Just pulled today's credit reports.
3 AFNI accounts - Completely gone
Gulf Coast Collections - Completely gone
Financial Credit Services - Completely gone
United Compucredit - Completely gone
BCA Collections - Completely gone
7 collection accounts have completely disappeared from my credit report!!! I am so happy! And I was unable to go get the mail yesterday, plus I am late in getting it today, so who knows what goodies await me there! This is so much fun to do this...i know...weird, right?
Now I have to look at the reports and see who to tackle next. I am a little perplexed as to why I have not received much of a response from my husband's reports and collections. I am sure we will eventually, though.
Showing posts with label credit report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit report. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Finally!
I got our scores!!! They are not great, but not bad either. And they are up from 2 years ago which is really nice because I basically did nothing over the last two years. So here they are:
Starting Score: Hers: 3/08 TU-525 EX-504 EQ-524, His: 3/08 TU-571 EX-533 EQ-527
Current Score: Hers: 1/10 TU-579 EX-572 EQ-549, His: 1/10 TU-576 EX-565 EQ-563
And now we have our bank accounts with USAA which gives me a ton of piece of mind. I want to develop a relationship with that bank because we later want to try and get our mortgage with them, as well as our life insurance and property and car insurance.
I did apply for a few credit cards that were unsecured, and got denied for them all. :( It was stupid for me to apply, but I figured I would give it a shot with the scores and see what might happen. I also put in our application for secured cards with New Millennium. I have paid the fees, and now I am just waiting to get the cards and info on how to fund our accounts. I got two cards (Visa and MC) under my name, and added my husband as an Authorized User. I will do the same with him under his name, me being the Authorized user, once I can see that they report the two cards separately. It is very important that they report separately, and if they do not then I will likely close down the master card and keep the Visa, and move my security money to a different bank.
I also sent out the last of the letters this morning. We have everything organized and ready for the next round of letters. Let me tell you, organization is the key to all of this!!! We went to Staples and bought a little plastic file box, some file folders and file hangers, a big box of security envelopes, a ream of paper, ink for the printer, and a multi use stamp for stamping all dates on our copies. Its a bit of an expense, but those things are so important to keep everything in line. Whether you have two baddie trade lines or 200, you have to be organized to get this task accomplished. I have all of the trade lines I want taken care of entered into a data sheet on excel. I have a file folder for each account so I can keep copies of all correspondence. I am keeping a copy of every letter I write stapled to the return receipt in those files in case I need to dispute anything. And I have estimated how much it is going to cost to pay for deletion on all of my trade lines I want gone and set that aside in my accounts. That way I can ensure the day the company says "yes, we will delete your bad entry" I can rush out and send them the certified funds for that account.
Well, sadly we are now in the wait-and-see timeframe. I hate this part. I want things to happen so fast. Its frustrating to not have it happen quicker. All of my letters are sent out and I have absolutely no idea who is going to respond and who is going to ignore. I don't even know if anyone is going to accept my PFD offer. I sure hope they do, but who knows. Its so much to work on, and I just want to be successful with it. And not get sued in the process. :( Not that I am scared of being sued, but it is going to cost me more time and money which is no fun.
Starting Score: Hers: 3/08 TU-525 EX-504 EQ-524, His: 3/08 TU-571 EX-533 EQ-527
Current Score: Hers: 1/10 TU-579 EX-572 EQ-549, His: 1/10 TU-576 EX-565 EQ-563
And now we have our bank accounts with USAA which gives me a ton of piece of mind. I want to develop a relationship with that bank because we later want to try and get our mortgage with them, as well as our life insurance and property and car insurance.
I did apply for a few credit cards that were unsecured, and got denied for them all. :( It was stupid for me to apply, but I figured I would give it a shot with the scores and see what might happen. I also put in our application for secured cards with New Millennium. I have paid the fees, and now I am just waiting to get the cards and info on how to fund our accounts. I got two cards (Visa and MC) under my name, and added my husband as an Authorized User. I will do the same with him under his name, me being the Authorized user, once I can see that they report the two cards separately. It is very important that they report separately, and if they do not then I will likely close down the master card and keep the Visa, and move my security money to a different bank.
