My husband and I want to buy our first house but the fear of my recent credit blemishes are keeping me up at night. I need advice on how I should clean up my credit card history before applying for a mortgage. I'm embarassed because I have no idea what I should do.
Around November 2005 I was feeling consumed with my monthly debt obligations and decided to proactively contact a credit counseling service company. After doing some research, I found what I thought was a reputable company in FL. They said to put me on a plan I must select the CC that I wanted to close in order to pay the balance off without any further interest. I selected two of my 5 CC (AMEX $25K and BankFirst $1000) for the progarm. They figured out a montly payment of $550 for 48 months to get they paid and required one month's payment upfront (to be refunded when I completed the program) to set up my plan and contact my creditors. I agreed, signed the papers in Dec 05. In Jan 06 they said AMEX wanted a higher monthly payment, which I agreed to do. Then they came back in Feb 06 saying AMEX wouldn't take my account on a payment plan. I was then 3 months behind with them owing $6K as past due and couldn't pay. So that AMEX acct became a charge off of $26K (including appox $2K of interest) with my last payment in Nov 2005. My BankFirst has a 30 day, a 60 days and a 120 day late payment posting from Sept 06 - Dec 06.
Basically I want to know what to do to get apprvd for a decent mortgage. Should I dispute the AMEX with the credit reporting agencies then with AMEX? Should I try to send the AMEX collection agency a pay for delete letter (if so in what amount would they reasonbly agree to)? Try to send a goodwill letter to the BankFirst to remove some of the late payments from 06?
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!
