Anything I can do?

[Anonymous]

Hi All!! I just got my 3 reports yesterday and I have gone over them with a fine tooth comb. Let me tell you a little about my situation before I get to my questions.

At the age of 18 I became a single mother. I buckled down and put myself through college while working 2 jobs and raising my daughter. I did whatever I had to do to keep my daughter taken care of. Which put some bad things on my credit. 5 years ago I finally met my husband. We got married 4 years ago. I had my daughter and I inherited 2 boys from him. So that put us newly married with 3 children and then in 2006 we had our 4th child (oops haha). So now we live in a 3 bedroom house with 4 kids. Our major goal is to upgrade to a bigger house. But both of our credits are pretty shot through.

I'm going to list the "bad" things on my credit and if someone could please advise if there is anything I can do to make it look better I'd really appreciate it!!

Current mortgage- Owe $70,000 Account is current. But when we had our 4th child there were alot of medical complications resulting in more financial burden. This resulted in our getting one month behind in payments. In January of '08 we finally got current and currently have 7 on time payments.

I've been told that we have to have one year of current payments for any creditor to even look at us.

I have students loans reported out the wazoo!! There are 8 accounts reported. Back in July '02 I consolidated them into 2 accounts. On the previous accounts (before consolidation) in Oct '01 there was one late payment. Now on my Experian and Equifax reports they are not flagged with a late payment. Transunion reports it though.

First question...will these fall off this October 2008 and potentially raise my score?

My 2 current accounts have late payments up until October of '07 (yet again resulting from child birth complications). From then until now all payments have been current. How long will it take for this to not be a BIG negative for me?

There is an auto loan I paid off in April of '05. Now on this one Equifax and Transunion report 2 late payments and have this account flagged. Experian reports it with no late payments and a good account. The DOLA on this is April of '05. Will I have to wait another 4 years for this to not affect my credit?

Now onto the collection accounts. I guess I should have researched this more and learned how to get it paid off and removed. But, alas, I didn't. Each account is listed below by amount and then what each Credit company says about it.

$65 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 2/1/07 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

$62 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 9/1/06 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

$891 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 11/1/03 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

There are also 2 other accounts that are only reported on Equifax. I have no idea what these accounts are and in the company or CA name it says "606yc00000"". There is no contact information whatsoever and I have not received any bills or anything for these 2 accounts. How can I get this information?

Sorry for such a lengthy post, but I really want to improve my credit but have no idea how to go about it. If ANYONE has ANY suggestions I would love to hear it. Thanks!!

Edited to put in some paragraph breaks, making it easier to read. - sidewinder

Message Edited by sidewinder on 07-22-2008 09:04 AM

[Anonymous]

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gfxmom wrote:

Current mortgage- Owe $70,000 Account is current. But when we had our 4th child there were alot of medical complications resulting in more financial burden. This resulted in our getting one month behind in payments. In January of '08 we finally got current and currently have 7 on time payments.

How many 30 day lates are reporting? Send your lender a GW letter.

I've been told that we have to have one year of current payments for any creditor to even look at us.

I have students loans reported out the wazoo!! There are 8 accounts reported. Back in July '02 I consolidated them into 2 accounts. On the previous accounts (before consolidation) in Oct '01 there was one late payment. Now on my Experian and Equifax reports they are not flagged with a late payment. Transunion reports it though.

First question...will these fall off this October 2008 and potentially raise my score?

I doubt you get much of a score increase, as lates hurt less and less as they age. After 2 years, single 30 day lates have little to nil affect on your report. Yes, they should be removed October 2008.

My 2 current accounts have late payments up until October of '07 (yet again resulting from child birth complications). From then until now all payments have been current. How long will it take for this to not be a BIG negative for me?

As they age, their effect ages. Try sending a GW letter.

There is an auto loan I paid off in April of '05. Now on this one Equifax and Transunion report 2 late payments and have this account flagged. Experian reports it with no late payments and a good account. The DOLA on this is April of '05. Will I have to wait another 4 years for this to not affect my credit?

When were the lates reported?

Now onto the collection accounts. I guess I should have researched this more and learned how to get it paid off and removed. But, alas, I didn't. Each account is listed below by amount and then what each Credit company says about it.

$65 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 2/1/07 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

$62 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 9/1/06 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

$891 Experian- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA NR Equifax- Paid, 0 balance, DOLA 11/1/03 Transunion- Status NR, 0 balance, DOLA NR

Send GW letters for all paid collections reported by the CA. Are these reported by the OC or CA?

There are also 2 other accounts that are only reported on Equifax. I have no idea what these accounts are and in the company or CA name it says "606yc00000"". There is no contact information whatsoever and I have not received any bills or anything for these 2 accounts. How can I get this information?

When a CA deals with medical debts, their name is often masked like that. It doesn't always mean the debt is medical, but the CRA tend to mask their name for all accounts since they are marked as "medical information providers". Pull your free reports from www.annualcreditreport.com or call the CRA and ask who the CA is.

Sorry for such a lengthy post, but I really want to improve my credit but have no idea how to go about it. If ANYONE has ANY suggestions I would love to hear it. Thanks!!

Edited to put in some paragraph breaks, making it easier to read. - sidewinder

Message Edited by sidewinder on 07-22-2008 09:04 AM

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[Anonymous]

My mortgage is reporting 15 30 days late payments. Ouch. The lates on my old auto loan were reported 7/04 and 2/05. The collection accounts were reported by the CAs. What is a Goodwill letter and where would I find a good example? Thanks for answering so quick sidewinder!! I really appreciate your time.

[Anonymous]

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gfxmom wrote:
My mortgage is reporting 15 30 days late payments. Ouch. The lates on my old auto loan were reported 7/04 and 2/05. The collection accounts were reported by the CAs. What is a Goodwill letter and where would I find a good example? Thanks for answering so quick sidewinder!! I really appreciate your time.

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15 lates is gonna be tough to persuade to remove. If you try to go FHA with the mortgage, they want no more than 2 lates in the last 2 years.

It is likely that the lates from 04 and 05 are not hurting that much. You can try to GW the lender on the auto loan about removing lates, the only thing to be careful with there is if this is an older account helping your age, with it being closed- the creditor may find it easier to remove the whole account instead of just the lates.

Paid collections reported by the CA, send GW letters as well.

GW example-

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=2661

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for all your help!! I have already started composing a GW to my mortgage company. We'll see what happens. It can't hurt!! I won't do anything about the auto loan then. And will send GWs to the CAs as well. I'll keep you updated as to how each company responds. THANKS AGAIN!!