I also sent out the last of the letters this morning. We have everything organized and ready for the next round of letters. Let me tell you, organization is the key to all of this!!! We went to Staples and bought a little plastic file box, some file folders and file hangers, a big box of security envelopes, a ream of paper, ink for the printer, and a multi use stamp for stamping all dates on our copies. Its a bit of an expense, but those things are so important to keep everything in line. Whether you have two baddie trade lines or 200, you have to be organized to get this task accomplished. I have all of the trade lines I want taken care of entered into a data sheet on excel. I have a file folder for each account so I can keep copies of all correspondence. I am keeping a copy of every letter I write stapled to the return receipt in those files in case I need to dispute anything. And I have estimated how much it is going to cost to pay for deletion on all of my trade lines I want gone and set that aside in my accounts. That way I can ensure the day the company says "yes, we will delete your bad entry" I can rush out and send them the certified funds for that account.
Well, sadly we are now in the wait-and-see timeframe. I hate this part. I want things to happen so fast. Its frustrating to not have it happen quicker. All of my letters are sent out and I have absolutely no idea who is going to respond and who is going to ignore. I don't even know if anyone is going to accept my PFD offer. I sure hope they do, but who knows. Its so much to work on, and I just want to be successful with it. And not get sued in the process. :( Not that I am scared of being sued, but it is going to cost me more time and money which is no fun.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Can you really get a free credit report online?
You cannot get the score, but every credit reporting agency (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) is supposed to make available one free credit report a year for you. Lots of websites claim they are giving you a free credit report, but they require you to offer up a credit card or debit card to get you to buy subsequent reports, as well as sign you up for some monitoring service you can later opt out of just to view the free report.
Now while these monitoring services are worth it, you really have to weigh what your option are, and what you are looking for at the moment.
www.AnnualCreditReport.com - This is one of the places you can get a truly free credit report from all three credit reporting agencies. You will not get your FICO score, but you can get the report and begin the dispute process from there if you see anything that is wrong with the information.
If you would like to call the credit agencies instead, here are their contacts:
Now while these monitoring services are worth it, you really have to weigh what your option are, and what you are looking for at the moment.
www.AnnualCreditReport.com - This is one of the places you can get a truly free credit report from all three credit reporting agencies. You will not get your FICO score, but you can get the report and begin the dispute process from there if you see anything that is wrong with the information.
If you would like to call the credit agencies instead, here are their contacts:
EQ Website to download report, score, and do online disputes **EASY!!** Click Here
EQ Business Line (also has option for Personal): 888-202-4025
EQ Business Line (also has option for Personal): 888-202-4025
EQ office in GA: 800-685-1111
EQ Dispute Fax #: 888-826-0573, 888-826-0549, 888-729-0083
EQ Dispute Fax #: 888-826-0573, 888-826-0549, 888-729-0083
EQ Business: 802-304-0364
EQ: 800-797-6801
CSC, EQ's Credit Reporting Outsource:
866-264-4878
281-878-1900
281-878-4848
800-305-7868
CSC Fax: 281 878 4999
EX office in TX: 888-397-3742
EX Business: 888-211-0728
EX: 800-493-1058 or 888-397-3742 (automated answer, but keep pressing "0" every time the recorded voice starts, and eventually you should get a live person)
EX Dispute Fax: 972-390-3838
TU office in PA: 800-888-4213
TU: 888-259-6845 (6am-12 pacific time)
TU: 800-916-8800 (consumer relations)
TU: 888-259-6845 (6am-12 pacific time)
TU: 800-916-8800 (consumer relations)
TU Dispute Fax: 610-546-4606, 610-546-4771
Innovis:
Automated Info/Dispute: 800-457-0247
Corporate Office: 614-223-0647
Monday, January 11, 2010
What makes up the FICO score
Something very important I have learned over the last few weeks of reading and researching is how exactly your FICO score is calculated. Knowing this can help you to work on the most important parts of your credit to get the fastest results, and later what you need to do to tweak things and get an even higher score when all things are positive.
