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My CL with Amazon/Synch was $9,900.  It's been 8 or 9 months since my last CLI request, so I asked for $15,000.
 
They gave me an extra $100, bringing my line up to $10,000.

I am asking for my son. We live in California.
 
He applied for a mortgage on May 10 and they did an inquiry. The lender wasn't a fit and he went to another one and they did an inquiry last week. His score didn't go down with Equifax or Transunion, but it dropped 26 points with Experian.  He's upset and doesn't understand why his score dropped like that. I told him I'd ask the question in hopes to figure things out.
 
 
 
 

I thought that I would do a pre qual with GS Marcus for a personal loan for kicks. I have a GM Mastercard and GM business MC with them that I just got within the last 2 months. CLs are $13k and $5.5K, with $0 balances respectively. I wouldn't have accepted it even if I got approved. Interesting to know that these decisions are based on more than just credit score.
 

My car was totaled in a minor collision and it was my only means of transportation. Now I'm really nervous about being able to finance a new vehicle with my current credit scores. Here is where I am at:
 
- The car had one missed payment at the end and I was a cosigner on it. My insurance paid off the $840 dollars remaining on it, but it is still showing on my reports as a charge off with a balance of $840.
- I also have a collection for $2800 with CAP1 that was settled last month for $1,100 and is being paid in three payments.
- I have two other collections, both for an old apartment. One is for $2,900 and one for $750. These two hit the 7 year mark in July of this year.
- My TU score on CK is at 561, EQ is 628.
- My EX FICO 8 score shows as 686. This score doesn't show the charge off for the car or any collections.
- After the car was totaled I have about $5k for a down payment and could probably push it to $6K if needed.
 
I know this is far from the best place to be for purchasing a vehicle, but am I in a really tough spot, or am I overthinking it? I'm not expecting a great interest rate or anything, but I am nervous about actually being approved for anything. 

Jen’s Index
 
First of all, the idea for this post totally came from Sassy (thank you!) and her post here: http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14797
 
Since her post 2003, there has been a lot of great conversation and changes, so I thought I would update it with my own spin and my own links. Use whichever works best for you But, I also used a few links that are in her index. The classics never die.
 
Nothing I could say here could totally cover every credit repair topic or situation out there. In fact, I’m not trying to. The purpose of this write-up is to provide an outline for beginners on where to go to gain the knowledge they will need for their credit repair journey. A "where do I start" primer.
 
If you are simply looking for a place to get a sample letter to copy/paste (c/p) and send off, then close this thread now, this isn’t it. The most effective letters are ones you write yourself, tailored to your own situation, and written knowing why you wrote what you wrote.
 
 
Here is a good read about the type of consumer CB can turn you into:
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?s...=263781&hl=
 
I will only link CB threads in this index (outside the FDCPA/FCRA /govt links). I have found invaluable information also off CB, but to keep things simple, CB is the only place I will reference in this thread. On my own site, I have been working to expand this index to other sites, giving credit where credit is due.
 
Lastly, there are so many awesome threads that I had book marked (computer crash) and no longer have, or I have missed over the years. If yours is one of those that deserved a mention here, but due to my oversight was missed, you have my deepest apologies.

So after a extensive search on CB & Google, the below credit card sites are the only ones I could find that pull 'soft' inquiries to see if you qualify for their cards.
 
note: deleted original links - they're dead. please use the links below.
 
 
Courtesy of foeplay - update as of Sept 7 2010:
 
Pre-approval links
HSBC pre-qualifier (must bank with HSBC): https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/hsbccreditcard/
HSBC/Household pre-qualifier: https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/householdbank
HSBC/Orchard's pre-qualifier: https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/orchardbank
HSBC/BestBuy's pre-qualifier: https://www.hsbcapply.com/start/rewardzonemastercard
Capital One's pre-qualifier: https://cardfinder.capitalone.com/CapOne/fi...3ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Discover's pre-qualifier: https://www.discovercard.com/cardmembersvcs...ORE_pre_chk_btn
 
Database checkers (not a pre-qualifier; checks to see if they have any currently standing offers for you in their database)
Bank of America: https://preselected.bankofamerica.com/cc/SelfInquiry.aspx
Citibank: https://www.citicards.com/cards/acq/dirMail...o?screenID=4010
American Express (Click on "NOT A CARDMEMBER YET"): https://www201.americanexpress.com/secure/m...atePerfectCards
Chase checks for recently mailed offers https://creditcards.chase.com/RecentlyMailedOffers.aspx
 
Sites that have been known to give pre-approvals when you shop there/go to check out there:
Victoria's Secret http://www.victoriassecret.com
Newport News http://www.newportnews.com (you can check to see if you're pre-approved here: https://www.newport-news.com/credit/preapprove.aspx )
Spiegel http://www.spiegel.com (you can check to see if you're pre-approved here: https://www.spiegel.com/credit/eligcheck.aspx )
Metrostyle http://www.metrostyle.com
Chadwick's http://www.chadwicks.com
Roamans http://www.roamans.com

So I've frozen my accounts (again) and opted out for all 3 CRAs.
 
