Progress report and question.

[Anonymous]

1 year ago. FICO 2/4/5 All 3 > 570. - Savings - 0$

6 months ago. FICO 2/4/5 633, 578, 570'ish - Savings - $15,000

Today. FICO 2/4/5 653, 578, 597 - Savings - $45,000

Hopeful buy date 3/1/2017 - Savings - $70,000 - Scores ??/??/??

We are making good progress but a single $2,000 collection which has not responded to PFD is holding down our 4/5 scores ( not reporting to Equifax, only score where the Mortgage score is close to the FICO 8. Experian/TU FICO 8's are in the 635'ish range, so the older mortgage versions weigh collections more heavily apparently )

Talking to a Mortgage broker, he said a 4 year old collection would not typically hold a score below 600, Well this collection is 3 years & 8 months old, I'm wondering if when it hits 4 years I can expect a significant bump in mortgage score, or if this changes more linearly month over month?

In the credit score simulator it shows me going up another 20 pts in just 3-4 months, but i don't think thats mortgage score, just the FICO 8, and I don't think the simulator is probably something to be relied upon.

Anyway we're now at least in FHA territory, but it really hurts to think of paying 200$ more a month for 11 years ( rising interest rates will probably make refinancing a wash ) when we have so many positive mitigating factors ( high income relative to the loan, stellar employment history, large down payment ).

We hoped to buy in winter when prices are lower, but I just don't know if we're going to get there scorewise by february :/

[Anonymous]

Do you have any positive credit reporting? I had all 3 scores at high 500s to 600 back in nov 2015. I had most negative. No late payments ever but collections, 1 judgement (for freaking 300 dollars) and no open positive trade lines. Opened 2 credit cards in Oct 2015 and a car loan soon after.... Sitting on a mid mortage score of 685! I also satisfied my judgement and it has since fell off. Most recent collection is from 2015 That I won't pay because it is bs. I have 2 other medical collections from 2012...... So maybe it isn't your negative history but your lack of positive history?

[Anonymous]

Have 2 Credit cards ( 12 months old, no missed payments, 1% utilization ), as well as an auto loan for 9k, paid on time.

Think what's hurting us on top of the collection is charged off credit cards, bout 5 years old now... But in " Revolving utilization" it shows we're utilizing like 70% of available credit because those charge offs are still considered open, even though theyre charged off. So it scores us like we're over-leveraged on credit lines.

Have considered settling these for less than full amount, but I'm told that may actually do harm to our score.

Who sues someone over $300 what a **bleep**-nut...

[Anonymous]

Husband had a credit card chargeoff too. Was considered in utilization ... We settled for less (didn't hurt his score or help) and the utilization went down. Then we did see his scores start to increase over then next few months. I am pretty sure you will have to pay it off before closing on a home. Better to do it now so they won't feel they have "one up on you" because you need it settled to close. We negotiated 50% of the original charge off. Took a week. Just kept calling back and being extremely nice. We had a bunch of collections that we paid for delete. I found it is easier to settle at the end of the month because they get a commision and want to close as many deals as possible before the month closed.