Hi. I've been working on improving my credit. I obtained a new Nov 7/19 that pays better and has allowed me to pay some things down.
My credit utilization never goes above 7%.
Credit:
Discover It 1500 limit 49 balance
Milestone 300 limit 10 balance
Fingerhut 1100 limit 0 balance
Credit builder loan through Credit Union 800 for 6 months. Made one payment so far. 600 balance
Car payment - recently paid off one car and traded it in on a new on . Have made 3 payments on the new car so far.
Student loans 110,000 all paid time not late in the last 24 months. On covid forbearance but still making payments to reduce balance.
All my payments are on time except one 30 days delinquent in April 2020. I traded the car in the day before the state shut down due to coronavirus. My purchase and trade deal sat in a desk and they failed to pay my old car loan off and I was reported. I disputed it but the car company wont take it off. The new car dealer did pay my first payment but my score took a 36 point hit.
My scores are
Discover 590 - due to update on the 11th. They sent my 200 security deposit back and increase limit to 1500 in May 2020 after 1 year.
Fico 8 Trans Union Discover It 590
Fico 8 Experian Fingerhut 605
CapitalOne Creditwise 585
TransUnion 9, my Credit union was 572 went down to 541 not sure why. Every other score went up but they only update every 3 months. I think because the new auto loan.
My bankruptcy is 5 years old
I need to know if I should pay for rent reporters to boost my Fico 9? My rent has never been late in the last 5 years
Should I pay collections for Credit One and Capital One, Khols and boscovs, even though they wont provide me with a letter saying they will delete the negative reporting? The balances for these are very low and only Credit One shows up on my credit reports.
I am financially in a position to pay old collections and to pay for secure or unsecure credit cards
Should a try to open at least one more credit card and if so with my low scores who should I go through? I already had capital one, credit one within the last 5 years. I had premier about 8 years ago.
I hope this is enough info. My score increase from a 514 in Dec 2019 so its better but I believe ther could be alot more I could be doing.
I would like to purchase a home on some acres in a year.
Thank you all in advance for your wisdom
So yes even if they won't remove the collection a Paid collection is better reporting than unpaid think of it like if you were a Credit Company and two people came to you wanting credit from you one had 4 collections that were all unpaid and the other had 9 but paid them all you would be more willing to go with the 9 even if it is a higher number because they still paid towards their debts than the one with less that the people never saw anything back out of. That's just the way I like to look at it. 
But maybe after you paid it as well a bit down the line you can see about getting it removed at that point, OR doing an early removal when it's closer to the fall off time after paid. Getting those off will help your score for sure I would wait on opening new ones for now until you get it a bit up and up and have your card that is the 'newest' at least 1 year before applying I'm not sure how old your newest is but just food for thought. You could also see if the Rent Boost helps but I have no experience with that or knowledge of it so there's that but it sounds like it could if you have never been late for 5 years help give a boost
It also shows that you know you have them and are willing to correct it (shows growth on your end) 
Another side note lol
You could also see how old those are too if they are old enough that they will fall off on their own soon (within the year or next year) I would let them be where they are because if you did pay for them that does have the potential to restart the clock another food for thought lol
@Tryinghardtoimprove wrote:Hi. I've been working on improving my credit. I obtained a new Nov 7/19 that pays better and has allowed me to pay some things down.
My credit utilization never goes above 7%.
Credit:
Discover It 1500 limit 49 balance
Milestone 300 limit 10 balance
Fingerhut 1100 limit 0 balance
Credit builder loan through Credit Union 800 for 6 months. Made one payment so far. 600 balance
Car payment - recently paid off one car and traded it in on a new on . Have made 3 payments on the new car so far. You only need 1 installment loan open. Since yhou got the car. You can payoff the CU loan. That will lower your loan util %.
Student loans 110,000 all paid time not late in the last 24 months. On covid forbearance but still making payments to reduce balance.
All my payments are on time except one 30 days delinquent in April 2020. I traded the car in the day before the state shut down due to coronavirus. My purchase and trade deal sat in a desk and they failed to pay my old car loan off and I was reported. I disputed it but the car company wont take it off. The new car dealer did pay my first payment but my score took a 36 point hit. Since they wouldnt fix it. You can file a complaint with the CFPB and upload supporting documentation to get that late removed.
My scores are
Discover 590 - due to update on the 11th. They sent my 200 security deposit back and increase limit to 1500 in May 2020 after 1 year. Congrats!
Fico 8 Trans Union Discover It 590
Fico 8 Experian Fingerhut 605
CapitalOne Creditwise 585
TransUnion 9, my Credit union was 572 went down to 541 not sure why. Every other score went up but they only update every 3 months. I think because the new auto loan. Possibly. But CU's mostly have their own internal scores.
My bankruptcy is 5 years old As a fellow BK'er. Theres no point gain as aBK ages unfortunately.
I need to know if I should pay for rent reporters to boost my Fico 9? My rent has never been late in the last 5 years With all the data breaches. Ity wont help much nor do you want to give a CRA your banking personal info.
Should I pay collections for Credit One and Capital One, Khols and boscovs, even though they wont provide me with a letter saying they will delete the negative reporting? The balances for these are very low and only Credit One shows up on my credit reports. Anything thats paid will always better paid then owed. CO is known to delete CO's with a solid GW letter.
I am financially in a position to pay old collections and to pay for secure or unsecure credit cards
Should a try to open at least one more credit card and if so with my low scores who should I go through? I already had capital one, credit one within the last 5 years. I had premier about 8 years ago. Fix whats broken first. Then you wont have to go down the vulture highway. Let time heal. You have enough to build on for now. Let the wounds heal.
I hope this is enough info. My score increase from a 514 in Dec 2019 so its better but I believe ther could be alot more I could be doing.
I would like to purchase a home on some acres in a year.
Thank you all in advance for your wisdom
There ya go. It doesnt happen overnight but in time the good will outweigh the bad. Just need patience. Getting more credit is never a good way to improve things. More hit for new credit knock scores down. Let them go up. Then in time better credit products will be more obtainable. Good Luck!
Thank you for all the advice. Both my milestone and discover it are 14 months old. I really want a non secured through my credit union and they require a 640 transunion 9 so I will definitely wait to apply for new credit. I will also check the date on the collections and pay all that are not due to fall off soon. They are 3 years and younger so I dont think they are due to fall off yet.
One more question. Where do you get your scores from? I want to ensure Im working with the most accurate scores.
Thank you so much.
Thank you
@Trudy wrote:Calling @AllZero you seem to know all the cheapest ways to obtain FICO scores
Your wish is my command. 😃
$1 you can obtain your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores and reports at Experian or CreditCheckTotal (part of Experian). Cancel in 7 day or less to avoid the re-occurring monthly charge. Wash, Rinse, and Repeat as needed.
AnnualCreditReport. Free weekly 3 bureau online reports through April 2021.
Free credit reports (disregard the VantageScore 3.0 score) at:
Credit Karma for weekly TU and EQ reports.
WalletHub for daily TU report.
Thank you all