Starting off rebuild (Oct 2019) need advice on how to proceed

[Anonymous]

Good morning all and thanks to all those who served on this Veterans Day.

I just made a decision to start rebuilding my credit last month after approximately 8 years of bad financial decisions. Due to poor education on the topic and some bad decisions I made, I sunk myself into a deep hole. Before finding this forum, I would have thought that my situation was hopeless, but now I KNOW that with hard work and discipline, I can and will improve my situation. 

Anywho, I am seeking some advice as to how I can most efficiently proceed with rebuilding my credit. Below are some data points to give you a complete picture of my current standing:

Current scores (FICO)

EX 592/ 9 hard pulls

EQ 514/ 2 hard pulls

TU 581/ 10 hard pulls

"Baddies":

- American Financial (charge off/vehicle repo/lease) $22,154

-Credit one bank (charge off/sold to LVNV) $595

-USAA secured credit card (charge off) $113... I paid this off last week as I still use USAA. Should I ask them for a GW removal?

-Wells Fargo bank secured credit card (charge off $413) (from 2014)

- Overdrive Systems (Charge Off/ original balance $11,392/ wrote off $5,927) vehicle repo (as shown on Experian)

-CNAC (charge off/closed/$11,392) same vehicle as repo'ed above (as shown on TransUnion)

-American Student Assistance ( 5 loans charged off and sold to collections, approx $12,000) ****

*** I recently called the ASA loan collection agency and they enrolled me in a loan rehabilitation program. I made my first two payments on it and if I make 8 more, I can have the loans show in good standing in my credit report.

Open/accounts in good standing:

-DiscoverIT secured CC (opened in Oct 2019) $400 CL/$0 bal

-USAA unsecured CC( Opened in Oct 2019) $ 500 CL/$ 200 bal (I will use this as my "EO" card and will pay it down to $20 before the statement closes).

-CAP 1 platinum card (Opened in OCT 2019) $300 CL/$0 bal

-CAP 1 quicksilver Authorized User (Opened in October 2015/just started reporting on Experian yesterday) $6,250 CL/$0 BAL

-Fingerhut fresh start credit program (Opened in Oct 2019) $250 CL

-Self (secured loan Opened in Oct 2019) $26 monthly payments. 

My questions to you all are:

1) what is the most efficient way to tackle the negatives I posted above? They are all fairly recent (2015 and newer) and the only older one is Wells Fargo (2014).

2) I recently paid USAA the $113 charge off and they said they would report the payment as paid in full. Is there any way that I can reach out to them and ask for a GW deletion? If not, then what would you suggest?

3) What do I do about these repos? They are too high for me to pay and I'm not sure they would want a settlement. 

4) My plan is to garden for the next year or so and let my accounts age. Is it ok for me to ask Cap 1, Disco and USAA for product changes or CLI's sometime near may 2020?

-Thanks to all of you who take the time to read and respond to this. I really appreciate the assistance of the people in this forum and hopefully I can report back to you guys when my scores hit 600 and above. I'm aware that my decisions led me down this path and I am committed to do better now that I know better. 

[Girlzilla88]

First off!     Congrats on your decision in starting your Journey putting one step forward is where it begins and that is a big step forward for your future!!!     I like you started out in the low 500 range and with hard work, very hard work I hit almost 200 point increase in less than a year!      Here is some small advice as those Collections are what are killing your score most

1) what is the most efficient way to tackle the negatives I posted above? They are all fairly recent (2015 and newer) and the only older one is Wells Fargo (2014).

One at a Time it's possible and you don't want to overwhelm yourself and possibly put yourself back in more debt trying to please everyone and get them off faster!

2) I recently paid USAA the $113 charge off and they said they would report the payment as paid in full. Is there any way that I can reach out to them and ask for a GW deletion? If not, then what would you suggest?

I would reach out to them to see if they would delete once you paid!!    Just be sure you get it in email/writting they will remove from ALL 3 once you paid!

3) What do I do about these repos? They are too high for me to pay and I'm not sure they would want a settlement. 

You can also ask for a Settlement if you do I wouldn't offer less than 50% as they may get irritated with you and decline helping period.

4) My plan is to garden for the next year or so and let my accounts age. Is it ok for me to ask Cap 1, Disco and USAA for product changes or CLI's sometime near may 2020?

Yes Garden Garden for at least a year, then ask for 1 or 2 CLI/product upgrades etc if the year mark is in May ask June!!    That way it reports a full year.

[FireMedic1]

Is this one or 2 cars? Whats the total debt from just the car charge offs?

- American Financial (charge off/vehicle repo/lease) $22,154

- Overdrive Systems (Charge Off/ original balance $11,392/ wrote off $5,927) vehicle repo

-CNAC (charge off/closed/$11,392) same vehicle as repo'ed above

[calyx]

Re: the student loan:

Once you finish rehab, the loans will be in good standing and have an open date of when you got them on your credit report, but they might still have lates reporting.   If that happens (rehab removes the default, but does not require they remove lates), I'd recommend trying to get the lates removed through goodwill letters/attempts.   Hopefully they'll remove the lates, though (many servicers do, even though it's not required).   I just didn't want you to panic/stress if everything updates and the lates are still there.