You and I started working on our rebuilds about the same time. When I first started I saw some great gains. Went from zero revolvers to three now and I was able to get some baddies gone and the incorrect ones updated. This was giving me decent gains and I was able to pull up all my scores.
ive now come to the conclusion that I’m adicted to those emails that my score has changed. At least the ones where something went up. For the past couple of months I have not really been able to see much change. 5 or so points up or down here and there. I had added on really too many inquiries with some denials and I also now have several accounts less than 3 months old. I have finally came to the realization that age is the only thing that will help me at this point. Let the rest of the baddies fall and make sure to not get any others as my account close the 3 month, 6 month, 1 year thresholds. By then my baddies will be gone and I’m hoping to be in the 750’s or above. I’m sure you will be too.
I think I need to find some sort of support group to help me deal with the withdrawal ;-)
@Bees18 wrote:1. I would try to goodwill the late payment. Try sending in a letter or if you can google or try to find information for a higher level contact at that company. Same with the medical collection. I would send a goodwill letter for that as well and maybe make a post and see if anyone has contacts at either of those companies. Yes, it's true that Fico might not count it since it's under $100 but having a collection free file will get you the biggest score bump. For me it was 80+ points when my last collection fell off, for my husband it as almost 100.
2. As you already know, getting that util both on the individual cards and as a whole under 8% will help.
The biggest point boost will come from low util and a clean file.
I've thought about sending a goodwill letter for the 30 day late, but when I called them to ask about it, they said under no circumstances would they remove any late payments unless they were in error. However, I have read success stories from people who were told the same thing, so doesn't hurt to try, right? The only reason that late payment is there is because I was in a very abusive/controlling relationship at the time. He didn't want me to have a car because I wasn't working (he got me fired) and said I didn't need one anymore. Since I wasn't working, I couldn't make the payment and he wouldn't help. I called my dad and he ended up paying it for me. It sucks because it was literally the LAST payment on that car. I left that piece of sh** many years ago, by the way.
As for the collection for $80, like I've mentioned before, I owe that same company A LOT A LOT A LOT of money and they're not reporting it for some reason. I don't want to possibly ruin a good thing lol. I can wait it out till next year when it falls off naturally.
@dynamicvb wrote:You and I started working on our rebuilds about the same time. When I first started I saw some great gains. Went from zero revolvers to three now and I was able to get some baddies gone and the incorrect ones updated. This was giving me decent gains and I was able to pull up all my scores.
ive now come to the conclusion that I’m adicted to those emails that my score has changed. At least the ones where something went up. For the past couple of months I have not really been able to see much change. 5 or so points up or down here and there. I had added on really too many inquiries with some denials and I also now have several accounts less than 3 months old. I have finally came to the realization that age is the only thing that will help me at this point. Let the rest of the baddies fall and make sure to not get any others as my account close the 3 month, 6 month, 1 year thresholds. By then my baddies will be gone and I’m hoping to be in the 750’s or above. I’m sure you will be too.
I think I need to find some sort of support group to help me deal with the withdrawal ;-)
OMG it is so addicting! I check my EX app every single day as soon as I wake up. That's some serious addiction right there. I didn't get any denials, but I did tack on 4 inquiries in the span of 1 month. Opened my PayPal, CareCredit, Discover, and AMEX all in the same month 
I'm trying my best to use them responsibly and so far, have been succeeding. It's really not that hard when you know what you're doing.
Congrats with your rebuild! I felt like such a scumbag having such horrible credit 
I hope you're able to get your scores up to where you want them!
@Revelate wrote:30D late may or may not be hurting you at this point, it'll be excluded in 2020.
The collections are the score killer as they're bucketing you in the derogatory scorecards.
CK scores are Vantage rather than FICO, new account when you are in the derogatory scorecards for FICO as near as I can tell doesn't impact your score at all unless you trip over an AAOA boundary: in the pretty scorecards Age of Youngest Account appears to also affect scorecard assignment, the reason code doesn't even show up in collection / public record scorecards.
