Im in bad shape, Moving and want to buy my first home for family,The long road back

[abanks8245]

Hello board and Happy new year to you all. I moving to Texas for work in a couple months for work, I have a creditkarma score(don't know who accurate) of 512, it was 520 about two weeks ago but had 6 hard inquires on it,Working with VU Lighthouse program(Very helpful thus far, and i think that lowered it 10 points with inquires ,don't know. I have one secured card ,( NFCU 500 dollar limit). I just opened last month. I paid off one charge off auto loan, GM financial last month (Paid off last month waiting to reflect on credit report), also paid off a Les Scwab Credit card that was way over the limit, 750 limit ,1600 was the balance, paid it off in full(Paid off last month waiting to reflect on credit report). 4400 dollars in collections that are in collections from Sprint, ADT and Comcast , right now. A tax lien is being removed as well, was a mistake , not  valid(Waiting for removal). I have Student loans I am paying on, current right now. I want, but more honestly need to buy a house, Army Vet so hoping to use VA Home loan, I understand im outside the 620 window needed but thats what im here trying to fix, or whatever program that's willing to help someone with terrible credit. I made these mistakes and I own it. I am just desperately trying to fix it , so me and my family can be together. Any advice or how to proceed, willing to liquidate some possessions to get into good enough shape to be approved for a home loan, and I know it wont happen over night , but I want to get this done buy October of next year honestly, long shot i anticipate, but looking to get even more aggressive about fixing and  them maintaining my credit. Thanks for your time

[dursty87]

Welcome to the boards

I am sure others will chime in but I will offer what advice I can.

For the CO(s) you have paid off start sending GW(goodwill) letters.   These forums are filled with tons of information if you utilize the search function you are bound to find information you need.  As far as the collections, I would start by sending PFD ( pay for deletetion)  This is the best case scenario as they would be removed from your credit report and paid at the same time.  Keep in mind there is always the Statute of Limitations that comes out to play and if you fall into that timeframe, based on what state you live in and what type of collections you have, you can be sued.  I would only send PFDs if you are able to pay.  Paying off the maxed out card will help as it will bring down your utilization.  I would normally say to keep your utilization down but in your case the baddies are holding you down the most.  

Feel free to list the collections, amounts, etc and others that have dealt with the CA's can help chime in with their success.  Best of luck to you.

[abanks8245]

Thanks for response ssondubes here are the collections that have recently appeared also, I have a auto loan that i have some past due/late payments Capital One Auto/ on top of bad stuff listed below

$4,421

ENHANCRCVRCO

OPEN

Jun 27, 2014

11 SPRINT

$1,850

ENHANCRCVRCO

OPEN

Jun 20, 2014

11 COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS

$1,588

APPELLES

OPEN

Aug 28, 2014

05 ADT SECURITY SERVICES

$983

[Anonymous]

These are all brand new and over $500 so they will be looked at.

i would suggest pay to delete on all 3.

 I would first get caught up and on time with the auto loan though the tackle on debt collection at a time. Start there very first. Once those are taken care of open new lines and pay on each line twice a month.

[StartingOver10]

Agree with the others. To increase your score you will need to repair the baddies and rebuild with new credit.

For a mortgage, you can not have any late payments for the 12 months prior to mortgage application. It is an automatic denial if you have recent late payments. So it is critical to get current on your auto loan and cc payments.

If you have a late payment with your auto loan, consider sending GW (Goodwill) letters to the creditor to remove the late payment. That will help. But you will need to be current in order for the creditor to pay attention to your GW request. They aren't going to remove a previous late pay if you are behind in payments. A goodwill letter is just like it sounds - you are asking the creditor in a nice way to remove the late payment notation out of the goodness of their hearts. Read here for examples of GW letters: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Sto...

Put together a budget so you can reduce the utilization on your current credit accounts - as that is where your score will increase. You won't see the large jumps until the 'baddies' are removed so you will need to work on that at the same time.