New member, looking for advice...

[Anonymous]

New member here looking for some good tips or advice.

I'm currently in the mid 600's across the board, older versions seem to be closer to the 700 mark. My TU scores are a good bit lower. Especially TU auto scores, some are in the high 500's.

I don't have a mortgage, but do have 2 Amex cards with 2k limits each (recently acquired) A discover card with a 1k limit (also recent) BoA card with a 500 limit (also recent) a couple of capital ones that are a couple years old, one having a 500 limit and the other being a secured card from years ago with a 300 limit. I have a fingerhut account with a 900 limit, kohls card with a 300 limit and 2 credit one cards with a 550 and 900 limit.

I tend to keep my utilization pretty low, but I've seen a lot about keeping all but one reporting a 0 balance?

I also have an auto loan with pretty high interest that I've had open for about 14 months.

Just paid off a four wheeler loan that I only had for 12 months. Also had a previous four wheeler loan that I paid off in 12 months.

I have some student loans that I'm current paying 8k or so. They were previously defaulted, but rehabilitated and reserviced with a different lender.

I have an installment loan for 10k that I also recently acquired. It's high interest as well, but I'm using it to fund some equipment for a startup business venture.

One 30 day late on an auto loan from 2 years ago (currently disputing)

Several 60-120 lates on my student loans from 5 years (fedloan serviced)

Other than that, I'm fairly clean on my reports besides the inquires I've gotten that should fall off soon.


What are the best options/tricks or advice for me?

I have some inquiries that I'm currently disputing and currently working on the 30 day late removal. I've about given up on fedloan.

[Anonymous]

I also have other accounts from the past. Couple auto loans, installment loans for furniture etc. I'm fairly young so I don't have a long average age of accounts. I believe FICO's are showing 5-6 years. That's mainly due to my grandmother adding me as an AU for an account that was 16 years old. Account is currently closed and I'm not sure if it did me much good. It had high utilization etc.

[Anonymous]

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wrote:
New member here looking for some good tips or advice.

I'm currently in the mid 600's across the board, older versions seem to be closer to the 700 mark. My TU scores are a good bit lower. Especially TU auto scores, some are in the high 500's.

I don't have a mortgage, but do have 2 Amex cards with 2k limits each (recently acquired) A discover card with a 1k limit (also recent) BoA card with a 500 limit (also recent) a couple of capital ones that are a couple years old, one having a 500 limit and the other being a secured card from years ago with a 300 limit. I have a fingerhut account with a 900 limit, kohls card with a 300 limit and 2 credit one cards with a 550 and 900 limit.

I tend to keep my utilization pretty low, but I've seen a lot about keeping all but one reporting a 0 balance?

I also have an auto loan with pretty high interest that I've had open for about 14 months.

Just paid off a four wheeler loan that I only had for 12 months. Also had a previous four wheeler loan that I paid off in 12 months.

I have some student loans that I'm current paying 8k or so. They were previously defaulted, but rehabilitated and reserviced with a different lender.

I have an installment loan for 10k that I also recently acquired. It's high interest as well, but I'm using it to fund some equipment for a startup business venture.

One 30 day late on an auto loan from 2 years ago (currently disputing)

Several 60-120 lates on my student loans from 5 years (fedloan serviced)

Other than that, I'm fairly clean on my reports besides the inquires I've gotten that should fall off soon.


What are the best options/tricks or advice for me?

I have some inquiries that I'm currently disputing and currently working on the 30 day late removal. I've about given up on fedloan.

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You are off to a decent start. A lot of variety. From me it’s simple. You have enough credit cards. Let them age and always PIF when possible. Just keep paying your bills on time. Only open credit when you need it. You can ask for credit increases on your cards when allowed. You can research on here as each bank is different on when it’s best to. Keep working on the goodwill removal of lates. Eventually I hope you get them to agree. Good luck 👍 

[Anonymous]

The best thing for you to do is not apply for any loans or credit cards for a long time.  There's really no need to apply for any credit cards again -- as in for the rest of your life -- since you have ten (!) now.  More cards will not help your score.  Certainly I would not apply for any more cards until both at least 25 months more had passed and your scores were in the upper 700s. 

As a pure money saving choice I'd consider closing all cards with annual or monthly fees. 

Keeping all cards at zero except one (AZEO) is a good choice in the 40 days prior to applying for more credit, but as I mentioned my advice is not to apply for more credit for a long time.  Keeping your total utilization under 8.99% is all you need to do (and pay your cards in full).

I would definitely conduct "a searching and fearless written inventory" (hat tip to Step 4 of Alcoholics Anonymous) to assess the spending and lifestyle patterns that may have led to so many derogs.  This kind of inventory is crucial to developing a reliable plan for avoiding all future derogs, which is the critical thing to work on.

I would avoid disputing inquiries.  The best way to handle them is by allowing them to fall off.  Disputing them almost never works and it increases the chance that CRAs will perceive you as a person who engages in what they call "frivolous" disputes.  Save disputes for the rare situation where there is something actually false on your report.