Here is what makes up the FICO score, and how many points it adds.
Lets break this down:
Payment History counts as 35% of your score. Any 30, 60, 90 day lates or charge offs will erode that 35% very quickly. You want to make sure that payment history is clean and clear. The longer time goes since a bad payment history makes it effect your score less, but it still effects it heavily. If you have 30, 60, and 90 day late payments on an account you will want to send a "goodwill letter" asking the company to remove these late payments out of the kindness of their hearts. It does not always work, but its worth a try. Any charge offs you have you want to settle so that the account shows "paid in full" or "paid and closed". When settling this charge off debt you want to contract with the company so they either remove the whole trade line or at least make sure the account shows correctly and the history is clean.
Amount Owed counts as 30% of your score. This does not mean that if you have a million dollars in debt you will have a bad score. It is all relative of how much your credit limits are. For installment accounts and revolving accounts the closest your totals owed are to 10% of your available credit the better. In fact if you can get your totals between 0-10% you will score the highest in this category.
Length of credit history counts as 15% of your score. This means the average age of your accounts. So if you have one credit card for 20 years, and 2 new ones less than a year, they are going to take the average, or 6.6 years, as your average account age. The longer the better. So do not be surprised if you open a new credit card, or buy a new car, and find your score drops.
New credit and inquiries count as 10% of your score. Having tons of inquiries with no new credit will effect you negatively. The good news is that if you try to get a loan for a car or home, and your credit is shopped around a lot, as long as its within a short period of time all of those inquiries will only count as one inquiry. But if you apply for a bunch of store or credit cards trying to get credit you could be lowering your score by a lot. Your best bet is to get a copy of your latest credit report and FICO scores before applying for any credit and take that into where you will be applying. Most places can give you a "soft approval" based on that without pulling your credit, allowing you to have an answer before officially pulling your credit.
Types of credit counts for 10% of your score. The FICO system wants to see variety. They want to see you can handle responsibility over a wide variety of accounts. To maximize this you should have a revolving account (credit card with a limit), an installment loan (initial balance paid off a little each month), a mortgage note, and a car note.
Maximizing every aspect of these sections will help to give you a score in the high 700's or more.
Here is what makes up the FICO score, and how many points it adds.
You start at 350 points
35% (or 175 points) is 'payment history'
30% (or 150 points) is 'amounts owed'
15% (or 75 points) is 'length of credit history'
10% (or 50 points) is 'new credit'
10% (or 50 points) is 'types of credit'
Total - 100% or 500 points
Payment History counts as 35% of your score. Any 30, 60, 90 day lates or charge offs will erode that 35% very quickly. You want to make sure that payment history is clean and clear. The longer time goes since a bad payment history makes it effect your score less, but it still effects it heavily. If you have 30, 60, and 90 day late payments on an account you will want to send a "goodwill letter" asking the company to remove these late payments out of the kindness of their hearts. It does not always work, but its worth a try. Any charge offs you have you want to settle so that the account shows "paid in full" or "paid and closed". When settling this charge off debt you want to contract with the company so they either remove the whole trade line or at least make sure the account shows correctly and the history is clean.
Amount Owed counts as 30% of your score. This does not mean that if you have a million dollars in debt you will have a bad score. It is all relative of how much your credit limits are. For installment accounts and revolving accounts the closest your totals owed are to 10% of your available credit the better. In fact if you can get your totals between 0-10% you will score the highest in this category.
Length of credit history counts as 15% of your score. This means the average age of your accounts. So if you have one credit card for 20 years, and 2 new ones less than a year, they are going to take the average, or 6.6 years, as your average account age. The longer the better. So do not be surprised if you open a new credit card, or buy a new car, and find your score drops.
