topic Re: Help:trying to build credit in General Credit Topics

Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:22:09 GMT

I am pretty desperately seeking advice.

My husband and I have been trying to build our credit for about a year w the hopes of buying a home. We monitor our scores monthly from free credit report.com. We paid off all or collections(had about 3 accts w low balances) and only I have a car loan in my name which I have never been late on. I recently opened a secured credit card as well, always making payment on time and use around 10% of credit limit each month. We have been stuck at 605. Any suggestions? We feel so frustrated and discouraged as cash flow/income and down payment are not an issue, it's solely our credit and using a co singer won't help w that.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!!

Re: Help:trying to build credit

cleansheet — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:49:10 GMT

You should understand what is causing the poor score. If you have not already done so you should get your credit reports. These are available free once per 12 month period at annualcreditreport.com. Once you identify the issues read through some of the information on the "rebuilding credit" section of the forums.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

Repo-ed — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 00:52:20 GMT

kneumann wrote:
I am pretty desperately seeking advice.

My husband and I have been trying to build our credit for about a year w the hopes of buying a home. We monitor our scores monthly from free credit report.com. We paid off all or collections(had about 3 accts w low balances) and only I have a car loan in my name which I have never been late on. I recently opened a secured credit card as well, always making payment on time and use around 10% of credit limit each month. We have been stuck at 605. Any suggestions? We feel so frustrated and discouraged as cash flow/income and down payment are not an issue, it's solely our credit and using a co singer won't help w that.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!!

Ya, we need to know what is going on with BOTH of your files.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

Walt_K — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:09:41 GMT

If the collections are still on your reports (sounds like they are) those will be hurting your score. A paid collection scores the same as an unpaid collection. You need to write GW letters to the CAs to see if they will remove the collections. If you have any collections you have not paid yet, try to negotiate deletion from your reports in exchange for payment (PFD - pay for delete).

Re: Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:31:07 GMT

cleansheet wrote:

Will that count as a hard pull? I monitor our credit monthly w free credit report.com (idk if that's the best to use) all all of our collection accts have been paid in full but remain on our report. Considering we use this monthly monitoring do you still suggest pulling pur reports w annualcreditreport.com? Thank you!

Re: Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:30:24 GMT

Walt_K wrote:
If the collections are still on your reports (sounds like they are) those will be hurting your score. A paid collection scores the same as an unpaid collection. You need to write GW letters to the CAs to see if they will remove the collections. If you have any collections you have not paid yet, try to negotiate deletion from your reports in exchange for payment (PFD - pay for delete).

Ok great, thank you! I have seen threads regarding GW letters so I will refer to them for guidelines

Re: Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:35:46 GMT

Repo-ed wrote:

Ya, we need to know what is going on with BOTH of your files.

I monitor our credit monthly w free credit report.com (idk if that's the best to use) and all of our collection accts have been paid in full but remain on our report. I have one car loan (payment always on time), and recently got one small secured cc, again always paid on time and use around 10% which is paid in full each month. My husband has collection accts all paid off but remain on report And nothing else, no credit card or loan. Should we get him a secured credit card? Make him an authorized user on mine? Thank you for taking the time to respond, we are very appreciative.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

Shogun — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 08:50:58 GMT

kneumann wrote:
cleansheet wrote:
You should understand what is causing the poor score. If you have not already done so you should get your credit reports. These are available free once per 12 month period at annualcreditreport.com. Once you identify the issues read through some of the information on the "rebuilding credit" section of the forums.

Will that count as a hard pull? I monitor our credit monthly w free credit report.com (idk if that's the best to use) all all of our collection accts have been paid in full but remain on our report. Considering we use this monthly monitoring do you still suggest pulling pur reports w annualcreditreport.com? Thank you!

Start with pulling your FREE CR's from (ACR) annualcreditreport.com . they tend to have more info on them, then ones from a 3rd party. The CR's from ACR, come directly from each of the CRA's. You can pull 1 Free CR from TU,EQ and EX every 12 months.

Save your money and Don't Buy the Scores, they are what we call FAKO's.

This is the federally mandated place to get your detailed reports once per year directly from the CRAs. It is never a HP when pulling yourself.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

HoldingOntoHope — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:05:11 GMT

You also need to understand that the scores you are getting from your monitoring service are not the scores that a mortgage lender will use. To get an understanding of where your credit scores are at then you will need to pull at least one score from this site. I would suggest that you and your husband both pull your EQ FICO score from here. The version that is sold on here is the same one that almost all the mortgage lenders use. Then when you look at your full credit reports from the annual credit report site you can compare the three bureaus. If the information is the same then you can get an idea of where your credit scores for the other bureaus may be. What I mean is if all the collection accounts appear on all three reports and have the same status (paid) and any other accounts are on all three reports then the score is not likely to vary widely across all three.

Most likely you will find that some information will only appear on one or two reports and not all three. I have a collection that reports to only two bureaus. The score difference between the bureau reporting the collection and the clean report is about 60 points. You can also get your TU FICO score from this site but it is a slightly older version and there may be some variation in the score that a mortgage lender will see. The EX FICO score is not available for most of us and will only be seen when a lender pulls your credit

As was stated before by other contributors the Rebuilding section will provide a wealth of information in cleaning up past mistakes. Time is your best ally and you can overcome a previously bad credit history and graduate to home ownership. I know that personally. I went from 500's scores in 2007 to being a homeowner in 2011. Good luck on your journey.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:46:33 GMT

Thanks for your responses. I pulled our EQ Fico for both of us and they reflect a lower score, 540s for both of us, and 3
Collections paid in full. Should I send GW letters? We are currently living w a family member w the hopes of being able to buy a home in the near future. An I fooling myself by believing we could increase our scores enough to make us eligible for home ownership in the next few months? Thanks again!!

Re: Help:trying to build credit

Walt_K — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:35:17 GMT

kneumann wrote:
Thanks for your responses. I pulled our EQ Fico for both of us and they reflect a lower score, 540s for both of us, and 3
Collections paid in full. Should I send GW letters? We are currently living w a family member w the hopes of being able to buy a home in the near future. An I fooling myself by believing we could increase our scores enough to make us eligible for home ownership in the next few months? Thanks again!!

Unfortunately, that timeframe is probably too optimistic. It's not impossible, but it is pretty unlikely. You should start sending GW letters, but they rarely work the first time around, and sometimes the CA simply will not budge. You have to be persistent to have success with GW. It's almost always denied on the first contact, so just allowing for the time to send the letters and get an initial response, and then start the second round of letters, you're probably looking at close to a couple months. That's not to say you shouldn't try. The sooner you start, the better chance you'll have.

Other than the collections, what other negative info do you have? When was your last late payment?

How many positive tradelines do you have? You mentioned the auto loan and the secured credit card. Anything else?

Re: Help:trying to build credit

kneumann — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:16:16 GMT

All collections are paid and last late payment was in '09. Besides the cc and auto loan I have no other positive trade lines. Feeling so discouraged at this point.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

NewbieReed — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:49:53 GMT

GW the companies -- the CAs and the OCs and try to get them removed.

Watch ur utilization.

I went up 80pts in ~37 days when I got items removed and brought my utilization down.

Re: Help:trying to build credit

ceemee2203 — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:35:54 GMT

Which companies were the collections with. You might try searching here or googling the name + good will to see who other people contacted at those companies.

Definitely research what should go in the letters before sending.

What's the limit on the secured card? Can you deposit more money on it to increase the limit? I know I was able to do that when I had my capital one. How long has it been open? Who is it with?