm not sure more tradelines will help you at all. It's common for charged off tradelines to be included in utilization.

Someone else may have some other ideas, but my thoughts is you won't see much growth with those lates and charge offs. You probably could get some points by taking that utilization down to less than 8.9%. You should also get all your Fico scores to get a good judgment of where you are. No one uses Vantage scores and they are normally way off from your fico8 scores.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello Everyone, 

I'm in the process of rebuilding my credit and it's truly a long and tedious journey. 

My current credit scores are: 

Credit Karma - EQ: 556 | Transunion: 552

Experian Fico 8: 606 (using self-reporting boost feature)

I only have 2 collections now (I was able to get 2 others (medical) paid off and removed recently, but it did not help my score):

NCA/Rise Credit: $1,430 

ERC/Sprint Mobile: $1,295 (not showing in EQ)

Both are nearly 2-year-old collection accounts. The other 2 that were removed were more recent. 

I have a total of 61 late/missed payments: 5 of which are credit card (I tried GW letters but was not successful). The other 56 are from Student Loans. I have a total of 7 student loans (FedLoan split them by semester) and I missed 8 monthly payments (8x7=56).  I was in general forbearance for at least 2 months (or 14 of these payments), but FedLoan refuses to remove the lates. I disputed this with all the credit bureaus, but they haven't removed them. I'm currently making payments on the loans. 

I currently have 5 derogatory accounts (aside from the lates above):

2 charged-off USAA Credit Cards (Total $6,168; pay arrangement set and may drop off in 2021)

Charged-off Wells Fargo ($3,862; pay arrangement set and may drop off in 2020)

Charged-off GM Financial Auto Loan ($2,857 remaining bal.; making payments and may drop off in 2023)

Previously late payments for closed Citi Financial Loan ($0 bal; may drop off in 2020)

Somehow these charged-off amounts are being calculated against my utilization on Experian. 

Active Accounts:

2 Credit One Credit Cards ($450 & $800 limits)

Cap One (just had a CLI from $300 to $500 last month)

FNBO/TCF Secured Credit Card ($300 limit; had for 3 years, but has not graduated) 

MoneyLion Loan (1 payment left) 

Util: 18%

AAOC: 3.5 years (Credit Karma)  / 6.6 years (Experian) 

Inquiries: 2

Currently in the market for an auto loan, but don't want to pay a high interest rate. 

I'm thinking that applying for either a Kohl's account or a Navy Federal Credit Union Secured Card may help increase available credit. 

If someone could provide some insight on what I else I could do to rebuild credit that would be greatly appreciative. 

Thanks!!

---

Hi and welcome to the forums. It's great you're ready to start working on your credit. 

Lets start with the easy ones. Balances on your open cards are high in scoring terms, however paying them off would not do much (other than getting you rid of the debt) in terms of scoring. 

Not so easy ones...

Your charged off cards are counting against utilization but their former limits are not. So, you get a double whammy. Charge off is one of the most serious derogs, and it can only be 'softened" slightly by paying/settling it. There really is no way around it. As long as one remains unpaid, scores will stay stagnant. 

Same goes for unpaid collections, as long as they are not taken care of (all of them) do not expect to see much improvement. Each update on charge off or collection account prevents scores from recovering. While getting PFD is the best on CA accounts, paying is the second best. Settling is fine, too. It does not look as pretty on manual review, but it's still better than unpaid collection. 

Applying for more credit to increase aggregate utilization will not help you at all. Remember the whole thing about COs being considered maxed out? You could add $100000 in secured cards and it wont change a thing. It's the presence of unpaid derog that's hurting you the most. Getting a few secured cards wont give you a shortcut. 

Money you'd put into deposits should go towards your debt. You already have open accounts. 

Student loans are not my thing so, we can see if @Anonymous is around later. They might be able to tell you if you're going to be stuck with those lates for a really long time. 

The best thing you could do, which is also the only thing, is start making a plan on how to pay your debts off. Start negotiating settlements and PFDs. Do what you need to do. 

Be careful and make a budget. You're on your way to max out your open accounts. You dont want to do that. 

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you! 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I'm not sure if I can be of much help on the student loans. The student loans are separated by disbursement. Each is a new loan. They are also separated by type (unsubsidized vs subsidized). The number of loans will actually be very beneficial to you in the future. It offsets new accounts you get. The also tend to be people's oldest accounts.

How old are the lates? Are they all in one string? (I'm guessing not, at 8.) If not how how are they grouped together? If they are within the last year or so you could try asking FLS for a retroactive forbearance. That should be a bit easier since you already established the general forbearance.
The lates that were in the general forbearance...what lates would that erase from the string(s) of lates you mentioned? If you're lucky, it would leave you with no 90 or 120 day lates. The effect of the 30 or 60 will decrease over time.

When you talk with them you should start making a paper trail. Communication details (you can even request a copy of the log they keep. I got one. Eventually.) Like the date, name, employee number and details of the call. Also get a copy of all bills, letters, emails, etc. Personally, I created a spreadsheet and added up the actual interest which didn't match what they'd added so I'm sure this data looks bad for them in any complaint in terms of account mismanagement. You can put a digital copy of this all in a folder and submit the files for complaints. First I'd try the Ombudsman, then if that doesn't work, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau website.

