Re: Where to Go?

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2019

I'm just getting serious about my finances and would like to know where to go from here.

My current score is 630 up from 624 since the last update and I did the simulator here and it states if I pay off my credit cards, then I'll be at 678. I have 67% utilized as I put everything on my Discover card and since the CL isn't that high, I have high utilization although I've made 3 payments since I've gotten it within the last month. I've had a secured Capital One card since April 2012 which started with a $500 deposit. I have not been converted over to an unsecured account but did get approved for an unsecured Capital One Platinum card with a 600 CL in July 2017. I also have a Chase Slate card that I got in June 2017. I got the last two cards right after I purchased my home. I've never requested a CLI and never had it automatically increased.

Last month I applied for a discover card with a 624 and was approved for the Discover IT Cashback with a CL of 1,250. I wanted to know what I should do to build my score. I plan on purchasing a car in June-July and have done the Capital One Auto Navigator as I've received a bunch of pre-approval emails about auto financing and was approved for the max of 40,000.

Credit Score: 630

Discover IT Cashback: $1,250 open less than a month

Chase Slate: $500 Open since June 2017

Capital One Platinum: $600 Open since July 2017

Capital One Secured: $500 Open since April 2012

Income: Over 100k/yr

ETA: Just tried a card upgrade link in another thread and Capital One upgraded my Capital One Platinum card to a QuickSilver card. So no fees and 1.5% cash back on that one. I assumed the upgrade wouldn't work on the secured card.

New Update: TU:673 EQ:659 EX:662

So I've paid down my credit card to 17% and my scores have updated. All my cards are at 0% now but I'm going to charge some on one card so that it can show a balance of less than 8% which should boost my score some more. I have a new plan and wanted the communities advice.

As stated above, I have the following cards:

Capital One Plantinum (Secured/Oldest Card): $600

Capital One Quicksilver (Was converted from Platinum Unsecured with no hard pull): $500

Discover IT Cashback (2 Months Old): $1250

Chase Slate (2 Years Old) : $500

I plan on getting a car at the end of June or July. At the same time as soon as I close on the loan and take the car home, I planned on canceling my Secured Capital One card. Giving that it's my oldest, it will hit my credit, but my understanding is that it will still show on my report for 10 years, so it really shouldn't matter. At the same time, I planned on reaching out to Chase and seeing if they will convert my Slate to a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited and also increase the limit. I also planned to apply for the Citi Double Cash Card and the Amex Blue Cash Card. It's my understanding that these cards are the standard and that a lot of people get the Freedom cards with the Sapphire to cover all basis for traveling. Does this sound like a solid plan?

FYI, I plan on canceling the Capital One Secured card after I am approved/denied for anything mentioned above. I would think this would cover me for the next couple of years while I grow my credit.

Remedios · ‎04-10-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm just getting serious about my finances and would like to know where to go from here.

My current score is 630 up from 624 since the last update and I did the simulator here and it states if I pay off my credit cards, then I'll be at 678. I have 67% utilized as I put everything on my Discover card and since the CL isn't that high, I have high utilization although I've made 3 payments since I've gotten it within the last month. I've had a secured Capital One card since April 2012 which started with a $500 deposit. I have not been converted over to an unsecured account but did get approved for an unsecured Capital One Platinum card with a 600 CL in July 2017. I also have a Chase Slate card that I got in June 2017. I got the last two cards right after I purchased my home. I've never requested a CLI and never had it automatically increased.
Last month I applied for a discover card with a 624 and was approved for the Discover IT Cashback with a CL of 1,250. I wanted to know what I should do to build my score. I plan on purchasing a car in June-July and have done the Capital One Auto Navigator as I've received a bunch of pre-approval emails about auto financing and was approved for the max of 40,000.

Credit Score: 630
Discover IT Cashback: $1,250 open less than a month
Chase Slate: $500 Open since June 2017
Capital One Platinum: $600 Open since July 2017
Capital One Secured: $500 Open since April 2012
Income: Over 100k/yr

Could you clarify a few things ...your utilization is 67% , your total aggregate limts are $2850 but your income is 100k?

Also, what negative info is present on your CR?

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2019

@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I'm just getting serious about my finances and would like to know where to go from here.

My current score is 630 up from 624 since the last update and I did the simulator here and it states if I pay off my credit cards, then I'll be at 678. I have 67% utilized as I put everything on my Discover card and since the CL isn't that high, I have high utilization although I've made 3 payments since I've gotten it within the last month. I've had a secured Capital One card since April 2012 which started with a $500 deposit. I have not been converted over to an unsecured account but did get approved for an unsecured Capital One Platinum card with a 600 CL in July 2017. I also have a Chase Slate card that I got in June 2017. I got the last two cards right after I purchased my home. I've never requested a CLI and never had it automatically increased.
Last month I applied for a discover card with a 624 and was approved for the Discover IT Cashback with a CL of 1,250. I wanted to know what I should do to build my score. I plan on purchasing a car in June-July and have done the Capital One Auto Navigator as I've received a bunch of pre-approval emails about auto financing and was approved for the max of 40,000.

Credit Score: 630
Discover IT Cashback: $1,250 open less than a month
Chase Slate: $500 Open since June 2017
Capital One Platinum: $600 Open since July 2017
Capital One Secured: $500 Open since April 2012
Income: Over 100k/yr

Could you clarify a few things ...your utilization is 67% , your total aggregate limts are $2850 but your income is 100k?

Also, what negative info is present on your CR?

Yes, my utilization is 67% of a total aggregate limit of $2850 (reporting occurred before my payment was applied). My yearly salary is over 100k but let's just use the number 100k (don't want to be vague...but don't want to give away too much personal information).

