9 month plan or rent?

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Chase has minimum credit score requirements whereas some other lenders do not.  You can definitely listen to Chase's advice on improving your credit but I'd put much more weight into the advice given here at the FICO forums.

[brownee]

Ok, i'll do that.  I've been reading through the forums here and have seen some good advice. I've written up some PFD and GW letters to send out to creditors, and hopefully that will help our scores increase. We found the perfect house this weekend in a new subdivision with homes ready in March-May of 2009 (right when we'll be ready!!!), so now we're REALLY excited. I know we should both calm down, but its such an exciting time for us!!!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Make sure you put the cart before the horse, take care of your credit first and then get excited by a house.  I know the idea of buying a home is exciting but you don't need an emotional roller coaster & stress.

[brownee]

Yeah, I know I know...it's already been stressful on us and we aren't even moving until May no matter what! :-)

[brownee]

Ok, so we just came from our meeting with Chase. First, let me say a big Thank You to all of y'all because I went in with so much more knowledge than I had even a week ago. I knew about having a mix of credit, having less than 9% utilization, PFD's, GW letters..just so much and I felt like a more savvy consumer!

Anyway, so it turns out there is a judgement on my report that doesn't show paid when it was paid last year. He says once I get that changed, it should add to my score. We've got a plan in place to pay off the old collections and get everything squared away. He thinks we should be able to apply and get a mortgage by April of next year if we stay on top of things and have no late's, etc.

He also told me something that I have not seen or read anywhere. When I asked what kind of interest rate we could get if our scores were in the 620's, he said that it didn't matter because the interest rate is whatever the VA says it is at the time..is that true? OMG..that totally mkes me so so happy because I had been thinking we would be saddled with some insane interest rate because of our past. Please someone tell me if that's true.

Anyhow, I feel so much better right now than I did a few days..heck, a few hours ago!!!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

In my experience a judgment stating paid or unpaid doesn't affect your scores... it's the sole fact of having it on your credit report that does damage.  Case in point, I had a client in an identical situation with a recent paid judgment being marked as unpaid, we did a rapid rescore, had it changed to paid with a $0 balance and no change happened in the credit scores.

For VA lenders do not have a difference in interest rates that is determined by the credit score... they might have a minimum credit score you must reach, but once you are at that level the interest rates are the same whether you have the minimum score required by the lender, or an 800 score.

[brownee]

Awwww...way to bum me back out, Shane! So it showing *Satisfied* or *Paid* in the status column doesn't hurt me any more than it saying *Judgement* , as it does now? Dangit...

Well, I suppose it needs to be right in any case, so i'll get that done. I do feel a lot better, though, about the whole situation.

[Anonymous]

...and thank your mom for letting you live with her!

[brownee]

Ah, yes..of course!

[brownee]

Ok, did I do this correctly???  My BoA card has a statement date of August 7th and a due date of the 28th. I have a $300 credit limit and had charged up $236 of that.  I paid them $ 210 yesterday and it has posted. Now it shows that I owe them $26. That is within the 1-9% utilization, Bob, correct? Now I can sit back and relax because when they report to the bureaus it will show $26 being used and paid on time, right? I still need to pay this $26 AFTER the statement date, but BEFORE the due date to get it to show up that way, right? This is the way I need to do this every month? Use it and pay for all but  up to 9% of it, then pay the rest off after the stmt date and before the due date. Do I have it right???