I have two collection accounts that are holding me back on TransUnion and they are Medical Collections. I have read the WhyChat HIPAA guidelines and I am ready to submit my Handwritten Initial Dispute using WhyChat's form provided.
 
HOWEVER, before I do this, I also need to note that these two collections have STARTED garnishing my wages about 2 months ago, and have about 1 month of garnishment left BEFORE being paid off. The balances have not been updated on my credit report, even though they are still "reporting" every month.
 
Should I wait till the garnishment is over in a few weeks and then start my initial dispute, or should I take a different approach overall?

Hi,
 
Years ago, I did this myself and had 100% success. My brother wants to clean up his credit and I offered to help him. He obtained all 3 reports and I told him to Opt out permanently via the 888 number. I looked at his EQ report online and disputed 1 address that was never his, Another one I DID NOT dispute yet, is the one I planned to dispute. It's our parents address where we lived before. It lists our parents as his current address, however, which is why I didn't dispute it. His actual current address is listed as a previous address. If I dispute the current address, what will happen? The only address left then would be his actual current address which for some reason as I said, is listed as a previous address.
 
What should I do before I begin the actual Whychat process of sending letters to the CRAs?
 
Thank you!

Does applying for a few accounts within the same day count as 1 inquiry or dosen't hurt the score?

Got a call today from a business who claims they are a law office, K&N Associates. Said they are representing a credit card company to collect an unpaid credit card from 2016. They called it a civil complaint. I did have a credit card back in 2005 that I couldn't pay due to medical expenses and death in the family. I NEVER received anything from them after 2007. This company says I owe $1400.00 but all they can tell me is the name of the credit card. They do have my SS#, address and phone number. They said I can do payments in the amount of $117,00 for 12 months if I can't pay the entire amount now. If I don't set up payments or pay the entire amount today it will go to court and it will cost me $4000.00. I said to them why haven't you sent me something in the mail regarding this and they claim they did. Never received anything from the them. They want me to give them a credit card today to take out $117.00 each month. What do you guys think about this? My wife is very ill and this is the last thing we need.  Thanks

Insurers score a win in new rule to protect patients from ‘surprise’ medical bills (msn.com)
 
"While all eyes were on Congress, the current administration handed insurers a victory in a much-anticipated rule detailing how to shield patients from pricey, unexpected medical bills. When they unknowingly get care from a doctor out of their coverage network or in emergency situations, where they can be sent to out-of-network hospitals."
 

A couple of years ago I experimented with the installment loan hack and verified that it does work. I took out a 5-year loan for $30k from my favorite bank and, as soon as it posted, I paid it all off except for $100. My next payment was somewhere in 2024. The effects on my FICO were virtually instant -- from 820 to 850.
 
A couple of months ago I got tired of seeing it on my spreadsheet and just paid it off. This week it just hit my credit reports as closed. And my FICO dropped around 27 fooking points on all three CRAs.
 
EX, which was always my weakest, went to 797.
 
I suppose I need to unfreeze EQ and take the hit for another installment loan.
 
 
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This question may sound a bit strange but I am wanting to know how I can dispute a charge that I paid via cash. Can you do that? 
 
I took money out to pay a guy, let's call him scammer. And scammer did not fulfill my service and now will not give me refund. Mind you, scammer works by himself and he did not mention any refund policy or anything like that. I am assuming scammer wanted this to happen so I would not dispute the charge.    This is the main question I need answered: How can I dispute a charge that I took out via cash? 
 

