Help a homie out ? 560 to 750 in a year possible ?

[pacman829]

Hi everyone!

Here's My situation:

back in May 2008 Ii decided to start building up some credit (don't' remember my score back then .. but it was pretty much nonexistent.) and had applied for one of those Capital One starter/student cards. I was approved for the usual low limit of $300.

One thing led to another due to a domino effect of a single missing payment and the fees started piling on over the course of a few months to the point where i now owed $1798 bucks (i know .. I know...) . The account was closed in Feb 2010. and went off to collections

In hindsight, I wish i would've payed more attention to it since at this stage in the game i'd probably have a couple high limitcards by now.

I'm generally very responsible, always pay my bills on time and never buy things i can't afford.

 

Fast-Forward to today :

My credit score is 560.

I've applied to a couple cards once every now and then but never got approved. Until now that is.

 

I was able to get approved to a Credit One Gas Rewards card. Beggars can't be choosers, so i went with it. Very high APR and low limit ($300... deja vu) .
I'm happy about it though! It's a start! It's been about a week and i have maxed it out and also payed it off (this included their 75 $ fee +225 balance).

I've also been "approved" for a Capital One Secured Master card which I'm saving up to put a decent deposit on in order to have a higher initial limit.

I'd like to place at least $1000 minimum on it. But realistically I'd like to put something more along the lines of 3 or 4 grand. (max is $10k with capital one right ? )
I have until July 8th to make the deposit.



So my questions for you all are:

What can someone in my situation do to speed up the process a bit ?
I know things may take time but i'm sure there must be some way to gain at least a hundred points by the end of the year, right ?

How fast, or slow do these things actually go. Assuming that I use the cards and pay them off immediately.

And would having multiple smaller secured cards from different banks/companies be better than a single larger one?




Thanks in advance!!

[david_weaver]

Beggars CAN be choosers. That said, you already got the Credit One, so just do not get anymore like that. You would be better served getting three secured cards at $1,000 than one secured card at $3,000. At this point, you need trade-lines, not high limits.

 

At 560 or so, it is Cap One or the crap cards like Credit One, or secured cards. Other than that, stop wasting inquiries checking to see if you will get approved. You will not, and lots of attempts at new credit could get collections eyeing you if you owe any old debts.

[pacman829]

Thanks for the info David !


Any suggestions on what other Secured cards would be good to apply/get?

Are there any secured cards that refund the deposit in under a year (just curious, as there credit is more important to me at this point than the cash itself)


Do you know, roughly, how long it would be before seeing an improvement in my score if i, say for example, were to get 2 or 3 more secured cards with $1000 each ?

[david_weaver]

Also, a score bump of 100 points is possible, but requires both getting bad stuff off your report AND getting good stuff on. Cap One may forgive and let you back in, but they likely will not offer any GW on getting that huge charge-off removed.

 

Others will chime in, but I would be stunned if you went from 560 to 750 in a year.

 

Is there a collection showing in addition to the negative account?

 

What other accounts/positive or negative do you have showing?

 

Have you gotten paper copies of all your reports?

 

I went from the 560's to the 630's in under a year, but Cap One helped, as did removing most of the negatives, and having a lot of old accounts (few cards, student loans, cars) that had never been tainted by the negatives. I was not starting from scratch. In two years, I got to the 720's, so a 150 point jump. But like I said, your results might be different depending on your current credit circumstances and remaining negatives.

 

Also, income helps. Not sure what you make, but clearly if you make $100K, that allows you to run a lot more spending through the cards, allows you to ALWAYS make sure you pay in full way ahead of the due date, etc. Having money doe snot necessarily make you have good credit, but it affords you more opportunities to BUILD good credit.

 

Lastly, READ. Start with PsychDoc so you do not make rookie mistakes. Read up on your collection score, so you know what might be coming down the road and how to react. Check out the secured card thread. You want good ones that will graduate and grow.

 

Oh...slow down. If you are saving up to put a deposit down on a secured card, you are not quite ready to go all-in and start acquiring a lot of new credit. All that will do is get you right back to what happened with Cap One if a single bad thing happens. Get a few cards, use them, and pay in full. No carrying balances. No spending like you are loaning yourself money you do not have. How you start rebuilding is the foundation your future credit will be built on. Best to do it right, even if it takes 3-6 months longer than to crash and burn and be looking at 7 years again.

 

And welcome to the family!

Edited May 6, 2015 by david_weaver

[Bulldog21]

One 5 yr old charge off is the only baddie?

 

1 open tradeline with a possible 2nd secured?

Anything else in your credit profile? Installment loans?

Inquiries?

Closed, but positive accounts?

 

200 points in a year isn't likely. 50, 75, maybe 100 I could see.

