So with the help from everyone here, I have managed to get 4 collections removed from my husband's report and he has gone from a 545 to a 625 since December 2014!
We are THISCLOSE to getting our mortgage preapproval (lender says he needs to get his mortgage score up to 620 and it was at 610 before the latest collection deleted) but now that I'm addicted to all things credit - I wanted to see if there was anything else I can do with what he has left, but keeping in mind we want to get this preapproval ASAP so nothing that will be potentially harmful to his score.
Here is what is left on his reports, I would appreciate any advice anyone has!! I have not attempted to contact any of these companies (except as described below). Once we have a house these will be paid and taken care of, of course, when we can afford the hit to his score.
He has many positive credit card accounts (2 of his own and 5 authorized user - my cards) with zero or low balances.
Auto loan since May 2014 with no lates ever.
2 Collections:
-Brighthouse (cable) - $350 - Date assigned 10/22/10 - has not been updated since 2010, so I figure I should leave this one alone?
-Online Collections (power bill) - $643 - Date Assigned 2/13/11 - was last updated in May 2015 when I sent a PFD that I got no response to. I have since sent a second PFD and have heard nothing. His transunion report shows it has a dispute on it that we did not initiate. He had another more recent collection with this same CA and we attempted to PFD. They replied with verification of the debt and THEY put a dispute on the report. We paid the OC and this ended up being deleted today, yay! So assuming they responded to the PFD for that one, but aren't for the power bill, maybe the don't have verification? Should I call and ask for PFD by phone? pay it in full? Send a DV (I think that is what it is called)? Leave this alone?
3 Charge-offs:
-Kohls/Capital One - Last activity 2/2011 (different on all 3 bureaus but this is the latest of the 3) - $587 balance - $100 limit (they reduced this, I believe it was $400) - Reporting 30/60/90 at 4/1/10 NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH THIS ONE. Don't want to update that date of last activity, and they haven't updated since 2/2012 so is this not hurting as much? We can afford to pay this in full, but I really don't want to get the hit for updating.
-Santander (horrible car loan) - Last activity 2/2014 (different on all 3 bureaus but this is the latest of the 3) - $10,912 - Reporting 30/60/90 at 3/2/21!!!! Finally charged off in April 2015 and no longer collecting lates. Buying this car was such a mistake but we were desparate. This is reporting 21 90-days late. We attempted to PFD but they wouldn't agree to delete. We could not afford to settle in full with the amount they would accept. Should we make payments? We have low DTI so this should not be an issue with our preapproval, but then again who knows. Any suggestions on how to handle this? The only way we could pay their settlement price ($7,000) is to put it on multiple credit cards and I don't think that would be a very good idea!
-Wells Fargo Auto - Last activity 2/2011 - Balance $0 - Reporting 30/60/90 as 3/1/2 This is not hurting much is it?
Thank you sooooo much for anyone who made it though that and has any suggestions for me!
