Beginner questions: secured credit cards and other steps

[CaptainJaneway]

I'm working on my husband's credit. A lot of medical stuff has fallen off, thanks to Why Chat, but he still has few negative things going on that I'm working on right now, so they are dwindling down in number. Right now we are waiting for a response from the CRAs about some debt from AFNI (not sure what it is or where it's from) that is beyond the SOL.

 

Would it be better to wait to try to get a secure credit card after all the bad stuff comes off first, or do we try for one earlier?

 

I guess my questions right now is more about order in which I tackle the rest of the stuff on his report.

 

We have bankruptcy, scheduled to fall off in 2017.

He has a paid judgement.

 

He has a few shady things from Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. T-mobile and comcast are particularly tricky and underhanded. At one point, he called t-mobile, who said he had a credit with them (like he paid them too much on something and they owed him money) while at the same time sending him to a CA for him owing them money on something? Comcast is all around dirty and we just switched to Dish Network because of their foolishness. (there is convoluted history behind that as well...)

 

He has some really good history building up on his credit with Aaron's rent-to-own furniture. I was vehemently against him going to Aaron's for many many reasons, but I must say that he has been doing extremely well with keeping up the payments (I know, i know, we are paying waaaaay more than if we were to buy stuff outright, but it's good when you are in a bind and don't have enough cash to fork out to buy something outright, your credit is in the toilet, but you do have a little and can make regular payments and plan to keep the item forever, regardless of what happens to it...we only get things we absolutely need when we are in a total bind with no other choice, never EVER anything frivolous and we've paid off and still have a few things from them from the past couple years.) But anyway, he has been paying them regularly and I'm still learning about scores and stuff, but it is one thing on his credit that is "green" instead of red, and has been consistently green for the past couple of years.

 

After I am done tackling this thing from AFNI that is beyond SOL, (the rest are more recent) what is next? Do I continue to keep going to the CRA initially before going to the CA? Will the CRAs start to get suspicions if every couple of months they are receiving another dispute letter from us about something else? Which, by the way, is there are certain amount of time that it's best to wait before sending in a dispute letter to the CRA for the next item? Do I go to the CA first for any of this stuff? Can I "double up" on anything, as in, request/wait for validation from the CRAs on the AFNI that is beyond SOL while at the same time sending a letter of directly to one of the other CAs over, say, the T-Mobile stuff?

 

When, in all of this, does the secured credit card and working on rebuilding start to fit in? Also, I probably need to maybe see about the judgement lastly, right? I think we could probably wait out the bankruptcy. We have nothing pressing right now that we NEEEEED to get our credit right for, but it's time for us to grow up.

 

Trying to get my list of priorities in order. Thanks in advance! Sorry for the book of a post.

Edited May 15, 2014 by CaptainJaneway

[moosetracks]

Move on the secured card now. I would look into SDFCUs secured card it is my understanding its a SP to join and if you already have the funds in your savings account for the secured card and CALL them to open it there will be no HP for it. I would also look into getting one from a local CU.

 

On the judgment you would need to file a motion to vacate in the court that granted the judgment on grounds that it has been paid, if this is granted its gone now from your CRs.

[CaptainJaneway]

Thanks so much for your advice. Still learning all the initials here, still unsure about what SP and HP mean. He already has savings and checking and Navy Federal. Do you think Navy Federal does credit checks for secured credit cards? I wonder if he would get approved for a very low one just to begin.

 

I had no idea that that was possible with the court. being that it's not something you have to go through the CRAs about first to begin, we can go ahead and get started on that now, right?

Edited May 15, 2014 by CaptainJaneway

[bmfmustang]

I was 528 EQ when approved for NFCU secured. That's the best secured from all accounts, and it's rewards as well with no AF. I have already earned a 75 dollar gift card with their rewards, I have had it for a month.

[CaptainJaneway]

Ok, we'll look into nfcu. Which one starts out with the lowest limit? like, are there any $50 easier to get ones?

[MrDonivan]

PoliceBox has a nice set of letters over on this thread for the Motion to Vacate Judgement part:

 

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=527576&hl=

[parisamour]

Ok, we'll look into nfcu. Which one starts out with the lowest limit? like, are there any $50 easier to get ones?

Open Sky secured card has a minimum deposit of 200.00 as does USAA . I also read that Capital One deposit can be as low as 49.00 , not sure if they triple pull for the secured like with their unsecured cards. Hope this helps.

 

 

I looked around- Navy minimum security deposit is 500.00

sdfcu is 200.00

Edited May 18, 2014 by parisamour

[RedHairedLady]

 

Ok, we'll look into nfcu. Which one starts out with the lowest limit? like, are there any $50 easier to get ones?

Open Sky secured card has a minimum deposit of 200.00 as does USAA . I also read that Capital One deposit can be as low as 49.00 , not sure if they triple pull for the secured like with their unsecured cards. Hope this helps.

Yes, they triple pull for the secured Cap 1. I got it with a $49 deposit a couple of months ago. When I tried for my husband, they wanted $99. We never bothered to get it for him. He just got two unsecured Cap 1s in the past month, for $300 and then $500.

[parisamour]

 

 

Ok, we'll look into nfcu. Which one starts out with the lowest limit? like, are there any $50 easier to get ones?

Open Sky secured card has a minimum deposit of 200.00 as does USAA . I also read that Capital One deposit can be as low as 49.00 , not sure if they triple pull for the secured like with their unsecured cards. Hope this helps.

Yes, they triple pull for the secured Cap 1. I got it with a $49 deposit a couple of months ago. When I tried for my husband, they wanted $99. We never bothered to get it for him. He just got two unsecured Cap 1s in the past month, for $300 and then $500.

Ok thank you , I was not sure .