[Anonymous]

As in several 60 days late, I meant one for each of my student loans which I have 2 total. Should I request increases on my current cards every so often? I plan on closing the credit one, and my secured card through cap 1 eventually. Would that hurt me, or should I just keep them open for the aging aspect?

[Anonymous]

Closing accounts will not adversely impact your age of accounts factors any time soon, as closed accounts remain on your credit report for approximately 10 years from the time they're closed.

You can ask for credit limit increases any time you'd like, but unless your utilization is already low it's not a very good look IMO.  Definitely make sure you get that overall utilization down to below 8.9% first, just to prove to yourself that you can responsibly manage debt.

If the late payment on your auto loan from 2 years ago is legit, the course of action you want to take is a request for goodwill removal of the negative information.  You don't want to dispute it if the reporting was accurate.

[SouthJamaica]

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wrote:
New member here looking for some good tips or advice.

I'm currently in the mid 600's across the board, older versions seem to be closer to the 700 mark. My TU scores are a good bit lower. Especially TU auto scores, some are in the high 500's.

I don't have a mortgage, but do have 2 Amex cards with 2k limits each (recently acquired) A discover card with a 1k limit (also recent) BoA card with a 500 limit (also recent) a couple of capital ones that are a couple years old, one having a 500 limit and the other being a secured card from years ago with a 300 limit. I have a fingerhut account with a 900 limit, kohls card with a 300 limit and 2 credit one cards with a 550 and 900 limit.

I tend to keep my utilization pretty low, but I've seen a lot about keeping all but one reporting a 0 balance?

I also have an auto loan with pretty high interest that I've had open for about 14 months.

Just paid off a four wheeler loan that I only had for 12 months. Also had a previous four wheeler loan that I paid off in 12 months.

I have some student loans that I'm current paying 8k or so. They were previously defaulted, but rehabilitated and reserviced with a different lender.

I have an installment loan for 10k that I also recently acquired. It's high interest as well, but I'm using it to fund some equipment for a startup business venture.

One 30 day late on an auto loan from 2 years ago (currently disputing)

Several 60-120 lates on my student loans from 5 years (fedloan serviced)

Other than that, I'm fairly clean on my reports besides the inquires I've gotten that should fall off soon.


What are the best options/tricks or advice for me?

I have some inquiries that I'm currently disputing and currently working on the 30 day late removal. I've about given up on fedloan.

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1. Pay down loans, but not to zero.

2. Try to maintain revolving accounts with 1 reporting small balance, others reporting zero balance.

3. No new loans or other credit applications.

[jamie123]

You have received a lot of good advice here but I see one huge red flag that nobody has mentioned yet.

You have several installment loans and you even mention that some of them are from furniture stores. Almost all furniture loans offered at the stores are through finance companies and not through credit unions or banks. Finance companies are considered loan sharks by the credit reporting bureaus and if you have finance companies on your credit reports they will be considered negative behavior until they drop off. It is actually bad for the loans with finance companies to show up on your reports. Finance company loans will hurt your scores and not help your scores.

Your four wheeler loans might also be through a finance company. Do you know who that lender is/was?

So for the future:

• Only apply for loans through a credit union or bank and not finance companies.
• Keep utilization on your credit cards low and do the AZEO technique if you want.
• You have plenty of credit cards and don't need any more of them.
• Ask for credit line increases every six months on each card that you know won't give you a hard pull.
• Ask for credit line increases every year or two on each credit card that you know will give you a hard pull. (Ask for a HUGE increase if asked. They will counter back with their maximum offer.)
• Set up automatic payments on ALL your credit cards to ensure that the minimum payment will be made no matter what happens. There is absolutely no excuse nowadays to forget to pay your credit cards.

Good luck! You're doing great!

[Anonymous]

I appreciate all of the information. It seems like there's so many secrets and loop holes in credit. I keep my utilization under 30%. I'm definitely going to try the AZEO. As far as my Amex's, I see a lot of people suggesting applying for 3x the limit after 61 days. Should I try that? Also, I had no idea about the installment loans hurting me. Does it help to pay those off, or will they continue to hurt my score after they're paid off? Is it true that having low end cards like credit one hurt your score? I'd really like to close those cards anyways. I see a lot of people on here with up to 20 cards, so I didn't know.

[SouthJamaica]

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wrote:
I appreciate all of the information. It seems like there's so many secrets and loop holes in credit. I keep my utilization under 30%. I'm definitely going to try the AZEO. As far as my Amex's, I see a lot of people suggesting applying for 3x the limit after 61 days. Should I try that? Also, I had no idea about the installment loans hurting me. Does it help to pay those off, or will they continue to hurt my score after they're paid off?

Purely from a FICO score perspective, it's best to pay them down to a small number, but not to zero. But I'd hate to keep my truck's title clouded just to bolster my FICO scores.


Is it true that having low end cards like credit one hurt your score?

No. The FICO algorithm doesn't distinguish between low end and high end bank cards.

I'd really like to close those cards anyways.

Anything that has an annual fee but isn't really worth the annual fee is fair game for closure, so do it. You don't need a lot of cards to have great credit scores. 
I see a lot of people on here with up to 20 cards, so I didn't know.

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