Hello to you all, I've been reading the board for couple of weeks now and finally decide to post it. You guys are cool! Anyway, I have a pretty new credit ( about 3 years ) and already have messed it up big time On my reports ( not all of them ), I have: ANBCC - $500 - balance 0 Discover - $1000 - balance 0 Bank of America Installment Loan - $7500 ANBCC - 3 - 30 days 2 - 60 days 1 - 90 days 1- 120 days Account closed and I paid it off last month. DISCOVER - 2 - 30 days 1 - 60 days Account closed and I paid it off at once 6/2001 ( $1000 ) Bank of America - never late - Joint account with my wife. Opened 5/2001. Just paid it off ( $6200 ) and will open one at Citibank tomorrow for $5500. I moved to a different state ( got a new job ), no BOA here so I moved everything toCITI - I love BOA - premium customer with them ... gotta love it, still have a business accounts with them ) My scores are as follows: TU - 579 EQ - 597 EX - 607 I sent dispute letters to all 3 CB and are waiting response. BTW, my EX report lists DISCOVER as never late ( probably thats why the score is higher ... duuh ) Could you help me and tell me what should I do next ? Any ideas ? All the deliquencies are because I was young and stupid, international student, I got CC and had no income, so It got the the point I messed it all up. Now, everything had changed, I had my own business in a different state ( operate it from out of state ) and good carrier but have no idea on how to move to the higher level. I use my debit card like AIR I got a new Sprint PCS phone and when I applied the guy said my credit history came back perfect and I can get up to 5 phones ( ??? ). I thought that might help. My wife's credit is close to 700 and we are thinking about buying a condo in 3-6 months. Anyway, maybe you guys have some ideas and can help me evaluate my credit. Thank you very very much Damian
I just called TU to verify my address and asked them on the status of the investigation. She said that ANBCC came back verified and will stay unchanged ( They are still waiting for a response from Discover. Guys are you going to give me a hand ?
Your credit is not too bad and get the secured card from FCNB for rebuilding credit. You get to restablish payment history that show creditor you able to pay. Ron.
Thanks for the reply and the advice. Altough, isn't it better If I apply with my wife for an example Citi card ( we got everything there - J accounts ) as a joint account. She's the primary holder of all bank accounts in there so they will mostly look at her history wont they ? Or better, what about if she added me to one of her credit cards as an authorized user ? Is that going to help ? Thanks
Authorized User is not going to help and you're not responsible to pay the bills. If you're going to buy the house, both of your credit counts. If you have not so perfect history and you're going to get higher rate. Ron.
damianlr, They may denied you as Joint applicant because you got late payment. My advice is getting secured card and re-establish payment history. This way earn their trust in order to get a credit card and a loan. Ron.
Thanks, I'll go ahead and do that. Do any of you know If Citibank has a secured credit card? Ron, if I'm lucky and get all those late payments cleaned up, will I still have a problem getting a good CC ?
Got some new info If anybody interested after first investigations: TU: 579 ANBCC - VERIFIED - remain the same 2 - 30 days 1 - 60 days 2 - 90 days 1- 120 days Account closed and I paid off last month. DISCOVER - don't know yet 2 - 30 days 1 - 60 days Account closed and I paid it off at once 6/2001 ( $1000 ) Bank of America - never late - Joint account with my wife. Opened 5/2001 - paid off 01/2002 EQ: 619 !!! up some points !! ANBCC - 30 days - 2 - NOW - 0 60 days - 1 - NOW - 1 90 days - 3 - NOW - 3 Account closed and I paid off last month. DISCOVER - ACCOUNT DELETED (!!?) 30 days - 2 60 days - 1 Account closed and I paid it off at once 6/2001 EX: 607 She said they couldnt verify late payments so they deleted the account ! : LOL
My scores were between 30-100 points lower than yours when I got my Cap1 card. I had numerous 90 days, 2 collection accounts, and 3 4 year old charge offs when I applied. Got approved--unsecured even. (Fortunately my report looks a lot better now lol). I've had really good luck with Cap One, but you'll have to jump through a few hoops to get the credit line reported. Every six months, provided you pay on time, you can get a cl increase--and Mr. Cooke in the Office of the Consumer Advocate can be very helpful once you've been with them a little while. You have a few bad late pays on their, but I don't see any truly serious bad credit--charge offs, collections, etc. Keep disputing, request verification of dispute procedures from the CRA's, and just wait to catch them with their pants down. Otherwise, start building some new credit lines. How many open credit lines do you have now? I couldn't really tell--just the one installment loan? If that's it, I'd think you should try to get at least one or so revolving accounts so you can build some good payment history there. Just remember to keep your balances below 35%. -- cnswift TU 601 - EXP: 624 - EFX: 619
I have to disagree with Ron. Being added as an AU does help your score. I kept disputing derogs, while being added to wife's older cards and took bump up when they started reporting. If you can spare the inquiries, you could try the joint route. If they deny, call and ask for reconsideration. If thats a no-go, you could ask them to scrap the joint and make it a solo card for your wife. Then get added as an AU later. If the wife has any older CC, they would (if they report AU's) show up on your report with her open date.