So I sold my house in 2017. Made $2500 profit.  Since then, I had a few hiccups on my credit (car repo that I need to start a payment plan on the settled offer, few late payments) with 549, 529, and 472 scores, I'm back in the Education field with $63k as my salary. April 5th, the lender for the Teacher Next door program said lets rescore after you pay your credit cards off.  I did that by April 30th.  Now, after resubmitting zero balance letters, I get this information back:
 
"This borrower is not going to qualify regardless of credit scores because debt to income is to high.  She has 44 open tradelines most of which are deferred student loans.  FHA will be her only option with the credit scores  On an FHA Loan with a Purchase Price of $100,000 with a 3.5% Down Payment the DTI’s are 15.71 / 131.03% (what is this and where did these numbers come from?) so WAY too high to qualify for any loan amount.   She would have to pay debt on credit or consolidate some debt into one loan in order to qualify for anything.  Work on consolidating all the student loans. Also start closing out accounts that are not active. (I have none) Then overtime your credit will start building back up.  Having that many open tradlines can hurt your score. If you consolidate debt it may be a little higher payment but overall it will lower you monthly payments. For instance If I have a 3 $100 dollar monthly payments. I consolidate those 3 and now I have a $200 dollar payment it saves me $100 a month. You can still make those same payments but as far as your debt to income it will help.  Conventional allows you to use .5% but you need a 620 credit and DTI will still have to 45%. I would work on consolidating your loans into one loan and do an income based repayment plan."
 
What do I do? What options?  Yes, I have $435k in student loans, with all deferred, as I am completing my Ph.D.  If I submit the consoladation loan, yes, it would go down to a MUCH smaller number of loans, but still $435k, not to include the new loans for the last year of school.  As an educator, my payments are only for 120 months, then the rest is forgiven.  Can that help me?  I was an entrepreneur last year, so my AGI is $4350, which means I have to use my current salary to get an actual payment plan based on real income that might be $400/month- worth getting into a home.  I could also wait until January 2020 for NACA, as it wants me to wait for twelve months with no late payments. I have my current car note $500 and practically no credit card debt.  The house I want to buy is rentable starting June 1 for 1195/month.  I may ask the owner to consider holding a note, as refi may be easier.
 
Thanks for the help and suggestions.

IF I want to buy a car, should I do it before filing a BK with bad credit or after?  I heard auto financing goes off of a different fico score regardless.  I make enough to afford it, but just got caught up in a bad situation.

Last year my whole life pretty much fell apart. My business was hammered by the COVID stuff, my marriage came to an end in a horrible way and I sank into depression and self destruction.
 
I'm now trying to get my life back together but still struggle from time to time with feeling overwhelmed by everything. Which is why it has taken me two weeks to ask for help after being served.
 
I understand that I have a week at most to file a response with the court. The suit is over a debt of more that $30K but less than $50, from several Amex cards that I defaulted on. I don't have the money for a lawyer so will have to respond pro se.
 
I've read and understood what I could, here but have some questions and would be grateful for any help. I'd like to avoid bankruptcy if possible because I believe that my business can be turned around - I just need time.
 
Questions:
 
1. Is arbitration the way to go? If so, should I file a motion to compel arbitration per the terms of the card agreement?
 
2. Or, should I file for a continuance to give me time to ask AmEx for arbitration?
 
3. Or is there some other response I should file?
 
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

So I put myself BACK in chexsystems in 2016. That account, which I will not continue to pay on, falls off 6/16/21.  I'm sending the letter a couple days early.  The same way Im upgrading my credit partners, I also upgrade my banking partners.  I dont qualify for Navy Federal.  Any other good credit unions with shared branching Im missing out on?  Its all about rewards, loan products, and perks with EVERY account.  I could add ONE more outside of DCU.
 
I started off with NASA FCU.  I also added two w/PenAir FCU.  Then, two w/Wells Fargo.
Pentagon Fed added me back in 2016, but I deleted the checking because it was a $10 monthly fee.  I just opened a new account in June 2020. I then added OneUnited Bank. 
Just added Langley FCU and will go back to DCU I think in about two weeks. Both offer great mortgage options.
 
Sock Drawer:
PenAir is cool.  Its a FREE account, but no real perks.  No loan products yet.  Have business account too. Has shared branching.
WF is cool.  No loan products yet.  Accounts require $500/month balance to be free.
 
Main Accounts:
NASA lets me transfer to all other institutions.  Has great bill pay. Decent credit products. Cash reward benefit.
PenFed is an amazing bank.  Already have $500 O/D and $2k in credit cards.
OneUnited Bank is my play account and Black-owned.
USAA is my external savings checking with cash reward.
Langley FCU has cash reward and great loan products.
 

My BK7 was discharged Sept 21. 
 
i was just approved for Cap One for $3000 
 
what should my plan be moving forward as far as how often to apply for new credit cards, what types of credit to open, etc. 
 
i am considering opening a secured line of credit with my credit union for about $10000. 
 
would that be a good addition? 
 
thx 
 
DS. 