 

I thought I heard that Cap 1 doesn't graduate and if that is the case I would look for a secured CU card that does.

You might try to settle as long as you are past the SOL to get the balance down to 0. In the interim that balance is going to kill your utilization ratio.

 

My advice would be to get 3 cards and a secured installment loan (to help with credit mix) as well as get the CO off or to report a $0 balance. FICO doesn't care about your limits, but lenders do. So 3 $300 cards will help you more from a FICO perspective than one $1000 card, but not necessarily help obtain high limit cards or cards with a min limit.

[Momof5]

It is unlikely to jump that high. I had a huge increase, but my AAOA is 7.5 years with oldest being 14 yrs+. I have a full credit mix and numerous cards. I still have 8 baddie TLs remaining, but most have a 30 day or so that is over 2 yrs old....with the worst TL being the mtg that is current (for last 18 months) but was 120 days and has 25 lates since inception.

 

It's tougher to jump as high with a thin file.

[AnnMichele]

You'd have to do some major clean up to get your scores up to 750 in a year from where you are now.

 

Here's a link to the The Master Secured Credit Cards Thread. You'll see a lot of information there that should be very helpful for you.

 

Credit repair requires patience (something I lack) because it takes time to work on the rebuilding process. I suggest you read as much as you can on this site about repairing and building credit. You'll come to find that out having high limits on a card isn't enough to build your file and raise your score. On-time payments, utilization, and the credit history is more important than your limits right now. You can increase your limits overtime but you need cards first.

Also, word of advice, don't focus on your score right now. Your score doesn't matter at all right now, instead it is what your reports look like. Clearly you have some things to work on so what you should be doing is reading, reading, reading. Clean up your reports as much as you can and work on getting some more positive TLs. You'll come to find out that as you're cleaning AND building/maintaining positive TLs your score will improve.

 

Personally, I just started repairing my credit in September with scores in the low 600s and one in the high 500s and now I'm the 700s with all three CRAs. That's all because I read a lot of info here and received help from a lot of the members. Anyway, just want to finish by saying that a lot can happen in a year. You may not hit 750 but if you do your rebuilding correctly you'll see a major difference in your files and your scores.

[ubercat]

720 maybe. It's going to be hard work, but you might just be able to crack 720. Cracking 750 is a tall order.

[AnnMichele]

720 maybe. It's going to be hard work, but you might just be able to crack 720. Cracking 750 is a tall order.

Yep! Even with my 3 positive TLs from almost 10 years ago I'm not hitting 750. Maybe my AAOA is holding me back...

[david_weaver]

I agree with AnnMichele

 

I am in a similar position with a couple old positive credit cards as well as many positive student loans/auto loans going back a decade.

 

My utilization is kept under 5% (all on 0% interest cards), and I have amassed nearly $100K in CLs.

 

And yet I can not seem to break past the 720's as the bulk of my credit is from the last 18 months and each report still has one old negative (a different one on each oddly enough) that will drop this year but which cannot really be hurting me after 6 years.

 

So they key for getting from 720's to 750's will be time.

 

That said, the 720's still got me the lowest offered rate on my recent auto, the lowest offered rate on my most recently approved credit card, and while I sometimes do not get the high limit I would like, that asinine Diners Club is the only thing I have been declined for in more than 18 months.

 

So do not worry about 750. Get to 700, and by then you will have learned all the little ways to add a few points here, a few points there, and you can have whatever you want.

[pacman829]

WOW , so much information to go through !

Thanks a lot !!!!


Any other info is always welcome !!!

I'm curious what the best way of getting rid of old charges would be ?

I'm practically a virgin in terms of credit history. No school loans, always use prepaid cell phones and now Metropcs (convenience), and no other loans or anything at all.

I don't have any negatives on my account other than that

()



How would i go about possibly getting Cap One to take the charge off if the statue of limitations has passed? Also does the statute of limitations refer to my state of residence or does it refer to Cap One's base of operations ? As well as : does the statute of limitations begin to countdown the day that the account was closed ? (If so, that means that the satute of limitations would be up next february )



Plan of attack : Seems like i'm going to try and get a couple $500 secured cards instead of the one large one i was trying to get. I'll work to keep them used under 25% and pay off the full amounts before the statement date.

Future possibility : Im' also trying to save up to buy a motorcycle ($4000 maybe .. roughly ) , I figure I'll save up the money cash and figure out a way to finance it through some cards... all just so i can pay it back ASAP (i;'d have the cash in hand)

[Bulldog21]

WOW , so much information to go through !

 

Thanks a lot !!!!

 

 

Any other info is always welcome !!!

 

I'm curious what the best way of getting rid of old charges would be ?

 

I'm practically a virgin in terms of credit history. No school loans, always use prepaid cell phones and now Metropcs (convenience), and no other loans or anything at all.

