olliecat

First a quick thank you to this board for getting me where I am today, credit-wise. While it's not much, it's far from where I was when I started. I started here a little over 2 years ago working to fix my credit. At the time, I had lots of negatives and 0 open lines. My scores were 611-615. I didn't go gung-ho, I just wanted to clean up my reports and establish some good credit. Since then, here's what I have: BOA Visa rec'd aug '08 secured, originally $300, now unsecured $500 Target store rec'd feb(?) '09 $200 Lane Bryant store rec'd mid-late 2009 $300 Torrid store rec'd nov-dec 2009 $350 HSBC Discover rec'd March '10 $300 Key Bank Mastercard rec'd July '10 $500 Amazon store card rec'd Sept '10 $800 The only one with an annual fee is the BOA at $29. I'm going to call and ask to have that removed the next time it rolls around. I've also added about $10k in student loans I'm encouraged by the Key & Amazon cards, since these are both cards I've been declined for at least once since starting this process. As for my reports, they're mostly clean now with ~8 inquiries and a medical collection that's a few years old. I don't want to go through the whole HIPAA process to get rid of it, because I'm going through nursing school and might be applying for a job at that hospital in the near future. Credit Karma puts my score right now at 645, up from 613 in December. I understand I can get a free FICO now, but honestly I really dislike going through the whole calling & cancelling thing to get it. I'm a full time student with very little outside income other than student loans and some very occasional contracting stuff with my former employer. I'll be graduating school in May. Our house is in my husband's name. We don't have any joint accounts (other than checking). My question is, how do I proceed now, when I don't have a job? Is my best route to let these age and then look for higher limits when I'm employed? Is there something with a higher limit/no annual fee that I stand a chance of being approved for before then?

I use quicken online. It's slightly cumbersome, but I like that I can check it anywhere.

I'm not a nurse, but I'm going to school to become one! Does that count? No? Didn't think so

As a card-carrying member of "the public," part of the 76% who does not support the bailout (and therefore apparently has no basic grasp of economics), I understand the difference. Even if I didn't, I'd still have the same opinion. My reasons? 1. It's not the government's place to do what they're doing (but that gets awfully close to politics so I'll not go into that) 2. Banks made stupid loans on the promise that as soon as they were made, they'd be off their books and "the government" would take care of it. This bailout seems to do nothing to prevent that from happening again and again and again, until we can no longer pretend that the giant mythical numbers that make up the government's debt are anything but a sad sad fiction, and our entire financial structure comes tumbling down. 3. I've made bad decisions in life. I suspect most people on this board have. We've all had to deal with the consequences in one way or another, from foreclosure to divorce to bankruptcy to whatever. Why is it that no one ever tells me "you're too important to be wrong, we'll fix it" whenever I screw up? It's past my bedtime so I hope that's coherent. As someone else said, lipstick on a pig.

And, since as in all things YMMV, I've had DirecTV for 7 years and think they have nearly the best customer service of all the companies I've ever had to deal with. Of course, I deal with insurance companies all day, so my bar may be set a bit low.

Normally $5-$20. Yesterday one of my tenants paid me back rent in cash (I hate that) so for about a day $1300, then I deposited most of it so $60 since we're going away for the day tomorrow and my husband has this irrational fear of plastic for some reason not working when needed.

I finally received the results from my first batch of disputes, with mixed results. The one I most annoyed with is an Experian dispute. I disputed seven items. Six of them went away (this is a victory at least!). The seventh is an old Amex chargeoff that was settled for a lesser amount. This is the only CRA it's reporting to. Under NY law, paid CO's and collections can only legally remain for 5 years from DOFD. From their math, it should have been removed from my report last October (says scheduled to continue on record until Oct, 2009, so subtract 2 years and there you have it). My dispute said: "This is a paid account. Under New York State law, paid charge offs can only report for five years. This account should have been removed in 2007. Please delete." Their response is: "A 'paid in settlement' account indicates that arrangements have been made between you and the credit grantor to accept a lesser amount of the original balance as payment. Because the account is closed to future charges, it is considered to be a 'closed account.' 'Paid in settlement' accounts remain on your personal credit report for seven years from the date of the initial missed payment that led to the delinquency or the date paid in settlement." So basically they defined the entry for me. How nice of them. So what I'm wondering is what my next step should be here, and if I even have the law right. Paid charge offs have to disappear after 5 years in NY. As far as Amex is concerned the account is paid, even though it was settled. There's nothing more owing, so IMO it's paid, right? I'm thinking a response to the effect of "in continuing to report this account, you are in violation of new york state law. I demand that you remove this entry from my report within 15 days. If you fail to do so, I will report this violation to the NYS AG, FTC, BBB, and whatever other letters I can think of." thoughts?

nub = noob = newbie, yes. I am finding myself unable to come up with anything properly annoying enough to send back to them. Perhaps just an FOAD using their postage. I know it's not CMRRR, but somehow it seems apropos.