Hi everyone, 
 
This is very short notice on everyone. While in quarantine we were served with the following paper. Exhibit A is the cardmember agreement. 
 
Background:
Husband had to leave his job because of an injury which cause his part of the income to drop from 1500/week to about 700/week (pretax). He did make an arrangement with Discover to pay 60/month but after a few payments they stopped taking it out. He let it be (hoping it would disappear :/ )
 
Is there anything we can do or answer back? We did not see this until 11/8/21 since we did not get outside. 
 
_____________________________________________
 
COMPLAINT
 
Comes now Plaintiff, by and through counsel, and for its Complaint states herein:
1. The Defendant is liable to the Plaintiff under the Credit Card Account Agreement, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit A.
2. Said obligation is past due, and Defendant owes the principal amount of $4,257.31 plus interest from the date of judgment at the statutory rate. STATEMENT is attached hereto as Exhibit B. AFFIDAVIT is attached hereto as Exhibit C.
 
Wherefore, the Plaintiff prays for judgment against the Defendant for the sum set forth above plus interest at the statutory rate from the date of judgment, and costs.
 
NATHAN DUVELIUS 35520-15
KYLE D. MICHAEL, 29384-53
ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF
525 VINE STREET, SUITE 800, CINCINNATI, OH 45202
PHONE: 513-723-2200
FAX 513-723-2239
EMAIL: CINATTY@WELTMAN.COM
WWR#: 040750917
 
 

I would build this on my credit report that recently was put back on in January of 2021 this bill is 27 years old and it's at least been on my credit report two or three times. What is my cause of action

The gist of the situation is that I logged into a few accounts today that have due dates falling over the next 5 days.  I was concerned that our WF credit card has a payment due tomorrow and no payment had posted yet (nor was shown as pending).  So, I make an online payment for the desired amount. 
 
A couple of minutes later I pull up our CU checking account history.  The last transaction posted today is a cleared payment to the WF credit card, pushed from 3rd party billpay (CheckFree).  Since when does a payment clear before some payment indicator shows up on the payee's website???
 
I really don't want to be out of pocket for both payments.  Since it had been only 10 minutes since posting the payment, I called to request the payment be cancelled.  (Of course, I was calling because there was no apparent way online to cancel this payment online.)  As I'm sure you have already guessed, WF claims that they process such payments immediately and there's no cancellation, but we're welcome to order a Stop Payment with the bank on which payment is drawn.  (The duplicate payment isn't so objectionable that I'm willing to incur a $35 fee to avoid it.)
 
My "vent" is that I simply don't believe how "clunky" WF's credit card system is !!!
 
No advice, input or feedback necessary.  I'll likely think twice before I put in a plug for their 2% cb card ever again.

I have a $1200 collections from Nebraska Furniture Mart that defaulted about 4-5 years ago and is now past SOL. They continue to report/update the status every month to the credit bureaus. Since they’re refreshing it every month, could it continue to hold down my score?

I've been getting things cleaned up over the past couple of months.  The only thing remaining on any of the 3 CRA's is 2 paid medical collections on EQ listed as closed.  If these paid collections negatively affect your score why would all 3 CRA scores be within a few points of each other?  Again, the only difference between the 3 is the 2 paid collections listed on EQ (and not listed on Trans or EX).    

For the past coupla months (while paying down balances) I have been aiming to apply for
 
1) car loan from BofA ($8K)
2) BNP Paribas BotW MC that I got a mailed pre-approval for
3) AmEx Everyday  (which I think is a mild stretch (but AmEx does love me ))
 
When I log on next week (once my $1,800 payment on my FNBO Visa reports on myFICO), in what order do you think I ought to submit these apps?
 
Second question:  If I want to go for the current Southwest promo (100K points!!) from Chase, where would that fit in to the sequence?
 
(In practice I might just zotz the AmEx app, in order to go through with Southwest. Boring Everyday card will always be there but this bonus offer will not.  Still though, I wanna hear everyone's thoughts on the scenarios.  )

Good evening,
 
I am trying to take some steps to improve my credit.  
 
I filed Chapter 7 on 07/30/2014, discharged on 11/05/2014.
 
I haven't done much to improve my credit score since.  I have no credit card debt right now.  I have my mortgage which I have been paying off, without missing a payment, and two auto loans.
 
I have two credit cards with Capital One.
 
Is there anything I can do to improve my score, and my wife's score (she is on the bankruptcy as well) until the bankruptcy finally falls off of my credit report?  Or will my credit always remain poor until the bankruptcy comes off?
 
Thank you!