damianlr, Experian and Equifax scores are not too bad but TU score is kind of low. If you get Discover off the report, you may have a chance to get credit card. They may give you the chance for approving credit card or loan because the late account paid as agreed. Do you have any credit card currently? Ron.
Well, NO. I don't have any I just called Bank of America and after telling Advantage Customer Service lady that my scores are about 600 she said it would be not a problem, so I went ahead and applied for Joint Classic credit card with my wife. They said to wait up to 2 days for the answer. I've had good history with them, 2 checking accounts, MM, CD's, loan, platinum check card etc. so I hope we are gonna get it. I checked today my wifes scores and they are: TU-721 EQ-686 - no employer in file, etc. EX- couldn't not do it online probably about the same I hope we will. If we don't, I'll get a secured card from them. No annual, etc and Gold ! And it will work as good as the regular one wont it ? Well, my wife said it would be a good idea to add me as an authtorized user but Ron said it wouldn't help. So, what's the real deal with AU ?
Well, it's a little more complicated. AU will help your credit score, but it won't necessarily help you if that's all you have. If all you've got is AU's on other peoples cards, I think Mortgage companies would eye that with suspicion, regardless of your credit score. Of course, if it's your wifes account, it may not matter since I assume y'all will apply for the mortgage jointly. Anyway, all that an AU does is show a potential creditor that your wife trusts you with a credit card--you need some credit lines showing that a bank somewhere will trust you with a credit card. I would bet a donkey that Capital One will approve you unsecured, by the way. -- cnswift
For what it's worth...AU on any card is better than NO cards... YOU COULD HAVE $500,000 IN THE BANK, AND NO CREDIT CARDS, AND NOT BE APPROVED FOR A MORTGAGE OF $150,000!!!
Yes, try Cap 1. I also had success obtaining an unsecured card there and my scores uuere less than yours at the time.
damianlr, Here is the definition of authorized user:- Authorized Users Sometimes a credit card holder will want to give another person (often a spouse, partner, or child) access to the account. Some credit applications even have a space for requesting an additional card with the other person's name on it, or the card holder can call or write and request one. A business may have a corporate credit card account, and may give some employees authorized user status, including individual cards, to be used for business expenses. There may be wording in the employees' contracts specifying liability to the company for excessive or improper charges. While a co-applicant is equally responsible for paying all charges on the account, regardless of who made them, an authorized user is not legally or contractually responsible for any charges, including those that s/he made. The primary cardholder (the one who actually applied for the card) is considered to be fully liable for all charges on the account, including those made by any authorized users. Verbal agreements or instructions between the primary cardholder and the authorized user do not change this. There can be a big difference between a moral/personal obligation and a legal/contractual one. The account may appear on an authorized user's credit bureau reports, with a notation of their status. This may help in establishing or rehabilitating their credit rating, although not as much as an account that they are officially responsible for. Here is the link that will answer your question: http://www.qualitycreditrepair.com/bbs/messages/2406.html Ron.
Thanks Ron, very informative. So, I guess, we weill just wait if we are approved for the BofA Classic card and If we are we will also add me to one of her accounts ( well doesnt matter which one, 'couse all of them are in good standing with no balances ). See, I pay the bills and they won't even give me a "credit" for it .. LOL Thank you guys for everything. I'll let you know on the status of BofA. BTW, what kind of aproach should I take with this ANBCC ( Associates National Bank ). After first dispute It came back verified after like 3 days !! I just paid that off last month, so should I wait 2 or 3 months after they stop reporting or just keep disputing ... also they change from 3-30, 2-60, 3-90 to like 0-30, 1-60, 4-90, etc. ( different on different ocredit reports ) I know I was never late that LONG. Seems like they know I was late but don't know how long ..lol What should I do?