Some minor utilization issues and the inquiries are hampering you a little bit too: just sit on your hands and let everything age, probably a small impact on the installment loan utilization but really I wouldn't be surprised if you break 760 when the collection comes off and you might do better than that depending on that 30D.
I can't wait until I can pull all 3 bureaus again. that Credit Karma score has me worried about my TU account. When I called TU and asked them how I can get my FICO score from them, she said they don't use FICO... She said they use the Vantage 3.0 scoring thing, which is the same thing CK uses. My TU report used to be my best one and I hope it still is!
My loan utilization is high right now. My car loan was initially $13,000 and my Navient loan was around $6,000. I’ve been wanting to trade my car in because it’s worth about what I owe and if I wait any longer, it’s just going to go down. My car is a piece of garbage and so is the dealership I bought it from. It’s a 2014 and I shouldn’t be having this many problems with it, so I want to trade it in for an actual new car. It’s probably not going to help my credit, but it needs to be done.
Anyways, thank you for taking the time to respond! I'll be a good girl and keep my hands to myself and just use the AZEO method and not open any new accounts (besides maybe a new car loan).
@DollyLama wrote:It may bump a fair amount next month when the large collection ages off. FICO 8 tends to not factor <$100 collections if they are medical.
From there, just sit tight a year- Let your new accounts age, the inquiries age off, and keep up with the planned low utilization as much as possible.
Seeing your previous scores and your scores now gives me hope! I know it can be done; I just need a nudge in the right direction. Thank you guys for always being so awesome and helpful! I really do take your advice to heart.
@AndySoCal wrote:Yes it will help when the collection falls. The student loans I presume are not reporting any derogatory information. Your scores will drop once those new accounts start reporting. The score should recover in 6 months to a year so.
That's correct! All my bad student loan accounts are gone forever! Well, besides the one I'm making monthly payments on, but that one is in good standing and always has been.
My scores didn't drop one bit on my EX report when they started reporting. I was surprised! My total credit limit went waaayyy up and my AAoA wasn't really affected all that much. I need to figure out the days these accounts report so I can make sure they all report $0 except for one. However, I've read that Synchrony likes to report balances randomly during the month, especially when you have a high balance posted. It seemed to happen to me as I haven't had any of these accounts even close to 1 month before they reported these balances.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Queen_EthereaI can't wait until I can pull all 3 bureaus again. that Credit Karma score has me worried about my TU account. When I called TU and asked them how I can get my FICO score from them, she said they don't use FICO... She said they use the Vantage 3.0 scoring thing, which is the same thing CK uses. My TU report used to be my best one and I hope it still is!.Ignore the VS 3.0 scores provided by CK. They aren't FICO scores, so they aren't meaningful. Your reports are meaningful though, so if TU is your best report than it would more than likely equate to your best FICO score relative to the other 2. If you see your TU report improving through your CK updates, you can assume that your TU FICO scores are improving as well.
Calling TU isn't going to help in getting a FICO score. CRAs simply compile data. This data can be put through a scoring model to generate a score. TU isn't a scoring model. What you need to find is a source of a FICO score that uses TU data. The most common free ones that I know of are through Discover and Synchrony card accounts. Another cheap option is to go with a $1 trial through credit check total, which will give you your TU FICO 8 score in addition to your other two FICO 8 scores from EX and EQ.
Oh ok that makes sense. I have my score through Discover, which shows that it went up about 14 points. I swear, I learn something new on this forum every single day! I actually read posts on here on my lunch break.
I have a subscription through EX that allows me to see my EX score every day and I can pull all 3 CRA every 30 days for free. I still have to wait about 12 days before I can do it again, so I guess I'll find out then! All these balances will be paid down/paid off by then, so maybe my score will go up even more??
I canceled my trial with CCT and it still won't let me do another one! I canceled like 2 weeks ago, too.