I've decided that since I stress so much about getting a mortgage for me and DH, maybe some of you want to stress with me (or offer support). DH has made some errors in the past mostly with medical bills and it's my mission to fix them since that's what's holding us back right now. We applied April 7 (we'll just call that our wake up call) and our lease is up November 30 so the race is on. After reading what some have gone through I think we can do it. We have until July 7 to meet with our original LO at our creditor and revisit the situation before we look for an alternate lender.
I will update as scores change and things are paid and hopefully things get GWd off.
Here's where he starts:
625 Equifax 668 Experian 616 Transunion (all lender pulled)
Judgment with Milwaukee County from Medical Bill
9 total collection items (some report to 1 , some to 2 and some to all 3) 8 are paid as of 2010. 1 has balance of $168
2 credit cards in his name, no lates, 0 balances
8 credit cards with him as AU (6 are mine, 2 over 50% utilized, 2 are his mom's, both overlimit, both have 30 day from 2006)
1 auto loan as joint with me, no lates
4 federal student loans, all in deferment
1 auto loan as joint, 0 balance as of 02/2003
5 inquiries in last 12 months
Starting Score: EQ 740 EX 737 TU 697 (all pulled 4/2/12) Update:
Per the LO, DH needs more credit. Sent in app this week to add him as a joint on one of my Chase cards that he's currently an AU on. Also added him to the utility bill and switched cable into his name (in sace we need to use alternate lines).
Filed Satisfaction of Judjment with Milwaukee County court (never realized this hadn't been done after it was paid off in 2010). Has reported on 1 report as paid so far.
Paid the last collection item with original creditor.
Got agreement for 2 collections to be removed so far.
Disputed accounts that were in his mother's name and they have been updated on 2 of the reports so far.
2 of my cards that he is listed as AU were at 90% utilization, paid both down to under 50% (will make addtional payments when we get some more $$).
Update:
Pulled DH's new report this week. Chase has him added as joint (doesn't show an inquiry for it so that's a bonus) and utility company is reporting 2 years of history for him now too.
2 collections have fallen off completely.
Need some utilization help to try and use that as a score raising tool. Here are the cards that still have balances that are reporting for him either as joint or AU. Do we snowball to pay off smallest to largest or bring all the balances down together and spread the $$ out to bring the utilization down together?
Best Buy $555/1200 46%
Cap 1 $1350/2750 48%
Juniper $787/1600 49%
Chase $675/1500 45%
Chase $450/1000 45%
Thanks for any input!
dricedad wrote:Hi Penny I am a credit/ housing counselor and from what I see the credit cards that are over the limit are having the biggest impact on his score. If his mom isnt able to pay them down to under 30 percent of the credit limit then he may want to have himself removed from the account. This all depends on the age of the accounts as well. We've already remidied this through disputes. She had already removed him a couple years ago and both cards stopped reporting with the cards overlimit so the balances never updated, disputes were the only way we could fix it. If you are able to satisfy the judgment then I would do so. Be sure to update any account activity to the credit bureaus. By law they have thity days to report. I always request an updated copy of the credit report to ensure that the changes took place. The judgment was satisfied in 2010 but never filed correctly, this was done last month and has updated on EX so far. You can also write a letter for each inquiry asking them to remove the inquiry from your credit file. I call it a gesture of good will. You will need to include your ss# as most companies dont want to take the time to hunt down your information when they are doing you a favor. I would pay the collection account off before you do request the company to delete the listing. Some agencies will charge a fee for this. Get the agreement in writing. Its best if you have acces to a fax so your not wasting time. You need everything to reflect on your credit file before July. If that is not possible keep records showing issues have been resolved. Pay down the balances on the other two cards as well. The two are now paid down to 49% and 45% of the limits. I dont know what type of credit report your lender is using but be careful of au accounts. Residential Mortgage Credit Reports have a blocking mechanism that exludes au accounts so that your not able to rely on those to build credit. Ask your lender about this. We're not relying on the AU accounts for rebuilding. He has student loans and a car loan already in his name and now a utility account and credit card that we added him as joint all reporting over 12 months of clean payment history.
According to DH's scores here we feel good and put our app in with the mortgage company associated with our realtor last night. Spoke with the LO today and she asked for pay stubs and tax returns. This is a good sign right? I'm thinking she wouldn't waste time with that if the scores weren't up to their standards, right?
myFICO is the consumer division of FICO. Since its introduction 20 years ago, the FICO® Score has become a global standard for measuring credit risk in the banking, mortgage, credit card, auto and retail industries. 90 of the top 100 largest U.S. financial institutions use the FICO Score to make consumer credit decisions.
>> About myFICO