New credit and inquiries count as 10% of your score. Having tons of inquiries with no new credit will effect you negatively. The good news is that if you try to get a loan for a car or home, and your credit is shopped around a lot, as long as its within a short period of time all of those inquiries will only count as one inquiry. But if you apply for a bunch of store or credit cards trying to get credit you could be lowering your score by a lot. Your best bet is to get a copy of your latest credit report and FICO scores before applying for any credit and take that into where you will be applying. Most places can give you a "soft approval" based on that without pulling your credit, allowing you to have an answer before officially pulling your credit.
Types of credit counts for 10% of your score. The FICO system wants to see variety. They want to see you can handle responsibility over a wide variety of accounts. To maximize this you should have a revolving account (credit card with a limit), an installment loan (initial balance paid off a little each month), a mortgage note, and a car note.
Maximizing every aspect of these sections will help to give you a score in the high 700's or more.
SNAPSHOT: The Beginning
So lets begin by posting the bad stuff we have on our credit. This list is a combination of both our reports. Some are on both, but for the most part half is his and half is hers. For privacy reasons I will not disclose which is which, along with the account numbers associated with these companies. I will be posting snapshots each month to show where our scores are, as well as what baddies we have and what good trade lines we have developed or kept.
BADDIES:
| Company Owed | Expected Removal | $$$ Owed | |
| 1 | United Compucredit | 4/1/2012 | $67.00 |
| 2 | Absolute Collect Svc | 8/1/2013 | $75.00 |
| 3 | MAF Collection Services | 1/1/2014 | $100.00 |
| 4 | Gulf Coast Collection | 4/1/2014 | $100.00 |
| 5 | AFNI | 4/1/2012 | $158.00 |
| 6 | Enhanced Recovery Corp | 5/1/2014 | $171.00 |
| 7 | AFNI | 12/1/2012 | $199.00 |
| 8 | Certified Recovery System | 5/1/2011 | $305.00 |
| 9 | BCA Financial Services | 9/1/2015 | $397.00 |
| 10 | CCS/First National Bank | 5/1/2011 | $455.00 |
| 11 | AFNI | 6/1/2010 | $781.00 |
| 12 | Creative Recovery Concepts | 7/1/2010 | $9,538.00 |
| 13 | Midland Credit Management | 10/1/2010 | $750.00 |
| 14 | AFNI | 6/1/2011 | $773.00 |
| 15 | IQ Data International | 6/1/2011 | $15,943.00 |
| 16 | Santander Consumer USA | 3/1/2015 | $5,851.00 |
| 17 | Consumer Portfolio Services | 5/1/2015 | $11,609.00 |
| 18 | Verizon | 7/1/2015 | $2,023.00 |
| 19 | Verizon | 1/1/2015 | $1,011.00 |
| 20 | Financial Credit Services | 11/1/2014 | $503.00 |
| 21 | American Profit Recovery | 10/1/2014 | $810.00 |
| 22 | Continental Finance | 1/1/2014 | $556.00 |
| 23 | MG Credit | 11/1/2013 | $1,055.00 |
| 24 | First Premier Bank | 5/1/2012 | $507.00 |
| 25 | Arrow Financial Service | 5/1/2012 | $701.00 |
| 26 | Credit Management | 4/1/2012 | $972.00 |
SCORES:
These scores are as of 2 years ago. I have been able to pull our most recent credit reports, but not our current FICO scores. I will be updating these soon in a new snapshot.
Hers: TransUnion-525 Experian-504 Equifax-524
His: TransUnion-571 Experian-533 Equifax-527
GOOD TRADE LINES:
Several Student Loans - paid and closed
Old Kent Home Loan - paid and closed
GOALS FOR NEXT MONTH:
We want to have deals worked out with accounts 1-10 to have them deleted if paid in full. We have the money ready to do this and want to see these gone asap. It will be half of the accounts on our credit and will remove a lot of negative items.
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