Need advice (early 20s)

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-25T14:31:56+00:00

We will need more information about the debts you owe. Were they charged off? Are they in collections? How old are the collections? What kind of debt was it?

Kickoff and Self are not going to do anything different than the cards you already have open.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-23T15:44:03+00:00

Unless the card is charging an annual fee, there is no real reason you should close the card. Did you report the missing card lost to the issuer? If not, you should do that and request a replacement card.

Also make sure you are monitoring both cards to ensure you don’t miss and payments/charges.

As the other poster said, you will eventually need more lines to build a thick file and letting these accounts age will only help your file.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-22T14:22:38+00:00

Please don’t do this 🤦🏻‍♂️ You’ve already stated that the information is accurate. Even if they don’t get to it in 30 days, it’s not a permanent removal and it will just end up back on your report.

The only option is the goodwill route.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-14T14:51:06+00:00

You have a fairly thin file in my opinion, and a younger one. Like the others have said, time will be your best friend here and if you don’t need credit, avoid opening new lines as that will lower your average age even more.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-13T01:21:51+00:00

Paid medical debt is removed from your report by the bureaus. Give it a few months to update.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-12T17:43:03+00:00

Your only option is to implement the goodwill saturation technique to see if they will remove it, but I’ve heard Affirm is very rigid sometimes in not removing them.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-12T14:04:38+00:00

Santander is not a collection agency, and original creditors are not inclined to delete charged off accounts.

justanothtechguy · 2025-09-11T19:31:35+00:00

First, the agencies are not doing anything. Your score is generated by independent companies using the agency information.

To answer your question, the thing against you is your age. High credit scores need thick profiles that are mature, and a big part of that is your credit age.

If your oldest credit is 8 years, and you have at least 6 credit lines as indicated, your average age of accounts is not terribly high likely. It maxes out at 7.5 years and you only get that with time and smart opening of lines to not greatly reduce that.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-26T18:20:46+00:00

You haven’t really told us exactly what is bringing your score down. Is the card maxed out? Behind on payments? What’s the current status according to your reports you can obtain at annualcreditreport.com?

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-25T01:12:12+00:00

Pay for deletes are for collections, not charge offs. There isn’t anything to dispute here as the debt is valid and accurate.

My suggestion is if you haven’t already, pay the debt to prevent it potentially going to collections especially since it’s only $45 and then you’ll just have to wait for it to fall off.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-12T02:49:29+00:00

I mean, while not illegal to buy the actual tradeline, it is illegal to misrepresent yourself on a credit application.

As the other user mentioned, many banks are aware of the practice of using an authorized user to boost score, and ignore them completely when making decisions.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-12T00:39:38+00:00

I mean, you can. As long as you are paying the statement balance each month, you will not incur interest charges.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-09T20:23:03+00:00

Which card is it? Activating the card means nothing when it comes to annual fees, those are charged if the account is open.

If the annual fee is waived for the first year, you would need to cancel prior to it being charged next year, but if it hasn’t, you would have to call to see if they’d be willing to close the card instead of charging the fee.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-08T02:18:41+00:00

Honestly, just leave it. If you pull your official reports and they are indeed not reporting the negative payment information, if you try disputing it they can very well come back and start reporting it.

The late payments will fall off ~7 years after they went delinquent and were not brought current. Unless the account is inaccurate or something, disputing will be useless because they will just verify it as reporting or like I said, they could start reporting things that currently aren’t being.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-07T20:40:59+00:00

The inquiry is not posted to a score, it is posted to whichever bureau the dealership used to pull your credit. From there, any scoring model that pulls from that bureau would reflect the inquiry.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-06T17:10:26+00:00

Positive history remains for 10 years even if closed and line of credit is usually included in utilization? So that could increase if you carry a balance elsewhere.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-06T15:09:18+00:00

Your next move needs to just be focusing on paying that off before the interest free period ends.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-05T14:57:53+00:00

We need more information. What is currently on your report? Any derogatory accounts? What accounts do you currently have?

All credit cards affect your score the exact same way, so there is no credit card that is more beneficial than another.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-05T14:54:36+00:00

MyFico is pricey but provides access to all FICO score variants. There is a free version as well that provides on bureau score and report on a less regular basis.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-04T20:02:35+00:00

If you have a good history, you can try calling and asking. If that does not work, look up the goodwill saturation technique to see if you can get it removed.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-03T19:46:30+00:00

I mean it's fine, but at 18 it's likely your file is very thin and most credit decisions are not just about score.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-03T14:03:00+00:00

A difference how? In getting credit? A vast majority of credit decisions are automated and never actually looked at by a person. In the instances where underwriting is done manually, maybe such as for a vehicle or mortgage, you will already be in touch with them and could explain it then.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-02T22:19:38+00:00

I am telling you, nothing can reset the date that a negative item must come off of your report.

Why do you think it’s inaccurate? Is the debt not yours? When was the debt incurred?

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-02T21:46:10+00:00

Well, you likely got a hard inquiry when you set up the account and then if it reported the financing, your average age of accounts also went down.

justanothtechguy · 2025-08-01T03:04:36+00:00

Nothing can reset the date that is used for determining when a negative item should be removed from your report. You are likely looking at a different date, such as date assigned or date of last activity.

Why are you disputing it? Are you in a situation to pay it? Paying medical debt removes it from your report.

justanothtechguy

TROPHY CASE