shifter's Rebuilding Thread

[althes]

2 hours ago, shifter said:

I apped BofA out of the blue one night last week to test their BL. Got the 7-10 day message and called the UW but they were closed and I forgot about it. They called me today to process the application and said that EX and TU were on ice. I asked them to pull EQ, but they said they don't work with EQ anymore since the breach. Bummer, although I'm pretty sure I would be declined anyway due to the IIB. 

I am also about to test their BL.

But working on a med collection over the next 60 days first.

Mine is a chargeoff so it might be able little worse than your IIB.

[shifter]

1 hour ago, althes said:

I am happy about this.

No pull is great.

How long have you had the card.

just gathering some data.

Last fall, I think. It's in this thread a couple of pages back as well as the last CLI I got back in December.

[shifter]

1 hour ago, althes said:

I am also about to test their BL.

But working on a med collection over the next 60 days first.

Mine is a chargeoff so it might be able little worse than your IIB.

I suppose it can't hurt to unfreeze EX or TU and let them pull. The inq is less than meaningless to me since I never use those anyway. But my goal was to see if it was possible to slide under the BL radar a la Citi if the BK is gone and the report is clean.

[shifter]

On 7/22/2019 at 2:57 PM, shifter said:

CLI request on NFCU on Friday from 35k->50k

 

Just logged in today and see it was approved to 50k. Don't even think they pulled a hard this time. 

Looks like they did pull a hard, I didn't get the alert for some reason.

[shifter]

4 hours ago, shifter said:

I apped BofA out of the blue one night last week to test their BL. Got the 7-10 day message and called the UW but they were closed and I forgot about it. They called me today to process the application and said that EX and TU were on ice. I asked them to pull EQ, but they said they don't work with EQ anymore since the breach. Bummer, although I'm pretty sure I would be declined anyway due to the IIB. 

Went ahead and had them pull EX. Got the standard IIB BL message decline. Requested manual recon and she put me on hold and did something for a few minutes (probably went for a smoke break) and came back and gave me the same answer.

[Credit Tech]

Shifter, great progress with NFCU!

 

I'm stuck at $2500 with Disco for me and DW. Its been 2 months since unsecuring but we always get Insufficient Experience at limit. We do have high Utilization. Any advice? Is it just a waiting game?

 

As to NFCU we are 1 yr. post discharge, have not applied for any credit from them, but have had a checking account open with them for 3 years. 

 

Should we apply or wait the 2 yrs til they remove the cap?

[shifter]

2 months since unsecuring is too short. Need to wait at least 6 months. I think I only got $500 at 6 months, but got a decent CLI at 1 year.

 

Best option for NFCU is work on getting the BK removed from EQ. That's the real secret to all my success. 

[Credit Tech]

On 8/4/2019 at 6:52 PM, shifter said:

2 months since unsecuring is too short. Need to wait at least 6 months. I think I only got $500 at 6 months, but got a decent CLI at 1 year.

 

Best option for NFCU is work on getting the BK removed from EQ. That's the real secret to all my success. 

Thanks Shifter. I called Navy today with some questions, as several cards have good intro offers. Rep told me they pull TU mostly, with EQ as backup. She said if I freeze TU, it is auto decline instead of resorting to EQ. So how do I best control them to pull EQ?

 

Also, if we don't wait and remove the BK, we are over 1 yr discharged now. Would we be able to start at the 1,000 cap, and then get a sizable CLI once we get past their 2 year seasoning do you think? I guess I'm wondering if once they've seen a BK if they treat you in that bucket for years to come, or once you are 2 years out, its like you never had it?

[shifter]

No idea. But never trust what a CSR says. Freezing TU worked fine for me. 

[shifter]

was poking through my CCT scores tonight.

 

661 EX 08

695 EX v2 (04)

 

I guess 04 likes me for some reason. if I optimized util, I probably could get over 700. I'd love to refinance and take advantage of these ridiculous rates, but unfortunately conventional needs 4 years post discharge and I'm only at 2. well, maybe the rates will stay this low for another 2 years ...

[shifter]

Requested Disco CLI at the 2 year mark. Got a decline letter stating "low usage on existing line of credit in previous month(s)". We know they look at that sort of thing, but I can't say I've ever seen a decline reason that actually spells that out.

 

The card is a turd now that the first year cashback match is over, so I will just sock drawer it until the cashback match ends on my new card and then combine them.

 

Interestingly since they will pull EQ for new cards, but use TU for ARs I have had much better luck getting a new card than CLIs. I may need to just rinse and repeat with new cards + combine to raise my limit to a reasonable amount.

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

1 hour ago, shifter said:

Requested Disco CLI at the 2 year mark. Got a decline letter stating "low usage on existing line of credit in previous month(s)". We know they look at that sort of thing, but I can't say I've ever seen a decline reason that actually spells that out.

 

The card is a turd now that the first year cashback match is over, so I will just sock drawer it until the cashback match ends on my new card and then combine them.

 

Interestingly since they will pull EQ for new cards, but use TU for ARs I have had much better luck getting a new card than CLIs. I may need to just rinse and repeat with new cards + combine to raise my limit to a reasonable amount.

I have had my Discover for nearly 2 years. It started out as secured and unsecured after 10 months. I have been requesting a CLI every months since it unsecured, but I too keep getting the insufficient experience at current limit BS. In this time, I looked back at my spending and it has totaled nearly $29k since I opened the card. It's now been 1 year since it unsecured. What more proof do they need that I am "experienced" at my current credit limit?

