General Credit Topics

[zbolton]

Hi guys, first time post here. I love the forums.

I am applying for a mortgage, or trying too. I have been doing self credit restoration, as my credit scores were TU 532, EQU 545, EXP 550. I have been doing the same to my wife's, her FICO was a 560 when I began in October of 2011. Her score is currently a 627 YTD.

My main problem is inquiries.  Before I realized how important credit was, about a year ago I went crazy with inquiries. Now within the last 18 months, I have anywhere from 12-20 inquiries on my record. I have disputed these with transunion/equ/exp and got a COUPLE deleted. My wife on the other hand has 12-14 deleted. (i went haywire on her's as well). Well now I am 3 points away from obtaining my 580 my LO requires for FHA. He says 620 for USDA which is what we would rather do.

I have 2 maxed out credit cards from 2009, totaling about 3,000 in debt. Chase sold the debt to midland credit, which I recently settled in full, and have a letter from MCM stating they will report this as PAID IN FULL. During the process, i managed to get midland AND chase both deleted from my report on equifx.

Captial one is still reporting, but its reporting a $0.

I have a new credit card I opened last month, for $1800. That is what I used to pay off MIdland, so I have about a $1450 balance on it. But 0% APR for 18 months.

My question is....

What is the best strategy to get inquiries removed?? These are killing me, and I think they can dramatically help out.

Also,  how do I end up getting collection accounts deleted from transunion/equifax, but not EXP, when i sent all disputes out on the same day??

Advice would be wonderful guys. Thanks!

[RobertEG]

An inquiry initiated by a consumer for new or additional credit is the very type of inquiry that the system is designed make available in a CR.

As such, there is no basis for asserting any inaccuracy.

The only way I know of is to ask the credtior to recode the inquiry under another purpose that does not show in your CR. 

[zbolton]

So you recommend contacting every company on my inquiry list and changing it to a PI?

[RobertEG]

No, I dont recommend that, but you can take that route.

My opinion, and my opinion only..... the creditor should not change it at all if the reported reason is the actual purpose of their inquiry, and that reason is one that is intended to be shown in a consumer's credit report.  That is the purpose of reporting and scoring inquiries.

[laz98]

How many are specifically from the last year?  Those are the only ones that could be hurting you.

[compassion101]

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laz98 wrote:

How many are specifically from the last year?  Those are the only ones that could be hurting you.

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I've seen this a few places and been meaning to ask. Is it true that even though all inquiries from the last two years are on your CRt, but only the ones from the last year are included in your FICO scoring?

[pizzadude]

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compassion101 wrote:

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laz98 wrote:

How many are specifically from the last year?  Those are the only ones that could be hurting you.

---

I've seen this a few places and been meaning to ask. Is it true that even though all inquiries from the last two years are on your CRt, but only the ones from the last year are included in your FICO scoring?

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Yes, that is correct.   Your CR shows two years worth of inquiries but only those from the last year are included in FICO scoring.

[compassion101]

thanks for your help once again pizzadude!

[cassembler]

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zbolton wrote:

Hi guys, first time post here. I love the forums.

I am applying for a mortgage, or trying too. I have been doing self credit restoration, as my credit scores were TU 532, EQU 545, EXP 550. I have been doing the same to my wife's, her FICO was a 560 when I began in October of 2011. Her score is currently a 627 YTD.

My main problem is inquiries.  Before I realized how important credit was, about a year ago I went crazy with inquiries. Now within the last 18 months, I have anywhere from 12-20 inquiries on my record. I have disputed these with transunion/equ/exp and got a COUPLE deleted. My wife on the other hand has 12-14 deleted. (i went haywire on her's as well). Well now I am 3 points away from obtaining my 580 my LO requires for FHA. He says 620 for USDA which is what we would rather do.

I have 2 maxed out credit cards from 2009, totaling about 3,000 in debt. Chase sold the debt to midland credit, which I recently settled in full, and have a letter from MCM stating they will report this as PAID IN FULL. During the process, i managed to get midland AND chase both deleted from my report on equifx.

Captial one is still reporting, but its reporting a $0.

I have a new credit card I opened last month, for $1800. That is what I used to pay off MIdland, so I have about a $1450 balance on it. But 0% APR for 18 months.

My question is....

What is the best strategy to get inquiries removed?? These are killing me, and I think they can dramatically help out.

Also,  how do I end up getting collection accounts deleted from transunion/equifax, but not EXP, when i sent all disputes out on the same day??

Advice would be wonderful guys. Thanks!

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I don't think the inquiries themselves are the biggest drag on your score, it's probably collections and your util. The only two valid options you have are dropping your util and/or attempting some GW/PFDs. If you can't at least pay down the $1450, are your sure you're ready for a mortgage?

I know that doesn't answer the question you asked (the above folks have done that), and I'm positive you don't want to hear it (I'm not trying to be offensive, of course), but it takes time, patience, and tons of fiscal responsibility to put yourself into position for a "healthy" mortgage.

[AndySoCal]

Keep in mind with the FICO score Inquires for mortgages ,car  and student  loans  wiithin  a 30  day time frame are treated as 1 inquiry.  Secondly Inquiries overa year old are not factored in your FICO score.  Inquiry removal may or may not get you where you need to be. With mortgages the lender is using you middle score so having one score over the qualifiying mark may not get you where you want to be.   Instead of inquiry removal I would work on your credit utilzation  To use the credit card in your post  your credit utilization on that car is 81%  1450/1800.  You can total all your credit balances and credit card limits and calculate  your credit utilzation ofr all your revolving accounts. The lower the percentage the better it is in FICO score calculation. Beware tha accounts in dispute are not fully factored into the score.  When the disputed status is removed your score will change +/- depending on the results of the dipute.