What should my next steps be?

[laurenjarrod]

I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible in order to provide the background. 

My ex-husband ruined my credit. While we were married he took put CC's, loans, and even had a repossesion in my name that I had no idea about. 

It's been a long few years to say the least. When we were splitting up,  I couldn't even rent an appartment without a co-signer my credit was so bad. I think it was 375 or 400. 

Fast forward to now, I've been divorced for about 5 years and through dispute after dispute I was able to have many of the deragortary items removed. I also paid some an settled with some others. It was a disaster!

I've come a long way but I still need to improve. I feel stuck though and I don't know what to do next and need direction. 

Here is my current credit profile: 

Transunion: 1 late payment on my student loan this year ( I thought it was still in deferrment. The loan company didn't even call)

Collections/Charge Offs: repossession for a car my ex took out in 2010 for 16K, and car insurance he never paid $453 in 2016 ( no idea how he pulled that off since we were divirced then). 

Transunion score is: 589

Equifax: Student loan late payment is also on here. 

Collections/Charge Offs:    Repossessed car is also on here, Medical bills; $173 from 2017, $135 from 2016, $235 from 2015, $212 from 2014, The unpaid car insurance from my ex-husband is also on here. 

Equifax score is: 526

Experian: Student loan late payment is also on here. 

Collections/Charge Offs:   Repossessed car is also on here, The unpaid car insurance from my ex-husband is also on here. 

Experian score is: 626

Credit Cards:

Applied Bank Secured Credit Card--Opened 2012, initial credit limit $500, credit limit now $750. Balance $470. 

Total Visa Card--Opened in 2017, Credit limit $300, Balance $0. This was the 1st credit card I was able to get approved for in years when I applied. I have not been offered credit increases. I only got this card to re-establish my credit so it has helped when no one else would approve me.

Credit One Bank:  Opened June 2018, Initial credit limit was $300, 1st credit increase was in July 2018 for $200, then another credit increase July 2019 for $300- total credit limit $800, balance $417.

Credit One Bank:  Opened July 2019, credit limit of $500. I got a pre-appoval notice in their app one day when I logged it. Balance $415. 

Side note: I just got back from vacation and haven't paid the cards yet, hence the high balances. 

My income is in the low 6 figures. 

Please let me know your thoughts/advice. I am not sure what my next moves should be. 

Thank you!

[Jnbmom]

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@laurenjarrod wrote:

I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible in order to provide the background. 

My ex-husband ruined my credit. While we were married he took put CC's, loans, and even had a repossesion in my name that I had no idea about. 

It's been a long few years to say the least. When we were splitting up,  I couldn't even rent an appartment without a co-signer my credit was so bad. I think it was 375 or 400. 

Fast forward to now, I've been divorced for about 5 years and through dispute after dispute I was able to have many of the deragortary items removed. I also paid some an settled with some others. It was a disaster!

I've come a long way but I still need to improve. I feel stuck though and I don't know what to do next and need direction. 

Here is my current credit profile: 

Transunion: 1 late payment on my student loan this year ( I thought it was still in deferrment. The loan company didn't even call)

Collections/Charge Offs: repossession for a car my ex took out in 2010 for 16K, and car insurance he never paid $453 in 2016 ( no idea how he pulled that off since we were divirced then). 

Transunion score is: 589

Equifax: Student loan late payment is also on here. 

Collections/Charge Offs:    Repossessed car is also on here, Medical bills; $173 from 2017, $135 from 2016, $235 from 2015, $212 from 2014, The unpaid car insurance from my ex-husband is also on here. 

Equifax score is: 526

Experian: Student loan late payment is also on here. 

Collections/Charge Offs:   Repossessed car is also on here, The unpaid car insurance from my ex-husband is also on here. 

Experian score is: 626

Credit Cards:

Applied Bank Secured Credit Card--Opened 2012, initial credit limit $500, credit limit now $750. Balance $470. 

Total Visa Card--Opened in 2017, Credit limit $300, Balance $0. This was the 1st credit card I was able to get approved for in years when I applied. I have not been offered credit increases. I only got this card to re-establish my credit so it has helped when no one else would approve me.

Credit One Bank:  Opened June 2018, Initial credit limit was $300, 1st credit increase was in July 2018 for $200, then another credit increase July 2019 for $300- total credit limit $800, balance $417.

Credit One Bank:  Opened July 2019, credit limit of $500. I got a pre-appoval notice in their app one day when I logged it. Balance $415. 

Side note: I just got back from vacation and haven't paid the cards yet, hence the high balances. 

My income is in the low 6 figures. 

Please let me know your thoughts/advice. I am not sure what my next moves should be. 

Thank you!

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We'll first thing you can do is pay those credit card balances down. If you can pay them all to zero except one and let it report a low balance (few dollars).Also no need to open any more cards. Pay them down and let them age a bit.

Secondly try to see if you can get those medical collections paid for deletion. 

Now unless it is in your divorce agreement that ex is responsible,  unfortunately you may be on the hook for them for the car if it was also in your name. If car insurance was after divorce not sure but I would try to fight that, was the insurance on a car you were driving?

[laurenjarrod]

Thank you for replying. 

OK. I was planning on making payments next week on the credit cards but I will make larger ones to facilitate paying them closer to zero faster. 

It is not in the dicorce agreement, but he put me on the loan so I'm stuck with it. 

In regards to the car insurance; it was not for a car I drove ever. 

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure how the insurance would work honestly - I have never dealt with that situation. As to the cards, you’re currently at 62% utilization. Getting this down to a minimum as described above will drop you through 3 known scoring tiers, which should help tremendously. Typically each tier crossed is good for 10-15 points on your score, although the derogatory entries you have may temper that somewhat. Still, nice gains.

The car loan was taken in 2010, but when was the first month and year that it fell behind and never recovered? That’s called the Date of First Delinquency. The DoFD is what determines the start of the 7 year clock for records to fall off your reports. If it was only a couple years after the loan was taken, it may fall off soon. You can find the DoFD in your reports or simply by calling the bureaus and asking - they’ll tell you.

The medicals can be removed fairly easily. If you google the HIPAA loophole, you can find the info. We aren’t allowed to discuss it on these boards as it’s a violation of the Terms of Service but the info is out there and isn’t that tough to do.

[Anonymous]

For the student loans, Frederik or private? I would go back and ask the servicer to check to see if it was in deferment. They often make mistakes. If so get a copy and try to get them to change it. If they don't, you'll have to do a dispute and maybe a CFPB complaint.
If there was not deferment, you can always all for a retroactive forbearance for the federal loans. It may take asking more than one CS person.
Hope this helps

[laurenjarrod]

Yes, I agree. Any gains I can get are a win. I will work on paying down the credit cards. 

For the car, I looked at my credit report. I am not sure if it matters but the deliqueicies are not consistant at first.

The 1st DoFD was Dec 2014-Aug of 2015. Then March 2016-Feb of 2017.  The car was repossed way before 2017. It was sometime in 2016, not sure when exactly though. So it looks like it is only 5 years since the DoFD...

I did google regaring the medicals, thank you. I am in the process of getting my letters together ( fingers crossed). 

[laurenjarrod]

The loans are federal. 

Good information thank you.