[shifter]

Yeah that message is a bit different. I've been getting that one on this card for a while and now am getting it on my other card as well. I think they have a poor credit track where they won't issue CLIs but a blue moon. 

 

But the message about lack of use is a new one for me and makes me think maybe I've finally hit their time threshold for another CLI, but they still won't give it to me. 

[shifter]

a general update on my journey.

 

my wife's BK was discharged a few weeks ago and the case closed as of yesterday. we filed separately almost 3 years apart because of concerns over equity in our house in order to take advantage of various laws and look back time periods. my attorney has been extremely helpful in working through this whole process over the past 3.5 years and it's really satisfying to be very close to the end.

 

I've been in the initial stages of starting the process to clean up her credit for the past few weeks. the good news is that I used my business mailing address on her filing in combination with freezing LN/ARS/etc which resulted in the BK never showing up on EX or EQ.

 

TU on the other hand got the BK right away and has already verified my dispute and responded to my MOV with a typical form letter even though the address on the BK was never on her file and with LN frozen they couldn't have verified from there. they did the same thing to her that they did to me.

 

the days of getting BKs removed from TU by simply breathing on them are over. based on my conversation with a VP when I was dealing with them on my BK, they manually research using PACER when LN is frozen. once they do that, it seems they lock in your BK forever and it will never be removed. my theory is that it would be better to keep LN open and work to get the BK removed from LN and then dispute so they can "verify" it doesn't exist.

[RehabbingANDBlabbing]

Thanks for the update, Shifter! I am helping a relative go through the process of filing chapter 7 right now, so this info is helpful.

[StantheMan]

9 hours ago, shifter said:

a general update on my journey.

 

my wife's BK was discharged a few weeks ago and the case closed as of yesterday. we filed separately almost 3 years apart because of concerns over equity in our house in order to take advantage of various laws and look back time periods. my attorney has been extremely helpful in working through this whole process over the past 3.5 years and it's really satisfying to be very close to the end.

 

I've been in the initial stages of starting the process to clean up her credit for the past few weeks. the good news is that I used my business mailing address on her filing in combination with freezing LN/ARS/etc which resulted in the BK never showing up on EX or EQ.

 

TU on the other hand got the BK right away and has already verified my dispute and responded to my MOV with a typical form letter even though the address on the BK was never on her file and with LN frozen they couldn't have verified from there. they did the same thing to her that they did to me.

 

the days of getting BKs removed from TU by simply breathing on them are over. based on my conversation with a VP when I was dealing with them on my BK, they manually research using PACER when LN is frozen. once they do that, it seems they lock in your BK forever and it will never be removed. my theory is that it would be better to keep LN open and work to get the BK removed from LN and then dispute so they can "verify" it doesn't exist.

Probably grasping at straws but my Pacer shows my address as the major metro city  I live by however I actually live 10 miles away in a suburb.. My Transunion show the correct city. Is there a snowballs chance the BK could be deleted because the cities don't match?

[shifter]

Maybe if they actually checked anything! But you know they assume everything is valid unless you ITS them. 

[StantheMan]

18 minutes ago, shifter said:

Maybe if they actually checked anything! But you know they assume everything is valid unless you ITS them. 

Thx, but my issue is everything appears correct on my TU. I have to get creative and if verified by Pacer I'll state very strongly I never lived in the city listed on Pacer and go from there..

[shifter]

well, so I've been having issues with EQ processing my wife's dispute, but I got kind of lucky. the dispute with EX is being processed and as part of that, the creditors are updating all bureaus. so many of the EQ accounts have gotten updated like I wanted without them even having processed the dispute!

 

I'm going to wait until EX finishes that dispute and then get another copy of the EQ report and then send a new dispute with the remaining issues.

 

her EQ FICO8 has already gone up from 580 -> 639. should be completely clean soon and 760+.

 

TU FICO8 has gone from 520 -> 600. (TU is the only bureau showing the BK)

[shifter]

happy dance time!

 

EQ dispute for my wife came back today.

 

[greenpotatochips]

Thanks for the updates like others have said. That is a HUGE score bump that you got for your wife. Well done. 

[shifter]

well, happy dance was short lived.

 

decided to take the new score out for a spin and didn't go quite as planned.

 

started with NFCU, which did approve but only for $3k and 11.15% APR, so clearly not a prime approval. not sure if that's because she doesn't have any open accounts right now even though she has a great AAoA.

 

then got declined by Disco and Citi.

 

will have to wait for the decline letters to find out why. Disco wasn't IIB, but the card was open when she filed, so I believe they got notice and closed it. so that would mean they would have the BK on her records and probably declined her for that. she should have closed it before filing and that would have probably prevented them from finding out.

 

Citi was IIB, so not surprising, but decided to give it a whirl since somehow they love me.

 

will just have to let the NFCU card age a bit and try to work it up with a CLI in 3 months.

[althes]

Hey at least you got the NFCU approval.

Try out Langley CU also HSBC Platinum or Cash rewards.

EQ pullers.

 

[shifter]

Got the Citi decision letter via email. It only said too many inquiries. Obviously that can mean so many things. However, she did have 2 from the same day. I wonder if that spooked them or if it's a red herring and she was really declined for being on the BL. I guess it's worth another try in the future. 

[althes]

Spooked them.

Citi is being a real ahole as of late.