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That’s great jflo. Remember to always pay on time and never go over your credit limit. Now it’s just a matter of using the card responsibly and having a little patience.
Keep us updated with your progress!
Hi Jflo60 and welcome to the forums.
A mix of different credit lines definitely helps your credit. Thanks for sharing and keep us updated!
Let us know when you get your new card.
Well, that’s great news. FAKO scores can sometimes be similar to your FICO scores, but other times can be off. I remember at some point mine were off by 50 points or so.
You might want to check with your bank, I have a Bank of America credit card and they give me a free monthly TransUnion FICO score.
And yes, ALWAYS pay on time and never go over your limit, that is the key to improving your scores. Having a good credit mix helps too (a credit card, a store card, a car loan, etc.). I’ve learned that credit usage, as long as you never exceed your limit, will affect your credit score only in the short-term. This means that you need to be careful with usage only when you are looking to apply for credit. Say, if I’ll be applying for a car loan, I’ll make sure my credit usage is under 10% at least a couple of months before I go to the dealer so that I come with the best score possible and get the best rates. Otherwise, if I’m not applying for anything, I just worry about not going over my limit and not spending more than I can afford.
I liked that you said that now you can sit back and relax. That’s the best attitude to have. I think people should worry about improving their credit so they can make it work to their advantage, not become addicted to it. There are plenty of online credit forums with people that are addicted to applying for credit cards.
You can now sit back, relax, and enjoy your new pots! 🙂
FICO scores are the ones used by lenders (like banks offering credit cards and loans) and insurance companies to determine what rates and insurance premiums to charge you. When you applied for the Capital One Platinum card, CapOne accessed your FICO score and made a decision based on that report and score to approve you for a credit card.
A FAKO score is a “Fake FICO” score. They are referred to as FAKO scores because they aren’t the real scores looked at by lenders to make a decision as to whether or not loan money to you. FAKO scores are offered by companies like Credit Karma using a different credit scoring system. This is not to say FAKO scores aren’t useful, as you can use them to have a general idea of how your credit looks, but they are not your real scores and might be significantly different from your FICO scores.
If you are applying for cards, buying/leasing a car or applying for loans, I wouldn’t trust FAKO scores. You should take a look at your FICO scores at least once in a while to get an accurate picture of your scores.
Wow, those pots are long-lasting for sure! LOL
It’s great that you were able to dispute and remove the bankruptcy from your credit files, because a bankruptcy filing remains on your credit report for up to 10 years. Paying on time, not maxing credit cards and being patient is really all it takes to improve your scores. Of course, it’s definitely easier said than done so kudos to you for that!
Why is your TransUnion score so much lower than your Experian score? Do you have more collections or late payments on your TU report? It’s more than a 100 points difference, which is a lot. Also, are these FICO or FAKO scores?
You might already know this, but a good place to get all FICO scores (the score used by most lenders) from all 3 bureaus is http://www.myfico.com. It’s not free, but they give you your real scores.
FAKO scores (scores not used by lenders) are available for free from sites like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame.
You are also entitled to get all your 3 credit reports for free every year from http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only official site to get your free annual reports. You’ll get only your reports (without scores), but you can purchase your scores for much cheaper from here once you get your free reports.
P.S. Those must be some nice pots! I’m sure they were worth it 🙂
Hi Becca and welcome to the forums!
First of all, congratulations on your all your hard work. It looks like it’s paying off. Would you mind sharing with us some of the things you’ve done to improve your credit. 754 is a pretty good score!
If I remember well, it only took about 2-3 days for me to get my Capital One card once I got the email saying it had been sent. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you got it before Saturday.
Hello pkeller,
Is this related to credit card debt?
I don’t know much about liens so I’m afraid I can’t help you. I can point you to a blog post that might be helpful and where you can post your question: http://consumerrecoverynetwork.com/question/settling-property-lien-debt/
Hope this helps and for future reference, please let us know what you were able to find out. It will help others in the same situation.
Hi Fairymoondust84,
Wow, that’s quite an update. Capital One gave you a $550 unsecured increase! That’s unheard of. When I had that card, I only got a $100 increase and I remember a lot of people complained they never got one.
How did you get those collections off your reports? If you have any tips, I would love to hear them.
I didn’t know PayPal credit does not report to the credit bureaus. Interesting. I have a PayPal Smart Connect, and it does report.
Are those fako credit scores? If they are, you should consider getting your real scores. I found that for me, Fico and fako were very different. You might be surprised, your Fico scores could be higher than that.
Hi smilick2002!
Sorry for the SUPER late reply. It sounds to me you’re on the right path. Paying old debt and establishing a good credit history is essential to having a good credit score. Getting those collections deleted is the definitely the way to go, otherwise they’ll be on your reports for 7 years and will make things harder in the long run.
Please let us know how you’re doing with your capital one card and credit builder loan.
Hey there Rebuilding69, I’m really sorry about the late reply.
I think you’re on the right track, the 5k unsecure Navy Fed card proves it. As far as your questions go:
From what I understand positive closed tradelines will stay on my report for 10 years after it’s closed?
Yes, that’s correct.
I think I made a mistake opening a $400 unsecured 2nd card with First Premier. Any thoughts on that would be great.
I think it’s safe to say that now that you have a 5K unsecured card with Navy Fed, you can opt for better cards. The great thing about having a card with a higher credit limit is that other banks are going to try to offer you a similar or higher limit.
As you said, “The First Premier/1st Progress cards served their purpose well”. I would probably wait until the newer cards are 6-12 months to close them, just to establish some history.
is it better to have a larger limit secured card or a lower limit unsecured card?
A larger limit unsecured card is ideal, but if you are rebuilding I believe it’s better to have a larger limit card, for the same reason I mentioned before, once your credit improves lenders will try to match that credit limit. At least that was the experience I had with my secured cards when I was rebuilding.
Second question…Are medical bills that you went to court about supposed to show up 2x on your report? Once in the public records section & the other in the Collections section?
I’m not sure about this one, but it doesn’t sound right. I believe it should be listed only once. You should think about disputing this with the credit bureau that’s reporting it.
At this point I’m not sure what to do next. Obviously I’m going to continue paying my medical bills off & finish this summer sometime.
Patience is a virtue. You are at a point where you just need to keep doing what you are doing and time will do the rest. Keep paying on time, close First Premier/Progress and get a better card. The car loan definitely sounds like a good idea, but once you get that, it’s about waiting some more again ’till you see results. Getting a store card helps too (Amazon, Ebay, Best Buy, etc.). Just don’t go crazy applying for a lot of stuff. A couple of unsecured cards with higher limits (you already have 1), a store card and a car loan. Then wait.
That should do the trick.
Those medical collections are going to hurt you, even when paid (but they’re better off paid than unpaid). I would start sending some “goodwill” letters once you pay those medical bills. Even better, why don’t you try to negotiate “pay for deletes” now that you’re still paying? Once you pay off the debt, it’ll be harder to get them removed.
Hope this helps!
I agree, closing a credit card might affect everybody in a different way. In general I try to keep only the cards that I need, no more than that. Thanks for keeping us updated Cmon, that’s great news.
Hey rajonleaz,
Sorry for the late reply. Did you negotiate to have this medical bill removed from your credit report as part of your settlement? If you did not negotiate, unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do at this point. You can try sending what they call a “goodwill” letter. A goodwill letter is a letter you send to creditors asking them to request a goodwill adjustment to your credit files.
You can read more about goodwill letters here: http://credit.about.com/od/creditrepair/qt/Using-Goodwill-Letters-In-Credit-Repair.htm
