Loans in seperate accounts – helpful or not?

Mar 032011
 

Good day all,

 

I’ve been slowly rebuilding my credit from a crash and burn several years ago, and looking to get a new car now.  I have about a 670 credit score (some of the reports show slightly higher).  I paid off all my cards in the past month or two.

 

I have a number of student loans with Nelnet at a 2.47% (about 9K) and 5K with direct loans.  All are current.  All my balances are paid down on my credit cards, no high limits though (500-750).

 

I’m just wondering if it would be worth it to consolidate the Nelnet loans and if that would help my score.  I don’t like how they’re like 6-7 seperate accounts for Nelnet, but I don’t know if that’s making a score difference,  and if there would be any benefit to consolidating them for the score.

 

I’m trying to qualify for a 20K car loan, and I make about 57K a year.  Technically, the auto loan part belongs in the auto loans part of the forums, so this question is mainly about the student loans.

 

Would there be any benefit to the above, or am I being paranoid?

Original Creditors – Verification requests.

Feb 192011
 

I have 4 original creditors that charged-off accounts back in 2008.

2 accounts are HBSC and I have no recollection of exactly what they were. The other 2 accounts had excessive fees and the balances were 2 to 3 times as high as the original credit balance.  I disputed through the CRA but they were verified. However I never received any details.

 

I am contemplating directly requesting verification from these 4 companies. 2 of the companies list the balance at 0.

 

Is there a chance through verification that these companies could then raise the balances? I believe that would hurt my score.

If an account is charged off should the blance be 0 by law?

Is it worth it to ask for verification?

 

Also, could this requesting verification lead these companies to activate new CAs?

PFD success on SL accounts?

Feb 172011
 

As many of you are now well aware (haha, sorry I talk about it so much!), I have 11 student loan charge-offs. Outside of high util %s (which I’m working on now), those are the only negatives on my credit reports and they’re soooo frustrating because I feel stuck and my credit scores are terrible. Most of the balances on the COs are pretty high ($10K or more), but one is just $1K.

 

I’m thinking about testing the waters with a PFD on that one just to see if the lender, Key Bank, will bite and agree to delete the entire tradeline, including CO info, for a PIF in the form of a PFD.

 

I realize that private SL lenders are different and tend to be more difficult to work with. Has anyone had any success with PFD on SL accounts?

Trying to Bounce back from 17+ CCC and a BK….where to start?

Feb 112011
 

I have a BK that is due to fall off my account in 2012.  However, my DH and I had a financial setback in 2009 and early part of 2010.  I had previously utilized the forum to increase my credit scores and had managed to get up to 605. I was on a roll- I obtain two HSBC Discover cards, Hooters, Targer and had been managing to pay off some of my previous CCC accounts.  Well, now were in 2011 and I decided to stop hiding and pulled my credit score (YUCK)!! I have 17 accounts that are now in collection and will not fall off until 2013-2019.  I still have my Hooters ($600), Cap 1 ($1200) and Target ($500) current but most of the others are  a mess. I joined the FICO Challenge to get my start, but am discouraged as to how I am going to correct the problem. I have been paying on my three cards and am due to get our income tax money next week to contact some of the collection people to start paying off.  Do I first pay off the balances to my current cards? I have a fear when I get them to zero they will close them.  Also, do I make the payments directly to the credit issuer or the collection agencies?  In my case I do not know if writing letters will assist.  I am eager to be part of the good credit world and not the bad of less than 1%.  Also, I am school with student loans which makes my debt a lot larger than it is.   I am such a mess.  I appreciate any advice.  The forum has been extremely therapeutic. :womanindifferent:

How to increase CC limit?

Feb 102011
 

Ok, so I recognize that this sounds like a dumb question, but I’m trying to understand how to approach this. I have 3 major credit cards that I’ve had between 4-10 years. All of them have a good payment history, but they have been nearly maxed out since I first got them (racked it up in college, 6 years later I haven’t yet paid them down – working on it now though!) As a result, the limits on them are all small, between $1000 and $2500. They are all still at the original limits that were given to me and none of the CCC have offered to raise my balance nor have I ever asked. I assume the CCC have never increased them because they’ve been maxed out.

 

So here’s the question… what does a lender look at when a request to increase a limit is made? I am assuming they look at 1) individual card history (payment history, balance history, etc) and 2) overall credit history/score…  but what else?

 

One of the things I think is hurting my score (and overall financial health) is that my credit cards have low limits. Therefore, one of the things I would like to do over the next 12-24 months (in addition to paying the cards off) is get the balances increased.

