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Many moons ago I was part of CB (can’t for the life of me remember my screen name) and did a lot of credit report removing baddies and re-establishing credit. In February 2007 I opened a National City Credit card (secured that did not report as secured) and worked like crazy get all the baddies (judgments, collections, lates…you name it). By 2008 I had been approved for a Wal-Mart, Target, and Chevron cards. These were followed by two CitiCards and an HSBC card. I moved from California to NYC in late 2008 just as the financial crisis hit and did my best to stay afloat. Unfortunately, I got behind with the IRS and they filed a tax lien in 2009. This tanked my scores. I also had two unpaid items, one medical collection and on AAA that weren’t helping me out much either. I did my best to not lose too much ground while I was getting back on my financial feet. I had some savings, but initially no income, so things were a bit rocky here and there. I came back to CB in December of 2013 and decided to give it a go once again. I must say I am so inspired by all the stories and am grateful for a community that shares advice and lessons learned. Whoo-whooo! Here is where I started: December 2013 ScoreSense (FAKOs) Equifax 649 Experian 625 Transunion 667 Here is what needed improvement: Removal of tax lien Removal of Medical Collection Removal of 11 late payments from 2010/2011 spread across three different private student loans Removal of late payment from Target Removal of late payments from CitiCard (on a closed account) Increase in limits on Walmart, Chevron, Target, Paypal, Capital One (former HSBC Union Plus Card), Barclays Upromise Card (former Citicard, then BofA) New credit lines with higher limits Getting Barclays to report my account to all three CRAs, as it is my highest limit ($6,000) January 2014 I was able to successfully remove the medical collection using WhyChat’s method and some rules related to NYC residents (Debt Collection Agency license). Submitted documentation to the IRS requesting my lien be withdrawn. Decreased my credit card utilization by 10% by making payments on all my cards. Sent a request to Barlays to report my account to all 3 CRAs Disputed my lates on the Sallie Mae private loans. Reports updated to REMOVE ALL lates on three trade lines. Miracles really do exist! January FAKOs (ScoreSense) Equifax 689 Experian 664 TransUnion 700 February 2014 With my higher (FAKO) scores in hand, I called PayPal and asked for CLI and they gave me one for $1500. Raising my limit to $1600. (Many CLDs after the lien posted in 2009) Also called Walmart and got a $200 CLI, Chevron increase to $450. Not impressive overall, but helped my utilization. Using 41% of my overall available (reporting) credit. (Barclays still not on my credit report. Requested a CLI increase from Cap1, hard pull on all three (ouch), declined for no report (Equifax, but still shows a hard pull. WTH?) and no explanation as to why they pulled THREE. Grrr. Sent letter. On Feb 26th the IRS sent me a letter approving my lien withdrawal. Sent me form 10916 on the 28th. Checked online and it had not been recorded with the NYC city register. Barclays responded to my request to report agreeing they would report my account to all three CRAs and to allow at least 30 days for an update. Applied for Roaman’s card, approved for $750. No hard. Got a little excited and applied for DCU CC, Discover and re-opening of Citi. Declined on all five hard pulls on EQ. One hard pull on TU. I normally am not app happy, but I got a bit caught up in the thread that SuperCreditMan has going on…apparently unpaid tax liens are more frowned upon than discharged bankruptcy. Who knew??? (Someone on CB, I’m sure.) February FAKOs (ScoreSense) Equifax 689 Experian 692 Transunion 692 March 2014 Baddies remaining on report are: 1 Federal Tax Lien (2009, unpaid) Target - 1 30 day late from 9/13 Citi (closed) - 1 30 day late, 1 60 late from 10/13 and 11/13 Started work to get b* on Transunion to remove the one inquiry. Using MPM and SCP, should see results by 3/31/14. My Citi AA letter cited “no installment loans” on my Equifax as part of the reason for the decline. Submitted a request to SallieMae to report my student loan to Equifax. Also sent a CFPB complaint requesting it be reported. Sent a second letter to Barclays to see when the credit line would report. Also filed a CFPB complaint to speed things up. Sent a letter to all 3 CRA with a copy of the Withdrawal of Lien document and requested deletion. Also submitted an online dispute with Equifax, using the online document