Two months and not to 620 mid, can you give advice? Please!

[Anonymous]

I am trying to buy a new home.  Filed BK in 6/06. Have no lates, car payment 2 years, furniture, 4 months, 4 cc's with less than 25% utilization (my limits are very low 1500, 1000, 500, 300). TU is at 592, which is my mid score.  I have 5 or 6 medical collections, should I pay these off or does it matter?  I am trying to get them to agree to PFD but the one I talked to today said no.  Does it help if I make a settlement?  Also, will it help to pay cc's down further.  Please help!

[Anonymous]

It will help to pay CC's under 9% utilization and keep them there. The best is to have no more than half your accoutns showing a small balance and the others showing zero PIF.

For the medical collections, go to the rebuilding credit forum and search for HIPPA process.  there is a process for getting medical collections removed from your CR once they are paid, but go through the correct process.  Don't just start paying or settling them.  Pais collections look the same to a lender as an unpaid one.  they do not help your score and can actually hurt them.  Go through HIPPA and get them removed (you will need the cash on hand to PIF them to do this though...)

[Anonymous]

If you pay down the CC to under 9% and get rid of the medical collections, you should see a score increase. 

[Anonymous]

My score went from 553 to 592, do you think paying them down will put me over 620?

[Anonymous]

Probably not,  you will see a small bump though.  If you were at 50-80% utilization you might see a 30 point jump.  You will probably need to pay down to under 9% (and make sure they stay there) and get the collections off you report to jump 30+ points.

[WannaHouse]

Any RECENT baddies (collections, late pays) could be paid to try to increase scores. If the collections are over 2  years old, it will probably not help much, if any to pay them.

[rockymtngrl]

How long have you had your cc's and furniture account? Any new accounts less then 6 months old will bring your score down.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I am trying to buy a new home.  Filed BK in 6/06. Have no lates, car payment 2 years, furniture, 4 months, 4 cc's with less than 25% utilization (my limits are very low 1500, 1000, 500, 300). TU is at 592, which is my mid score.  I have 5 or 6 medical collections, should I pay these off or does it matter?  I am trying to get them to agree to PFD but the one I talked to today said no.  Does it help if I make a settlement?  Also, will it help to pay cc's down further.  Please help!

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Getting rid of those medical collections through the hippa process like mickie said will most likely gain you the points for a fha loan.  Also try seeing if you can get cli on the cards you have since it will be a soft pull on your credit reports that won't cost you points

[Anonymous]

"Any RECENT baddies (collections, late pays) could be paid to try to increase scores. If the collections are over 2  years old, it will probably not help much, if any to pay them."

Paying collections will not help and may hurt your score.  To FICO a paid collection is the same as an unpaid one.  It can even lower your score by updating the date of last activity (making it seem more recent).  Unless you can pay for delete, then paying them will not help.  Again, if they all are medical then go through HIPPA process.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice!  I am trying to get them to PFD, but one of them I talked to today said no.  I am going to write a letter with the offer again and see what happens.  I am going to do the HIPPA on the others!  Can I disdute some of them that were discharged in bankruptcy almost 3 years ago?  Would that help to take the derogatory items off?

Thanks again for everyone's advice.  My mortgage guy is great and really sticking with me during this!  My house should be done in mid April and I have 28 points to go.

Just waiting to move!