After seeing my credit score not move as much as I like since I started trying to improve them, I went on these forums and looked for prior advice. When I first decided to to look at my FICO8 scores on 4/12/2017, my scores were 596 TU, 599EQ, 616EX. I have a foreclosure that is set to delete on 11/17, a public record from 2013 (My ex walked out on us and I lost my job in 2010, made for a crappy year) and a 2015 collection from Trident for a bill that I disputed with Verizon. I actually had three public records but I caught the other two and settled with the companies before they went on my credit report, this one slipped by me somehow. When I lost my job and the house went into foreclosure, almost all my credit cards were closed by the creditors (not that I blame them) except Target who stuck by me, LOL.
Anyway, to the present, after seeing my scores, I went about paying down my balances on my 4 credit cards that I have now ($500CL's on each). I got them all down to below 30% utilization and my scores moved as follows on 6/12/17: 612TU, 612EQ, 619EX. At that point, I figured I would wait until July and see if that last public record would fall off (it did) and then I applied for some cards that resulted in the following: Overstock (2,500CL), Williams Sonoma ($400CL) and a Capital One Journey ($1000CL). I also received a credit limit increase on my Capital One Quicksilver card to $1,000, my Kohl's card to $1,000. and Target $700 (this one surprised me but I hadn't updated my income since 2013). My scores did decrease due to the applications on July 8th-10th: 604TU, 608EQ and 616EX. Today on 7/20, the Overstock card ($45 balance/2500 CL), the public record removal and the bumps from the Quicksilver and Kohl's card (plus paying them down even more) showed up on my EQ and EX reports and now those scores are at 616EQ and 634EX. Not bad for a two week period.
When I applied for an Amazon card, they said I had a credit score of 435 that I was floored over so I went to Transunion to find out why. I found out Transunion has two files for me, one under my former name and another under my married name. The one under my maiden name has ALL my bad credit from the bad period of my life and the Target card while the one under my married name had the public record and the collection plus the other good stuff. So when I used my former name and address (I have been at my new address for a little under two years) on the Amazon application, it pulled my old account. Let's just say, I will not be doing that again.
Next is to try and work with Trident to get that collection removed. It's been a long rebuilding process. I wish I had found this forum first for advice. It has helped out a lot in a very short period of time and I could have gotten a lot of things resolved sooner. Thanks!