Negatives:

Sprint bill in collections for $372. I tried to do a pay for delete in full but they declined (stated they don't do pay for deletes and that they knew what game I was trying to play).

Car repossession that was paid off. Have a letter from records company stating that it was paid off. Link to Thread explaining the repossession. My payment history is 99%, missed a couple back when I first started out.

Remedios · ‎04-10-2019

I'd pay that collection so it stops updating. I know next to nothing about repos.

If you've missed a few payments, you want to put as much time as possible between lates and new credit. Sadly, there is no such a thing as being 99% on time. It's either a 100% or derogatory. Depending on severity of your lates, it may be a while till you see noticeable improvement.

Not trying to be hard on you, but I think you need more time establishing payment history. I doubt any app at this point will really have a good outcome for you other than more predatory lenders.

Heatt99 · ‎04-10-2019

You have TIME???? Time for the negatives to age off, and for the positives to take their place? If I had your income, I would invest in a 5k secured card and apply AZEO to all revolving debt.
FICO gives out bonus points for mortgage and installment loans, but it also penalizes for high utilization on revolving accounts and negatives.
Check out Credit Unions to build, they are somewhat more understanding than banks; keep your cards low, and over time try pre-offers.

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2019

@Remedios wrote:
I'd pay that collection so it stops updating. I know next to nothing about repos.

If you've missed a few payments, you want to put as much time as possible between lates and new credit. Sadly, there is no such a thing as being 99% on time. It's either a 100% or derogatory. Depending on severity of your lates, it may be a while till you see noticeable improvement.

Not trying to be hard on you, but I think you need more time establishing payment history. I doubt any app at this point will really have a good outcome for you other than more predatory lenders.

Ok, last lates were in 2014 so I guess I'll give it a few more years. I'll write the credit card companies and ask if they'll change those previous lates since it's been 5 years. I'll also go ahead and pay the collection, I was just hoping to get something out of it rather than just paying them for no gain. I appreciate the input.

Does this mean that I should not reach out to Capital One to see if they will change my secured account to an unsecured account? Especially given that the account has a yearly fee.

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2019

@Heatt99 wrote:
You have TIME???? Time for the negatives to age off, and for the positives to take their place? If I had your income, I would invest in a 5k secured card and apply AZEO to all revolving debt.
FICO gives out bonus points for mortgage and installment loans, but it also penalizes for high utilization on revolving accounts and negatives.
Check out Credit Unions to build, they are somewhat more understanding than banks; keep your cards low, and over time try pre-offers.

Thanks. This is the first I'm hearing of AZEO but I will def try that method. I'll stop paying for everything on my card and keep my Discover at or below 8% since it has the highest CL. I thought about opening another secured card but I didn't want it to be like the Capital One card where it never switches over...and since it's my oldest account, I don't want to close it so it doesn't hurt my score.

Remedios · ‎04-10-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
I'd pay that collection so it stops updating. I know next to nothing about repos.

If you've missed a few payments, you want to put as much time as possible between lates and new credit. Sadly, there is no such a thing as being 99% on time. It's either a 100% or derogatory. Depending on severity of your lates, it may be a while till you see noticeable improvement.

Not trying to be hard on you, but I think you need more time establishing payment history. I doubt any app at this point will really have a good outcome for you other than more predatory lenders.

Ok, last lates were in 2014 so I guess I'll give it a few more years. I'll write the credit card companies and ask if they'll change those previous lates since it's been 5 years. I'll also go ahead and pay the collection, I was just hoping to get something out of it rather than just paying them for no gain. I appreciate the input.

Does this mean that I should not reach out to Capital One to see if they will change my secured account to an unsecured account? Especially given that the account has a yearly fee.

2014 is not that bad, I thought lates were more recent.

Cap one is currently not unsecuring their cards.

On collection, PFD would have been the prize, but when that's a no go, paying it stops updates and lets score start recovering.

Wait to see what happens with your scores when new lower utilization is reflected on your CR and go from there.

Maybe if you qualify for a better card at that time, you can just close the secured card with AF.

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2019

@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
I'd pay that collection so it stops updating. I know next to nothing about repos.

If you've missed a few payments, you want to put as much time as possible between lates and new credit. Sadly, there is no such a thing as being 99% on time. It's either a 100% or derogatory. Depending on severity of your lates, it may be a while till you see noticeable improvement.

Not trying to be hard on you, but I think you need more time establishing payment history. I doubt any app at this point will really have a good outcome for you other than more predatory lenders.

Ok, last lates were in 2014 so I guess I'll give it a few more years. I'll write the credit card companies and ask if they'll change those previous lates since it's been 5 years. I'll also go ahead and pay the collection, I was just hoping to get something out of it rather than just paying them for no gain. I appreciate the input.

Does this mean that I should not reach out to Capital One to see if they will change my secured account to an unsecured account? Especially given that the account has a yearly fee.
2014 is not that bad, I thought lates were more recent.

Cap one is currently not unsecuring their cards.

On collection, PFD would have been the prize, but when that's a no go, paying it stops updates and lets score start recovering.
Wait to see what happens with your scores when new lower utilization is reflected on your CR and go from there.
Maybe if you qualify for a better card at that time, you can just close the secured card with AF.

Great. I'll go ahead and pay the collection. I always read that if they won't do a pay for delete then to not pay it as it resets the 7 year clock.

As for closing the secured card with AF. What is AF?

kilroy8 · ‎04-10-2019

Collection and Repo both major derogs. 1 will hurt almost as bad as 10 of those, for the full seven years. Sometimes if you dispute paid off accounts, they seem to go away.

Stand pat with cards and accounts (nothing new) and do AZEO is about all you can do to maximize scores.

Look into goodwill letters.