Hi, Newbie here with a few questions

[Anonymous]

OK, In 2005 I went from a business producing 70K to 90K a month in grioss sales down to almost BK in 2008. I had 720 FICO before that. Unfortunately my business criedt was tied into my personal credit. Dam if you do and dam if you don't. Ever since 2008, I been paying for everything cash. 1 year ago I decide to look at my credit and it was below 550. Last year I started working on my credit. I deleted many things that were over 7 years, but I didn't have any credit after that. Now I have 3 credit cards with small amounts. These are my questions: Does anyone know what model they use for motorcycle financing? (Harley Davidson). Also, what are the differenet tiers? Next question: I have fraud on my Experian Credit report. I am showing a BK in 2014 that I never did. I checked and someone actually has me listed with my SS number at the BK court in Fresno, CA. I never appply or authorized this. I asked Experian to provide more evidence then just verifying with court, but the will not. How do I get this fraud off my report? I never authorized or sign for any BK. I told them I was  willling to take a lie detector test. That is how desperate I was. I tried BBB and CFPB so far. No luck with either. Last question: What is a good FICO for credit cards and what mdoel do they use? 

Current scores: EQ 638, TU 652, EX 635

[Anonymous]

Great questions.  Here are a few for you:

What tools are using to pull your credit scores?  Are the three scores you mentioned FICO 8 scores?

Are you familar with how to pull your credit reports?  These are different from your scores.  When is the last time you pulled your reports?

What derogs appear on your reports, apart from the erroneous BK?  Derogs are things like lates, collections, chargeoffs, liens, judgments,, public records.

Do you have any open loans right now?

Hopefully RobertEG or other folks more familiar with legal issues and/or with fraud can chime in and advise you about the erroneous BK.

Some questions you ask, with my thoughts following:

Does anyone know what model they use for motorcycle financing?

Lenders vary a huge amount in what models they use.  I would guess that FICO 8 Classic and FICO 8 Auto are the two most popular, but there are others.

What is a good FICO for credit cards and what mdoel do they use? 

    * CC Issuers vary a huge amount in what models they use.  I would guess that FICO 8 Classic and FICO 8 Bankcard Enhanced are the two most popular, but there are others.

    * What constitutes a good FICO score depends a lot on the specific card you are applying for.

    * I note that you already have three credit cards.  You are in great shape as far as the number of cards you have.  Getting two more cards eventually might be a nice idea, but it can and should be low on your list of priorities, compared with derog removal for example.

PS.  You mention that you have three credit cards "with small amounts."  Does that mean small balances or small credit limits?  Can you list the three cards for us with the balance and credit limit of each... like this?

Card 1.   Balance = ____    Credit Limit = ____

Card 2.   Balance = ____    Credit Limit = ____

Card 3.   Balance = ____    Credit Limit = ____

[medicgrrl]

Did you ever meet with a BK attorney? Do you live in the Fresno BK jurisdiction? I would imagine if it's filed with your SS#, you would have to get the BK actually vacated due to fraud.

[Anonymous]

I use MYFICO.com for those scores. They are FICO 8 scores. I have one derogatory from 3 years ago, a foreclosure.(10-2014) Besides that BK on Experian from 7-2014. I have no open loans. The problem is I don't have many lines of credit. My 3 cards are Bank of America ( I owe 67 out of 500), Total Visa (I owe 38 out of 300), First access (I owe 0 out of 300) These are fairly new. 

[Anonymous]

I met with a BK Lawyer who pretty much told me nothing they can do for me. 

[Anonymous]

The foreclosure and the BK will hurt your scores a bunch as long as they are on your reports... far more then the hypothetical drawback having only three cards (some people would say there's no benefit to having more) or possibly benefitting from having a few more accounts in good standing.

Your CC balances are fine.  You want your total utilization to be be < 8.99% (which it is) and each card to be be < 29% (which they are).  You might get a few more points if two of your three cards showed a $0 balance.

You can get another 20-30 points from implementing the Share Secure Loan technique -- since you have no open installment accounts.  You can find out about it here.  All you need to do is read the first 2-3 posts:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...

I'd consider implementing the SSL trick and then in three months from now consider adding a couple more cards (though some people would say they won't help you at all).  My feeling is that having six clean open tradelines (five cards and the SSL) is worth making part of your plan (down the road).  Front and center should be seeing if there is a way to get those derogs removed.

PS.  Are all your debts paid off, aside from the three open cards you listed with the small balances?  For example, you don't have any closed accounts with positive balances... right?

[MakingProgress]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I met with a BK Lawyer who pretty much told me nothing they can do for me. 

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I would imagine you will need to find a lawyer who specilazies in identy theft/fraud.   Most BK lawyers are a machine that simply file one BK after another and don't do much else.  You will probably have to pay them by the hour and that won't be cheap.

[Gregory1776]

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@MakingProgress wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I met with a BK Lawyer who pretty much told me nothing they can do for me. 

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I would imagine you will need to find a lawyer who specilazies in identy theft/fraud.   Most BK lawyers are a machine that simply file one BK after another and don't do much else.  You will probably have to pay them by the hour and that won't be cheap.

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Yea that's nuts brother. That's gonna be expensive to get off, I'd find a lawyer....👆👆 

This is why we should get lifelock or something similar...😔

[Anonymous]

How exactly do you get a foreclosure off? My understanding it stays there 7 years. As far as other tradelines, I have 2 cars that show paid off, and 1 credit card pay in full but closed. I owe no debt except what is owed on CC. I am going to pay that off very soon too in full.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

How exactly do you get a foreclosure off? My understanding it stays there 7 years. As far as other tradelines, I have 2 cars that show paid off, and 1 credit card pay in full but closed. I owe no debt except what is owed on CC. I am going to pay that off very soon too in full.

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Blue: My guess is that you'd use the strategy of Good Will Letters.  Head over to the Rebuilding forum to see what they have to say about it.  I do not know much about derog removal.

Red: You should always pay your cards in full, in the sense that if a statement prints with a positive balance, then definitely pay the full amount on that statement in the next three weeks.  This way you will pay no interest.   But you should always have one card having a statement with a positive balance.  If they all are at $0 then FICO will give you a penalty/