A Few Fico Questions

[belle6m2k]

I recently had a medical issue that caused 4 accounts to go 30 days late and took a huge hit to my scores as I had had no lates for over 8 years. Circumsatnces improved and I have no been able to pay off those accounts plus a few others. I had 12 accounts that remained in good standing. I now have almost 50 thousand in available credit with zero precent utilization reporting in the next few weeks. My question is will it take the full 2 years to see my credit score rebound or will the credit utilization and the good payment history up until my issue help it rise faster. I am totally prepared to have to wait and rebuild Im just curious if it ages a bit quicker. Thankfully I am not planning to need to add any creditors or have any major reviews to my credit file.

[Anonymous]

We don't know your Average Age of Accounts.  If your AAoA is very low (like 1.1 years) and your Age of Youngest Account is also low (e.g. 0.2 years) and you have several inquiries, you might get quite a lot of help by just going into the garden.  After one year you'd see some marked improvement. 

If in contrast your AAoA is 6.0 and your AoYA is 1.1 and you have no inquiries you are likely to get no help in the first 15 months.

As far as your Day 30 lates go, you are right that they begin to lose some of their sting at month 25, and I doubt there is a lot you can do to hasten that.  But if you were to show responsible use of all cards in the next 13 months (with perfect payment history and very low utilization) then that history might help you if you should subsequently begin a GW letter campaign angling for the creditors to remove them altogether.

[Anonymous]

OP, your goal should be the removal of all of your 30 day lates.  No need to ride this out 2 years; start tackling it today as CGID suggested with GW letters.

30 day lates are of the weakest severity, so they are generally the easiest to get removed... especially if you have nothing but favorable history with your lenders otherwise.  If you've been with them for a period of years without an issue and snagged a single 30 day late, more often than not they'll be willing to forgive you once.  Just ask.  If they say no, ask again.  Continue until you get a yes.  The entire process can probably be completed within a few months, saving you a good 1.5+ years of dirty scores.

[belle6m2k]

Thank you for your replies. What exactly is a GW letter? 

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@Anonymouswrote:

OP, your goal should be the removal of all of your 30 day lates.  No need to ride this out 2 years; start tackling it today as CGID suggested with GW letters.

30 day lates are of the weakest severity, so they are generally the easiest to get removed... especially if you have nothing but favorable history with your lenders otherwise.  If you've been with them for a period of years without an issue and snagged a single 30 day late, more often than not they'll be willing to forgive you once.  Just ask.  If they say no, ask again.  Continue until you get a yes.  The entire process can probably be completed within a few months, saving you a good 1.5+ years of dirty scores.

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[Anonymous]

A GW letter is a goodwill letter.  It's basically a letter apologizing for the late payment, taking responsibility for your mistake and letting them know that it will never happen again, while asking them to please forgive it.  If you hit the rebuilding forum there are lots of threads on how to write a GW letter, as well as success stories by those that have had negative items removed due to sending GW letters.