 

I don't have any negatives on my account other than that

 

()

 

 

 

How would i go about possibly getting Cap One to take the charge off if the statue of limitations has passed? Also does the statute of limitations refer to my state of residence or does it refer to Cap One's base of operations ? As well as : does the statute of limitations begin to countdown the day that the account was closed ? (If so, that means that the satute of limitations would be up next february )

 

 

 

Plan of attack : Seems like i'm going to try and get a couple $500 secured cards instead of the one large one i was trying to get. I'll work to keep them used under 25% and pay off the full amounts before the statement date.

 

Future possibility : Im' also trying to save up to buy a motorcycle ($4000 maybe .. roughly ) , I figure I'll save up the money cash and figure out a way to finance it through some cards... all just so i can pay it back ASAP (i;'d have the cash in hand)

 

 

 

 

SOL depends on your state. Some states have what is called a borrowing clause that lets you borrow a shorter SOL from another state. In this case, if a borrowing clause were in play, it would be the governing law included in the contract.

 

Cap One isn't going to remove the charge off. You can settle with them and have it report a $0 balance, but they aren't going to remove it unless you get very, very lucky.

 

The reporting period is 7 years from the Date of First Default, which is the first month the account became delinquent, but was never brought current.

The SOL is usually from the last date a payment was made, but this varies by state.

[Dalton23]

I went from 450 to 700 in a year, so it's definitely possible. Lot of factors that weigh into it though

[pacman829]

I went from 450 to 700 in a year, so it's definitely possible. Lot of factors that weigh into it though

What was your method ?

[Gypsee]

Hold out both your hands. Wish for a 750 in the right one. Now chocolate in the left. Which one fills up quicker?

[david_weaver]

As I and other noted, it is quite reasonable (if you can add some positives and remove some negatives) and you do not have fresh wounds (like maybe that Cap One) to get 100+ points in under a year. I think I have even read of several on here who have gone from basically a bare file to the 750's in a year, though it is tougher now that D* is dead, and doubly-tough if you are not eligible for NFCU.

 

Getting to the 750's at all with a fresh charge-off would take a lot, even if you had an otherwise thick and healthy file.

 

And sadly, while there have been the rarest of successes, Cap One is a bad one to burn as they seldom consider GW or any other measures to help you out. They are like a tattoo on your file.

 

All that negativity aside, if you can somehow find a way to get that Cap One resolved, and you take advantage of all there is to learn here on how to build an awesome file in a modest time, 750 is not impossible

[Dalton23]

The only negative you have is a charge off from 2010? No collections? What state are you from? How long ago were you approved for Credit One? Is your 560 score from myfico or is it fako?

 

First thing you should do is read as much as you can on here...especially the sticky pages. Everyones situation is different. When I first started I had several collections, over 50 student loan lates, civil judgements. From the info I was able to obtain from this site, I got them all removed. I made a ton of mistakes along the way though, Credit one being one of them. When first starting my rebuild I immediately wanted credit and app'd for several bad cards and disputed derogs recklessly (online). Rebuilding is a game of patience, to get good credit you first need to clean up you're reports and build up positive history. For me, my student loans helped my AAOA. I was able to get approved for two cap1 cards around your credit score, both $300 limits. Less then a year later, one of them is at $2,500 and the other is at $500 (due for a cli this month). Those cards definitely helped me out and my scores continued to climb each month. As those cards were reporting I got to work on my 2nd stage of disputes, this time using paper reports and sending them certified registered mail directly to the CRA. I had much better luck. So I let my positive tradelines grow all the while working on all of my negatives. In combination with establishing credit/payment history and removing all the negatives on my account...that's how I was able to improve my score so quickly. My situation was a lot different then yours.

 

What I would do if I were you...

 

1. Get paper copies of all 3 of your reports. Until you know exactly what's on them it's hard to offer any kind of advice (seems like there's more holding you're score down then just one 5 year old charge off)

 

2. For the charge off you may have to wait it out. They are extremely hard to get removed from what I've read. There's no harm in disputing them though, especially if it's near the end of your SOL. Here's a post from someone with a cap1 charge off;

"I paid CapOne off recently. Once my balance finally reported 0,my score went up 62 points! They would not settle for lower than 70% of the balance for me.They will not do PFD. They will take a monthly payment plan."

 

2. To establish good credit history, it's best to have at least 3 separate cards. You have Credit one, now you need two others. I'd recommend going the secured credit card route (something I wish I would have done). Check out your local credit unions and search the boards for recommended secured cards. Some secured cards will let you move them to unsecured after a year. Put as much as you can on these two cards.

 

3. Be patient

Edited May 8, 2015 by Seangar