 

Advice please!!

A Few Questions About Scoring…Please Help

Feb 082011
 

Hi, I am trying to really repair credit over the next year.  I have made a lot of progress the past couple of years but still wonder about a few things.

 

1) I have two credit cards that I now carry a 0 balance on since I learned to pay it off before the report date.  However, I see something in a credit report that says ‘High Balance’ and that is close to my credit limit.  Does this hurt my score, even though at this point my util should be 0 and I have no late payments?

 

2) I have a few collections on my CR.  The original accounts are tied to bank accounts (not credit card accounts) and one gym account.  I have a few questions about these

 

 a) I have two CA’s reporting for the same account and haven’t been able to delete one…shouldn’t I be able to?

 b) I have one CA listing a report date as 10/2010 even though the original delinquiency was in 2006.  What can I do about this?

 c) I have been paying down these balances, but is it really helping me credit wise?  I know it won’t delete the CA, but is it being reported as ‘paid’ helpful at all?

 d) I’ve heard of good will and PFD letters, but has anyone had any success with these?

 e) What sort of impact does the fact that these original delinquiencies are all at least 5 years old have?

 

3) What is scoring impact of loan balances to original amounts?  I have been steadily paying down student loans, but the balances are still fairly high. 

 

Thanks for your help.  I want to handle everything right so that I can get the best possible mortgage when the time comes in about 1-2 years.

pinnacle finance group success

Feb 042011
 

Logged on to score watch to see if credit card balances had updated and noticed a 52 point increase!!!! After examining my report i noticed that not only did my balances update and drop down to about 11% but pinnacle finance was gone as well. I sent out a direct dispute on fri jan 28th and it was signed for on mon jan 31st and by feb 4th it was gone. Hopefully it stays off. Now im just waiting for a gw response and a pfd. I will continue to update u guys on my progress as i chase 700

Paying down CC debt

Jan 222011
 

I have three credit cards that I am planning to pay down. As of todays date 1/21/11 they are 90% maxed out. Below are my plans.

 

Card one pay down to 20%.          1/24/11

Card two pay down to 50%   1/24/11

Card three slowly pay it down sending double the monthly payment.

 

I have a big worry that the lender on cards 1& 2 (same lender) will cut the avail credit in 1/2 or even more and put me in the same boat I am in now.

My credit scores shows me with a 90%+ maxed out credit at the moment.

 

I understand the goal is to pay these off which is no problem, but I would like to rebuild my credit and paying them down to bring up my score seems like a good plan.

I ran into this issue 16 months ago when the card companies cut the avail credit to where my balances were.

I have no late payments in years so that is a good point.


 


 

New Credit Accounts

Jan 042011
 

New to rebuilding – been at it for a couple of years.  Rebuilding with a car loan and small credit card…and paying off negative bureau items and/or having them deleted/expering.  Started in the low 500s, now in the lower to mid 600s – getting there.  Question is:  I would like to get out from under the credit card – high APR, high monthly/yearly fees.  Have had it for 27 months.  Using the FICO Simulator, it tells me that getting a new card at $1000 and trasnferring the balance ($300 on a $660 CL) will lower my score???  Will it?  I also have my bank wanting me to get an overdraft line of credit for my checking account.  Will getting a new credit card and/or ODL lower my score?  Will be keeping the balances low – maybe 10% or less on the card (currently paying down the card I do have – realize that the usage is too high), more that likely zero on the ODL (haven’t had an overdraft in years). 

 

Have read a lot on here about the number of cards/lines to have – 2-3?  Balances of 10-20% or less?

 

All advice appreciated!

Updating card balances with credit bureaus

Nov 292010
 

ok, 

I have been working with a ‘credit-repair agency’ who ONLY focus on score improvement in the past 4-months. This is a rehab company that claim to have ‘connections’ in the industry with card companies (capital one is one of them), and the credit bureaus. My score reporting to a mortgage broker started at 580, and then went to 614 in 48-hours after I followed their instructions; yes, I confirmed on my end also.

 

The only thing they did was have me pay my balances down on my credit cards (capital one) -send a screenshot of the new balance and they did ‘something’ with it after this. Shortly after, they called me back and said to request a rescore/refresh with my mortgage broker so the new score would be pulled.

 

They did this 3-different times having me pay to 5%, 20%, 10% each time opening more points.

 

That service cost me a fee (about $150) and I assume it may be something that I could do myself? Am I wrong?

 

anyone know the steps to update the card balances quickly with the bureaus?

Thanks

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