Getting a mortgage

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Shawna I suggest talking to a different bank, we use several that don't require collections to be paid off, sure they look at history since the BK but if you get an automated approval it increases the chances of approval tremendously.  I'm sure there are other banks out there that are the same.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. Do you have any suggestions as to what bank I should try? There are so many and I don't know where to start. I feel like my hands are tied because I know I need to establish at least one major line of credit besides my small limit credit cards but I don't know where to start. My scores two weeks ago were EXP 658 EQ 620 and TU 652.

Thanks for any advice!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The bank turned me down. They said that the bad credit since the bankruptcy was the main reason and that even though for the past year my credit has been good the new credit I have is small credit cards which is not much to go off of. They also said I should have paid off the past collections I have even though they are over two years old some of them almost 7 years ready to fall off. I don't know what to do now. I have only 10 months to refinance my house before my balloon comes due. Any advice on getting my house refinanced? I have about 40 thousand in equity. My Experian is 658, Equifax 600, Trans Union 652.

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I wouldn't touch the older collections but if the newer ones are small enough that you can pay them in full, you could consider arranging to have them deleted in exchange for paying.  Make sure you get that in writing before handing over money.  Also you have 14-30 days to apply as many places as you like for a mortgage and it only counts as one inquiry.  Good luck!  Nice to see your scores rising.  If you can keep a low balance (less than 9% of limit) on one card and keep the other cards at zero that will be good for your score.  Some credit unions can be on the very conservative side so hopefully you're not too discouraged yet..

[Anonymous]

Shane,

Just wanted to send you a reply to this conversation to refresh you where we left off in case you didn't remember me from my new messages I sent. 

Thanks again.

[edited to remove full name.]

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

I remember