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We are in a strange, annoying situation. We need a 720 (middle) credit score to get a particular mortgage product, and right now my husband has a middle score of 717 from EX as shown by the merged report pulled by the mortgage company. According to the lender, different people have run his situation through their simulators 3 times, and cannot find a way to boost his score.
We have a Ch 7 BK discharged 11/09 and he has 6 accounts IIB set to come off next July or Aug. We have no outstanding revolving credit that we could just pay down. I got one Cap One CC of his to increase the credit line $1000 to $7800 and added him as an authorized user on a card of mine (with $5500 limit, and Cap One says they do report to CB on auth users) but according to the Cap One credit simulator that's not going to do anything. The only other items on our credit report are installment loans (mortgage, cars, student loans).
I have been reading through the boards, and it seems it's possible to ask the CBs to remove accounts if they are set to come off soon anyway. We are within a year of that happening. Do you think I have a chance? Or should I try disputing something, maybe argue the date of first delinquency should be earlier? Problem is, we don't really have a full 30 days to wait for a response and of course, disputes have to be cleared before the mortgage is done so I don't want to mess that up and risk me not being able to remove a dispute if it can't be resolved. I can tell you the creditors if that helps. I even tried asking Comcast if they would report ontime payments as I've read that is possible, but they don't deal with CBs. I was thinking about trying it with AT&T too, but haven't called yet. Thanks for any advice you might have!
You are right about not filing a dispute - that won't help at all and will create issues with your home purchase.
If all of the revolving credit lines are reporting zero, then consider putting a very small charge on one of the credit cards so it reports a balance of 1% of the individual credit line. Believe it or not, FICO scores are dinged for all credit cards (revolving credit lines) to report zero. Having one report a small balance should increase your husband's score.
@tanya1 wrote:We are in a strange, annoying situation. We need a 720 (middle) credit score to get a particular mortgage product, and right now my husband has a middle score of 717 from EX as shown by the merged report pulled by the mortgage company. According to the lender, different people have run his situation through their simulators 3 times, and cannot find a way to boost his score.
We have a Ch 7 BK discharged 11/09 and he has 6 accounts IIB set to come off next July or Aug. We have no outstanding revolving credit that we could just pay down. I got one Cap One CC of his to increase the credit line $1000 to $7800 and added him as an authorized user on a card of mine (with $5500 limit, and Cap One says they do report to CB on auth users) but according to the Cap One credit simulator that's not going to do anything. The only other items on our credit report are installment loans (mortgage, cars, student loans).
I have been reading through the boards, and it seems it's possible to ask the CBs to remove accounts if they are set to come off soon anyway. We are within a year of that happening. Do you think I have a chance? Or should I try disputing something, maybe argue the date of first delinquency should be earlier? Problem is, we don't really have a full 30 days to wait for a response and of course, disputes have to be cleared before the mortgage is done so I don't want to mess that up and risk me not being able to remove a dispute if it can't be resolved. I can tell you the creditors if that helps. I even tried asking Comcast if they would report ontime payments as I've read that is possible, but they don't deal with CBs. I was thinking about trying it with AT&T too, but haven't called yet. Thanks for any advice you might have!
I am not generally a fan of the goodwill letter approach, but in your case, I would send a letter to each of the IIB credit card accounts and explain that you are six years out, the account is due to fall off in a year, and you need 3 points to get a mortgage, and would they please be so kind as to delete their account early? Tell them briefly what caused the BK and how you have made great strides, but keep it to a couple of paragraphs. Getting just one of the IIB lenders to delete might be enough to push you over. One risk is that sometimes a lender who receives a goodwill request will list it as a dispute. Please make clear that that will ruin your chance for a mortgage, so if the answer is no, please do nothing.
Thank you to both responses. I did go ahead and leave 1% balances on all 3 cards we have, looks like they report on the 21st and 25th, so I might have missed one, but should be ok for the other 2 (all cap one).
On the goodwill letters, I will consider that, but the fact that they could open a dispute concerns me. You mentioned doing it specitically with the credit cards: for IIB accounts, he has 1 cc (Citbank), 2 lines of credit (BofA and Wells Fargo), and 2 loans (Wells Fargo and Prosper). Should I only try it with the cc at Citibank or all accounts? Lines of credit and ccs are listed as revolving and loans are installment if that makes a difference. Proably not on IIB accounts though.
I would not got the GW route since you're facing a deadline. Putting a measly amount on 1 account seems or seemed to be your best bet. Best wishes.
Ok thanks for clarifying. I did go ahead and update my cards to show 0 balance on all but one when they report.