Once I get a more complete picture I can give you better advice.

PS. I sign up for the $1 trial at Creditchecktotal. You get your reports and scores for all three CB then downgrade your account to free. Best deal ever imo. The downgrade link is easiest accessed from the FAQ on the desktop site.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice so far!

For the student loans, the first reported late was 6/2017 as 90 days. However, my TU credit report shows that I was OK from 3/2017 - 5/2017. 

I then received 120 days late in 7/2017 and this was continuously reported as 120 days late until 11/2017. 

I wasn't reported late again (90 days) until 5/2018 and then 120 days in 7/2018.  I was approved for general forbearance for 2/2018 - 12/2018. I submitted the approval letter to the credit bureaus to dispute the late payments, but only the 6/2018 late payment was removed. 

Here's a link to the image of the TU payment table: https://cutt.ly/p9DrbM

[BallBounces]

Hi, welcome, hopefully this thread provides some good dialogue and options for you.  Congratulation on tackling this head on!

Two of the posts above are exactly on point.  I would highlight two things:

1) Lack of credit is not supressing your scores.  Adding small tradelines will have minimal short term and long term effect.  Finaces before FICOs.  Paying down to "0" (or sub 9% if you must) will have a small effect on score, but is more importantly the right thing to do.

2) Most critical:  You have 2 open collections and several charge offs.  Until you address them, as you exacly stated, your scores will stagnate.   PFD. Pay. Settle. GW. ... but you need to meet the obligations of these collections in order to commence gradual improvement.  Then the charge offs.  Then the late marks.  Then the credit limits.

You can do it.

.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, federal student loans don't usually report until 90 days. It would be helpful except the servicers don't tell you or reach out to advice you of options. Instead it's basically a way to get a major late with no idea you'd been late in the first place.
You can get some of this cleaned up but it might take doing the disputes I mentioned. I would first try speaking with an account specialist. They are the only ones who have access to make these small adjustments to my knowledge.

When the forbearance was issued were some of the dates it covered in the past? These see the most difficult to get erased. You might have to do a second dispute and hopefully it won't be flagged as frivolous. However if your servicer is reporting them as accurate, there is very little that can be done without a complaint filed.

[Anonymous]

All the information provided has been extremely helpful and now I know where to focus most of my attention. Although I've been making payments on all my debts, I have to commit to paying off larger amounts as these smaller payments are not making a dent. I appreciate the plan of action laid out for me.

I'll definitely look into the CreditCheckTotal as I do also agree that being able to monitor my actual FICO scores would be more helpful than Credit Karma. The subscriptions to the monitoring services aren't cheap and I feel as though the money could be going toward the debts I owe. But as guys stated, it would be worth it to get a good idea where my FICO scores are currently. 

@Sabii - The Student Loan debt has been a great pain for me when it comes to credit. The general forbearance was granted on 8/4/2018 and it was supposed to cover all 7 loans from 2/2018 - 12/2018 per the letter I received from FLS (so I guess in a way it was supposed to be retroactive). However, after disputing the remaining lates, the credit bureaus only removed 6/2018 and not 5/2018 or 7/2018. When I disputed this directly with FLS, I received a "credit adjustment denied" letter that stated the following (without any further explanation):

"We received and investigated your credit dispute. Our investigation included the review of all relevant account history and
documentation, including any information you provided to us. Based on this review, we determined the information reported
is accurate; therefore, no corrections were requested for the loans listed on the back of this letter. "

I saved a copy of the letter to my computer. I will continue to contact FLS and retrieve/save copies of all transcripts and notes. I think I'll eventually have to file a complaint with CFPB. 

What do you think about consolidating these loans with another servicer and then filing a complaint against FLS specifically? I know it won't improve my score as it will just open a new loan account, but at least I can continue to dispute these lates with FLS separately until fully resolved. 

Thanks

[BallBounces]

Hang in there  @jblack773. 

One note, you are correct you should not be spending a lot of money on credit monitoring products.  If you are using credit check total properly, it should be a 1 or 2 dollar a months expense.  You will get it.

[Anonymous]

After you downgrade to Creditchecktotal's free plan, you can sign up for the $1 trial again later (after the 7 days off the first trial would have been over). Also, the free plan will give you EX score & report once a month. Discover's Credit score card will give you another EX score (TU for customers?) which you can stagger. You might find you can still meet your needs without a subscription.

I hear you about the student loans! These servicers are horrible. It sounds like the credit bureaus check with FLS and FLS says they are accurate. I'm not sure if getting the lates removed due to a retroactive forbearance is a right, but I would run with that. Have them fix it in their system; some people get it removed so the servicer must be noting something different.

Absolutely do not consolidate. Another member here clued me in to the small print on the student loan website. When you consolidate the loans, it creates a brand new loan, right? Well any problems or disputes you had with the old loans go away. Not only could your scores dip from the new loan, you'll have no opportunity to fix the old ones. Plus the other servicers are only slightly less horrible at best.
My servicer is also FLS and we are constantly having issues due to their ways. I've learned how to deal with them a bit. I really fear what will happen to borrowers when it comes time for the first IDR forgiveness. I think they've mishandled the majority of accounts.

Good luck and keep us updated.