If anyone pays that much attention to what a nub posts around here, you might know that NCO was bothering me a few months ago for an ancient (11-12 year old) credit card debt. This was pre-CB. I ignored it, and it went away. Then yesterday, this: On the envelope: "Enclosed: Time-Sensitive information" And inside? "USE YOUR NEW CREDIT CARD to resolve a debt and earn additional credit" Re: Your charged off XXXXX Card account (#xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx) with a principal bal of 1k+, fees and finance charges of $2k+, and a total balance of $3500 Dear Olliecat, Genesis Financial Solutions, Inc ("GFS") wants to offer you a flexible, ,affordable way to resolve a debt AND establish a new line of credit. Here's how it works: When you accept this Pre-Approved+ offer and make your first payment, your charged-off account (referenced above) will be considered settled for only ~40% of the total, or $youdothemath. You can pay down this initial balance on your Pearl Card® Gold MasterCard® at 0% interest with minimum monthly payments of only $35. Once your first payment is received, your initial credit line will be $50. Continue making on-time payments and you can earn credit line increases for new purchaes and cash advances as frequently as once a month, up to $600*. --------------------------------------------- It actually has decent terms: no annual fee, 14.9% interest rate, 25 day grace period. So what do y'all think? Should I do it? I mean, why not pay a completely noncollectable debt in order to get a credit card with a $50 credit limit? And one of the card designs is a kitten! I'm going for it. ok, for a more serious question, what should I send back to them in their postage paid envelope?

Smart post is amazingly slow. I ordered from King Arthur Flour in Vermont, and I'm in albany NY. The furthest point in VT is 4 hours from me. It took a week to get here.

You say you're getting ready to buy a new car, but for whatever reason you can't make your Amex payment. Can you afford the car? And if so, why is your amex going to be late? If it was an oversight on your part, then call them up and make the payment over the phone. It might cost you a few bucks, but it'll definitely be worth it.

If NFCU goes under, you really think your $325 limit on FP is really going to matter for anything? I won't even do business with FP, and the BofA secured is my entire credit portfolio. I somehow survived for the last 6 years with no plastic. I'll survive a bit longer with just one until creditors other than FP consider me a worthwhile risk.

Respectfully, you're nuts. You have $17k from NFCU. Why does paying $25 for a CLI to FP make more sense than closing them? I can't wrap my head around that reasoning.

1241.12 Mortgage 859.59 Paying down debt 767.72 Auto (includes $290 payment, gas, renewing registration, & repairs) 313.45 Utilities (includes gas, electric, $105 cell phone) 294.44 Groceries 293.32 Pets (new cat had lots of vet visits & neuter, and our pet sitter isn't cheap when we go out of town) 252.69 Household (too much gets lumped into this category, including a new digital camera we bought and who knows what else) 247.33 Cash (normally lower, but this includes cash we paid to a friend for 2 of his sofas. includes hubby's lunches when he buys...doesn't like to use card, haircuts, etc) 158.09 Entertainment (includes $100 cable & internet) 151.7 Education (will be a bit higher next year, taking more classes) 147.84 Gifts (stupid brother's wedding) 129.23 Medical (Rx, dental, dr's visits) 113.49 Insurance auto...should probably be counted above) 93.69 Water & sewer 88.82 Dining 35.36 Home Repair (this will be going up A LOT...we've been procrastinating a few major repairs) 30.52 Clothing 27.5 garbage collection 7.8 true credit (I got it 4-5 months ago, so 6 month avg is low) 7.08 Bank Fee according to quicken, this is what i spent on average each month in the last 6 months. total comes to $5300 for a family of 2 + dog & cat

And that is precisely why I pay for 95% of everything with plastic. Hell even my college has paypass on the soda machines.