@Anonymous wrote:The first thing you need to is take a breath and realize you have a lot of bad stuff on your report. The best thing you can do is not put pressure on yourself to get your reports all cleaned up in a crazy short period of time. It's like somebody who has been in a car wreck and who is insisting he needs to run a marathon next week, The doctor is gonna have to tell him that he WILL be able to run that marathon but not next week. He has broken bones and all kinds of other stuff right now.
You're like that guy. In fact, you're stressing out so much over the marathon that you are unable to do the basic healing things that the doc needs you to do if you are gonna get well.
So here are the things you need to do (slowly and calmly).
Print out your three credit reports. If you don't know how to get these for free, people here can help.
Read through them and make sure you understand them. You may need help.
Based on the reports, make a list of your credit cards. It sounds they are these but I do not know for sure.
CARDS IN MY NAME
First Premiere. Current Balance _____ Credit Limit _______
CU card. Current Balance _____ Credit Limit _______
Fingerhut Current Balance _____ Credit Limit _______
CARD IN SOMEONE ELSE'S NAME (Authorized User cards)
Cap One Current Balance _____ Credit Limit _______
You'll need to fill in all those blanks.
The Cap One AU card is creating a problem for you. So you need to find out whether your aunt is willing to pay it down to $0 and then keep it reporting at $0 for the next six months. There are ways she can keep using it but still have it report $0. If she or you don't understand how that would work, let us know.
If she is not willing to keep it at $0, then you need to be removed from it. Before you do that, you need to find out how old the AU card is. On your reports, how does the "Date Opened" read?
For your other cards, you need to pay them all down to $0 and then continue to use one card but keep the balance of that one card reporting a small number ($5-$20). All cards at $0, except for one card at $5-$20, with the AU card either removed from your report or reporting at $0.
While you are working on that, you need to make a list of your other accounts. Separate those that are in good standing now from the ones that are not. Make a list of each. Of your "bad" accounts make a list of all these bad marks. Even the accounts that are in good standing now might have some bad marks (late payments in the past, say), so make sure you can list what those are.
Right there that gives you plenty to do. Work on that and come up with very clear lists and then plans of actions. The people here can probably help you once you do that, but it will be hard for them to do anything until that gets done.
+1
I agree, this is good advice.
@dlm0820 wrote:
It's not the limits or balances that are holding your scores down. It's the 18 collections and repo that is holding it down.
Until you clear those up, utilization isn't going to be a factor.
Take yourself off as an AU from the card and your score MIGHT go up. That still doesn't address the bigger issue.
Yes, the negatives are holding down the score.
However the AU account needs more information before deciding whether to remove it or not. Are there any lates on the Dear Aunt's account? If not, then the over-limit situation may be temporary and in the long run, having a good sponsor who gives OP an AU account is helping the OP scores to look better.
Of course, there are certain score models which discount or remove the benefit of an AU account, and in the long run OP needs to work on improving OP's score directly.
We are all hoping for the best for the OP.