upload feature. Sent letter to Discover for recon. Lien was cited as reason fro denial, since proof of lien withdrawal. Sending recon letter to Citi showing removal of lien and proof of a revolving account (which was also listed as reason for denial) Target and Citi responded to my GW request for late removals with a firm “NO”….Target did refund the late fee though and agreed to remove any lates that were more than 24 months old…there are none. Applied Bill Me Later credit (Comenity), hard pull on Eq and denied due to “too many inquiries”…OUCH. March FAKOs (Equifax Complete) Equifax 688 Experian 688 TransUnion 701 Expecting Transunion b* within the next two days. Plans for April Follow up on the removal of the liens from my report. Follow up on the Barclay reporting Follow up on the Sallie Mae reporting Resist the urge to apply for new credit Wrap my head around Equifax B* Lower my utilization Pay my bills on time! :-) Request a reduced interest rate on my CCs once my utilization is lower and the lien is not reporting. My goals are to get the most favorable terms on my existing lines, increase my available credit (CLIs and paying down balances), get my scores to as close to 800 as possible within the next 8-9 months to app for a mortgage. I’ll pull my FICO once the liens are gone from all reports. Any input, advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks to BobWang, shifter, SCM and others for providing valuable input and updates. I LOVE CB!

Hello everyone, I thought I would start one big thread to put my journey on paper like so many others here. I have a dream and wish that one day I will have CREDIT, CREDIT CARDS, will be able to buy a home of my own and walk in an buy a car without the haggle of "bad" credit and HIGH rates out the whoohaaaaa.... I am starting at ground zero. I had a tiny bit of credit when I was 18-20 and then let it go to crap town when I met a very abuvsive true sociopath that controlled me for many many years. I am finally free of that relationship, just exited out of a battered shelter into an apartment, and that is when I realized how important credit really IS! Now I have a couple questions that I need to add here that I have not already asked. First reminder - I am waiting on paper reports to come so I can analyze those and I am disptuing old addresses on my reports. BUT WHILE I WAIT here is one tricky question: I let the jerk do a title pawn on a Honda Accord with TitleMax back in 2011 - the car finally went into Repo status in June 2013 and they found the car and repo'd it Nov 4th 2013. I was not around when they got the car. Actually I was in hiding but he had tracked us down and had them repo the car. I was unaware he was not paying the bill on the car for months until 3 days prior to when they picked up the car. They are showing NO WHERE on my reports. I have not heard a PEEP out of them since they got the car. Not a letter, call, nothing. What do I do?????? I maybe looking to file BK based off the amount I owed in collections that are newer in medical bills etc...I am just trying to weigh my options. IF I DO FILE BK - how do I make sure this sucker is in there???? I do not wont this to come back to haunt me later...... Advice??!?? My mail forwards to my new address and has been since the day I left before the car was taken. My number is the same, but they never called me on this and yes, it was titled to me - and I signed it for him but he paid the bill. Yes stupid, trust me - cant change the stupid tax I have paid in the past Thank you all for any help and for advice as I start out. Right now I am at rock bottom but I will be there in the club with hard work, patience, and dedication.

Thank you everyone at CB. Because of you I got rid of my one derog. My credit reports are a blank slate. What should I put on there? My credit reports pretty much say the same thing: AAOA 6.3 years thanks to one old AU. One CapOne reporting OK. No baddies. 2 hard pulls, AT&T mobile, Cap One. Half-dozen different addresses. Wrong employer. Misspellings of my name as AKAs. FAKOS - EX: 749, EQ: 673. Except that TU: CapOne not reporting yet, but soon, I’m sure. On extra hard pull for a GE Amazon, denied. Relevant: One Cap One Quicksilver at $300 CL, 2 mos. old. Applied for Amazon card, hard pull (didn’t know better), and rejected because they say could not verify my identity. Opted-out. No freezes. Self-employed, no pay stubs. I’d like be able to get a mortgage, plus some useful revolving credit, like a mileage card. There is still some clean up of names and addresses to do. Your thoughts on how to start this journey are greatly appreciated.