How long should I wait?

Anonymous · ‎12-26-2018

I've been gardening for about 6 months. I planned to go for much longer, but I decided to break the streak in order to refinance my car loan (Ally Financial - 13.57%) and get away from Ally. I applied for a refinance with PenFed. I did this knowing that they pull Equifax Fico 09, and my EQ Fico 09 Auto score was 718 as of the end of October - so it's probably somewhere just north of that now. All of my accounts are current.

I was declined for the loan because I had some delinquincies on my report that were "too recent." I did go 120 days late on some of my student loans (long story, different post) in April - so I'm assuming this is what they were referring to. All of those accounts have been current since May, but I know those will hurt for a very long time.

That being the case, I will happily go back into gardening, but I am wondering: how will it be before those late payments aren't considered "recent" anymore? They are getting close to 9 months old now - am I looking at a year old, or two, or five?

Also, how long should I wait before I should consider refinancing my car, or open another card, or anything like that? I mean, in reference to time since last late payment? I don't have a need to open another card anytime soon, but besides gardening I would like to get a lower APR on my car sooner rather than later.

Thanks in Advance! You guys are awesome

Anonymous · ‎12-26-2018

What is considered "recent" is all lender-specific. I would think an absolute minimum would be 1 year, with 2 years being a much more comfortable number for them not seeing any negative items. Since they are majors, though, they impact score for a full 7 years and their mere presence even 5-7 years old can be enough to generate negative reason statements pointing to them as well as influence a potential lender to not consider you as a customer. While off topic a bit here, have you looked into the GW removal of late payments on those loans?

Anonymous · ‎12-26-2018

I see - fair enough, about what I was expecting. I have looked into GW Letters, but I’ve seen from responses on here that apparently Nelnet (the lender) is not very receptive to them at all. I’ve heard that credit repair companies have had better luck with them - I spoke to LL and they say that they can probably help me, but I reckon that they have good incentive to tell me that. Haven’t pulled the trigger on that yet.

One of the loans with past bad payments has already been paid off and closed - do you think that it’s worth going the GW route at this point in time, through CRCs or otherwise?

Anonymous · ‎12-26-2018

Yes, go the GW route. I recommend the Saturation Technique, which you can read about at the link below if you'd like. Don't listen to those that say it's impossible to get a GW adjustment from X lender. There's a first time for everything and if you play your cards right you my achieve a result that isn't typical. I'd suggest dropping the credit repair service idea like LL completely. Those companies can't do anything you can't do yourself, assuming you have a small amount of time to invest. Save the money and go the GW route on you own.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-o...

DIYcredit · ‎12-29-2018

Hi,I agree with two years as being most recent.I would continue keeping current on your accounts every month.LL is nothing more than a dispute mill.You can file disputes online yourself if you have any actual errors GOOD LUCK.