If its too good to be true....Credit Fixers

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I thought this might be a good time to purchase a home due to lower interest rates.  My Score is 587 and my friend's 578. We know why the scores are low - late payments.  We have put all bills on auto pay.  We have gotten many calls from realtors who have have "someone" who can fix our score to get us approved for a home loan.  Something tells me not to believe it.  Got a call about a program (NACO?) I dont trust it either.  I think we should sign yet another year lease  (16yrs in an apartment so tired of it!). Pay down and/or  get rid of all CCs (I have small balances on most) then try to get a mortgage through our Credit Union.  We will probably miss the train (again) for good mortgages rates.  What do you all think?  How long does it take for lates to get off our credit reports?

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, Mainstreet, welcome to the forums!

If you haven't already, please read Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.)

These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums.

Unfortunately, lates stay on your reports for 7 years after they occurred. Check out the Frequently Requested Threads link in my siggy and read about GW (goodwill) letters. There are lots of other things that you can do to get started on cleaning up your reports and improving your scores.

As for the timing of home-buying, I can see that you're going stir-crazy, lol, but my belief is that things are going to get worse before they get better, and housing prices will continue to drop. Seems like a good timeframe to work on your credit and save like crazy, so that you'll be able to take advantage of better deals when the time comes.