I need some guidance

[Anonymous]

I am posting on my husband’s behalf as I am the one that has been working on his credit for a year now. We are desperately trying to get a FHA loan and need to move ASAP. We’ve had mixed advice since Jan 17

When we first applied I was told to dispute things and see if this would remove negatives. This is now a problem because there are dispute remarks. I managed to get a lot of the remarks removed but some come right back especially on Equifax. I even had the creditor remove dispute remarks and they came back two days later. This caused his score to drop.

He has a lot of accounts that was paid and closed in good standing. Currently he only has an auto loan (had to get because my car engine blew up) of $16000 all payments on time for the past 7 months. He has a fingerhut account with only a $50 balance of $700 limit that is paid on time and he has had that for a year. And he is. An authorized user on one of my cards that is 7 months old the limit $500 with a $46 balance. Credit utilization is 8%.

He has 4 collections from 2014-2015 that all total for roughly $4000. I’ve paid several others and had them deleted. He also has some medical bills only on Equifax I was told not to worry about.

I do not know what to do anymore as his scores keep going up but the actual mortgage scores do not! They stay at 570-579! His middle score is the 570 last time I check on myFico.

Is there anything else I can do to get his scores to move? I don’t really have money to pay anymore collections as I’ve paid $2k worth and everything in savings is for a down payment and closing costs on a house...if we can ever get one.

[DollyLama]

Honestly, the only things I see that will help improve scores are, let him only carry a balance on one card-his card. Currently running 2 for 2 on revolving. 2) Let the accounts age to a minimum 12 mos on the youngest, that can boost anywhere from 20-30 pts depending upon bureau. Lastly, the biggest boost will come from the collections being deleted or aging off (which appears that might be a few years). 

The AU account is the same age as youngest, any reason to pick a card that is as young and carries a balance? AU should always be a very much older card with pristine payment history and carry no balance at statement cut. 

[Anonymous]

Every time we have talked to a loan officer they would say for him to get a credit card. Well every time we tried he would get denied. We didn’t want anymore hits on his credit. I only have 2 credit cards. The oldest is a little over a year but it has a high balance on it so I didn’t want it to hurt his credit. So I added him to the card that was only 7 mons old because it’s balance is owed is so low. We hadn’t touched the FingerHut at all and it had a zero balance until last month. A loan officer said we should use it because it may be the fastest way to raise his score. I guess I can start with paying off the capitalone card and leaving it 0 and finish making payments to FingerHut.

I’m really at a loss on what else to do. I may could pay off one collection (the lowest one and recently added 1 year ago although it actually like - debt from 3-4 years ago) however its from LVNV funding and I read a lot that they won’t do PFD.

[Anonymous]

Does the LVNV debt show that is 3-4 years old on your credit reports? If not, you could dispute because of that. Did they ever send you an initial letter so you could DV?

[NC_Mtg_Loaner]

If he is denied when he applies for a new credit card have him obtain a secured credit card--as long as that creditor reports to all 3 bureaus it will work well for him.   he can use any funds on that pre-paid credit card to pay any collections that may be necessary, but having 2-3 accounts open and active in his name is the ideal manner to increase his scores.

Re:  Removal of disputes on accounts---You may want to review the manner in which you've requested to have your disputes removed from these accounts.  Do you have copies of the letters you have mailed to the creditors or credit reporting agencies requesting your desire to remove the disputes on the file along with the receipt from the Certified Letter when you sent it to them?  This is your proof and if 45 days have passed and they no longer comply you can report them to your State's Attorney General.   IF that doesn't get results then you've done something outside of the correct process outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act and I'd recommend doing your homework again.

[Anonymous]

No it doesn’t show as 3-4 years. It shows it opened in 2016. Never any notice of the debt. He applied to open a Windstream account in November of 2016 and was approved when they ran his credit. Nothing was on his credit files regarding Windstream or LVNV. In December 2016 it randomly got added to his credit report and we were baffled and didn’t ever recall having an outstanding balance with Windstream. I disputed the account but it came back as verified and now has the dispute remarks on his credit report.

[Anonymous]

No letters. He actually called 2 of the companies personally... Midland and Jefferson. They told him they would remove them to allow so many days. Midland was removed. On April 11th Equifax was reporting the dispute remarks for both removed as well. Within two days the dispute remarks for Jefferson came back.

[Anonymous]

No letters. He actually called 2 of the companies personally, Midland and Jefferson. They told him they would remove them to allow so many days. Midland was removed. On April 11th EQ was reporting the dispute remarks for both removed as well. Within two days the dispute remarks for Jefferson came back.

[Anonymous]

Just updating. The loan officer advised to open another credit card and we should see a jump. So got approved for a capitalone card. Going to wait a month and see what happens and work on those disputes.

[Anonymous]

Just updating. The loan officer advised to open another credit card and we should see a jump. So got approved for a capital1 card. Going to wait a month and see what happens and work on those disputes.