Jdraper

Hey fellow CB-ers! I got into some trouble over this past year due to some medical problems and no insurance. I missed about 6 weeks of work and ended up with my credit cards all nearly maxed, about $13,000 in debt, multiple medical payment plans, and my fledgling emergency fund drained I'm trying to get a debt consolidation loan now, but my credit score has dropped from around 725 to 595 because of my 95% util. With my cards paid, even with a new loan, FICO sim says that I will be back over 700, but it's a catch-22 because I don't know how I can be approved for the loan with scores that low. My CU says that I would need to get to at least 650 and even then they could only do $5,000. I am paying ridiculous interest right now because while I was struggling to catch up, I ended up being a little late on some of my cards (no 30-days, thank GOD, but still late), and my APRs got raised to the mid 20's :/ Now I can barely make my payments and saving to rebuild my emergency fund is out of the question. I don't own a house, so anything related to that is a no-go, and I am still 2 years away from having my card loan paid off. Any ideas? I only make about $38k a year, and I'm on the verge of having to either file bankruptcy or go into debt negotiation and ruin my credit, which I worked very hard to fix and build (with a lot of help from this board!)

I'd like to know the answer to this too.

I think they are referring to a collection agency as someone they are contracting to collect the debt for them, whereas a debt buyer is someone who buys rights to the debt from the original creditor, at which point they own it and can collect on it.

So after nearly 2 years of having my WF Secured Visa, yesterday I got a letter in the mail stating that I was denied graduation based on: One or more credit inquiries in the last 2 years. High recent balances (despite the fact that I pay in full) and No Wells Fargo checking or savings account (????? ok....) Called to close my account, and they didn't even *try* to convince me to keep it, didn't take a second look at graduation, nothing. Just read the standard disclosures and "Your account is closed, anything else I can help you with?" I have plenty of other unsecured credit now, so I think I made the right choice by closing the account. Apparently their new approval criteria is either completely random or very strict, neither of which interest me on a generic card with no rewards, an unimpressive interest rate, and an annual fee.

Good call, you're exactly right - an ACH withdrawal is what made my account negative, and then the previously authorized transaction posted right after. So I suppose there was no wrong done by my CU, aside from the rep (who even asked a supervisor) not having a clue

I read the legislation and could not find anything that would make a CU exempt. The word "Financial Institution" used, and in the definitions section, financial institution includes "Credit Union". Does anyone have a definitive answer on this? I'm going to my CU with a copy of the relevant portions of the legislation to make them reverse the charge, and I don't want to put my foot in my mouth

The title pretty much sums it up. I got an overdraft charge on a debit card POS transaction with my CU ( I would have rather been declined and just used a different card). When I called them, the lady said "that doesn't go into effect until next year" and that I would have to come in and explicitly opt out of overdraft protection in person. Are credit unions subject to different laws than banks?

I had some library fines almost 13 years ago when I was 16 or 17 (around $20), and now some CA is sending me a collection letter for it. The letter says that they are going to "report it to the credit bureaus" which seems kind of absurd considering the Past Due date on the letter says that it was in 1999 (which is still re-aged, because I would have been 19 then, and this happened when I was in high school!) Should I actually bother with a DV letter? I know that it's far to old to be legally reported to the CRAs, but could they still do it - forcing me to dispute? I'm worried that it's some crazy JDB that might pull some dirty tricks that I'll have to deal with.

Score? And who did your Credit monitor say it pulled? Was it Experian? My EQ/TU are around 650 or so right now. They pulled EX, which I'm sure is lower due to far more INQs.

About a year ago before I had gotten my reports cleaned up, I opened one of the HSBC 2% rewards card with a crappy $300 limit and $59 AF. 12 month later and still no CLI and they still aren't accepting requests, so I called to cancel the card. I was expecting that they would grudgingly waive the fee for a year, or discount it 50%, but I was shocked when they offered to *permanently* remove the AF from my account if I would just "give them more time." I hadn't heard of HSBC doing this before, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I got approved for Kohl's a few days ago (applied in-store) with 10 inqs showing on EX (11 in the past year), 40% util, AAOA 10 months, so the criteria does seem to be lower when you are applying in person.. Only $600 limit, but I really wasn't expecting an approval at all.

I got denied graduation (after 16 months) with perfectly clean reports and multiple positive trade lines (including a new auto loan a few months ago). Their product literature for the card only mentions "credit score above 600" for graduation eligibility, and despite being far above that, they denied me? The rep I talked to had no answers, of course. Should I close the account or just wait it out and see what happens? I don't want them holding on to my $1000 anymore if they aren't going to unsecure my card. Anyone been denied graduation and gotten a recon? I'm not even sure how to get in touch with a credit analyst at WF.. the backdoor number that I found isn't working anymore.

I got my card 10 months ago, and have only ever received 1 increase, which was on my 4th statement. My credit steps letter only talked about one CLI though, so I guess there are different programs.

Just a heads up to anyone who has a WF secured card and is up for graduation review. I called to check and see why I hadn't heard anything yet, and the rep told me that WF is revising all of their policies because of the new CC legislation, and will not be upgrading any secured cards, period, until that is done (he had no info about when that might be).

As soon as you get a tradeline to report, you will have a score again. Your old positive accounts satisfy the first requirement - you just need some recent activity. What are the minimum requirements for a FICO score? There's really not much to it; in order for a FICO® score to be calculated, a credit report must contain these minimum requirements: * At least one account that has been open for six months or more * At least one undisputed account that has been reported to the credit bureau with in the past six months * No indication of deceased on the credit report (Please note: if you share an account with another person this may affect you if the other account holder is reported deceased).