13 Years Disabled, Applied to friends Apt complex to room with him was denied BC of 10pts of credit.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice.  I'm in quite a bad spot.

I've been disabled for 13 years with an income of 1300.00 I've never bothered with CCs or anything like that.

Me and my GF moved from California to Colorado BC her job relocated.   She has since lost her job and is gone.

I applied at a friends Apt complex and I was shocked to find out that I was denied (Never have before) and I'm 10 points below their minimum credit score of 500.

The people at the screening company told me I had 3 utility bills in collections.   I paid two of them on Wed.   SoCalGas's collection agency said they'd send it off for deletion as soon as they recieve confirmation that it was paid which of course takes forever.

The other one was Comcast which I then called their Collection agency and paid it.  The man on the phone said that they didn't handle deletions the credit companies did.   After hanging up with him, I realized he was full of it so I called back the next day and got someone really nice on the phone.  I told him my sob story and he replied that hes been in a similar situation and would help.  He sent the collection back to comcast as disputed and closed the account on their end thus reporting it to the credit companies and it would be deleted according to him.

I can afford to pay this apartment for one more month and live on cheap cheap food.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to jump my score up in the mean time so that I can get past this Apt's screening and get on the lease?

Thanks in advance.

[Leadberry]

If you know anyone that would be willing to add you as an authorized user to a credit card that is in good standing, I imagine that would net you your 10 points.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply,

Any idea how long it would take to reflect on my credit?  I don't know anyone with a credit card in good standing but maybe I can figure it out.

Would getting a small secured credit card bump it up at all?

Also I called the Company that does the background/credit check and they said that they do a hard check which drops it by 2 or 3 points.

They said they use a F.I.R.M v2 check through experian.   If I check it myself will it drop it more?  Any idea how many points paying off those collections will net me?

Thanks.

[Imperfectfuture]

Have you tried section 8 (they have special programs with about one month wait for people without homes who are disabled), subsidized apts through HUD, tax exempt properties that have their own sliding scale ,etc.

[Anonymous]

Not yet no.   I have a dog and a cat that's got about a month due to cancer.   I figure if I can't get anywhere with this credit by the 2nd week of feb I will start looking for a room for rent but in the mean time I'm trying to focus on boosting my credit ASAP (now 15 points).

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not yet no.   I have a dog and a cat that's got about a month due to cancer.   I figure if I can't get anywhere with this credit by the 2nd week of feb I will start looking for a room for rent but in the mean time I'm trying to focus on boosting my credit ASAP (now 15 points).

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Pets are allowed even in places that ban them if a doctor certifies that they are needed for your medical condition.

[Leadberry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply,

Any idea how long it would take to reflect on my credit?  I don't know anyone with a credit card in good standing but maybe I can figure it out.

Would getting a small secured credit card bump it up at all?

Also I called the Company that does the background/credit check and they said that they do a hard check which drops it by 2 or 3 points.

They said they use a F.I.R.M v2 check through experian.   If I check it myself will it drop it more?  Any idea how many points paying off those collections will net me?

Thanks.

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Concerning how long it would take a new tradeline to report, I can't really say, unfortunately. It all comes down to the lender. If you could get a small secured card, at your credit score I'd imagine the positive reporting account would give you a healthy score boost, even with the new inquiry. However, again it's a matter of how quick the lender is to report your account to the reporting agencies.

As far as checking your reports, whenever you check them yourself, it's what's called a soft inquiry. Soft inquries have no effect on your credit score, and noone can see them but yourself.

I would also imagine that paying off your collections will help, but having them deleted would help more. Nobody can say precisely how much of an effect taking these steps will have, as FICO's scoring algorithms are trade secrets.

[Anonymous]

I'll take that in to consideration, thanks.

Does checking my score on experians website or enrolling in a credit notification deal like here cause a negative hit to it?

Also I read there's no way really to check your Fair issac V2 experian report.   But if I were to sign up for the notifications here and recived a postive bump of lets say 20pts, would it be in the ballpark of 20pts on the FI v2?

[Anonymous]

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@Leadberry wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the reply,

Any idea how long it would take to reflect on my credit?  I don't know anyone with a credit card in good standing but maybe I can figure it out.

Would getting a small secured credit card bump it up at all?

Also I called the Company that does the background/credit check and they said that they do a hard check which drops it by 2 or 3 points.

They said they use a F.I.R.M v2 check through experian.   If I check it myself will it drop it more?  Any idea how many points paying off those collections will net me?

Thanks.

---

Concerning how long it would take a new tradeline to report, I can't really say, unfortunately. It all comes down to the lender. If you could get a small secured card, at your credit score I'd imagine the positive reporting account would give you a healthy score boost, even with the new inquiry. However, again it's a matter of how quick the lender is to report your account to the reporting agencies.

As far as checking your reports, whenever you check them yourself, it's what's called a soft inquiry. Soft inquries have no effect on your credit score, and noone can see them but yourself.

I would also imagine that paying off your collections will help, but having them deleted would help more. Nobody can say precisely how much of an effect taking these steps will have, as FICO's scoring algorithms are trade secrets.

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Is there a lender for secured credit cards you'd reccomend for the fastest reporting?   Also, what's the right way to go about it once I recieve the card?  Immediately buy something, wait a few days or a week and pay it back to zero?

I really appreciate all the responses.

[Leadberry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'll take that in to consideration, thanks.

Does checking my score on experians website or enrolling in a credit notification deal like here cause a negative hit to it?

Also I read there's no way really to check your Fair issac V2 experian report.   But if I were to sign up for the notifications here and recived a postive bump of lets say 20pts, would it be in the ballpark of 20pts on the FI v2?

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Using Experian or myFICO won't affect anything. Since these services are pulling reports at your requests, they generate soft inquiries that have no adverse effects on your credit reports.

Being that the scores you get here are FICO scores, they will be very similar to what your lender sees. If you choose to go through Experian, make sure you're getting a FICO score and not their proprietary PLUS score.