Inaccurate Credit Report, trying to qualify for mortgage

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are attempting to fix inaccuracies on our credit report, and do the right things to improve our credit score. Well, more specifically, his, because his is better than mine and he is the income earner, while I am a student. When I reviewed his report yesterday, I noticed immediately that there are errors. We previously owned 2 homes, and when we came into hard times, one of them ended in foreclosure, and the other resulted in a short sale. We were not asked to repay deficiencies on either one as we were not financially able. HOWEVER- our credit report reflects balances and payments due on both!(multiple times because the mortgages changed hands) I have read that this could definitely be hindering his score recovery. What is the most efficient (and fastest) way to get this corrected?

Also, he has a total of 3 collections. 2 of them are still reporting, the other has not reported since 2009. I planned to pay the first 2, and wondered if it will make a difference if I pay in full vs settling for a lower amount... And should we even pay the one that hasn't reported? I read here on the forum that its best to leave it alone if its no longer reporting- that paying it could actually result in a blow to the credit score...

Our goal score is 640 for the mid score. Right now its 608. But that's a score pulled from another website, and my brother informed me that it may not be the "fico" score the lenders see...

Please advise. It will be so much appreciated!!  

Jen

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the FICO Forums, Jen_C!

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@Anonymous wrote:

Also, he has a total of 3 collections. 2 of them are still reporting, the other has not reported since 2009. I planned to pay the first 2, and wondered if it will make a difference if I pay in full vs settling for a lower amount... And should we even pay the one that hasn't reported? I read here on the forum that its best to leave it alone if its no longer reporting- that paying it could actually result in a blow to the credit score...

Our goal score is 640 for the mid score. Right now its 608. But that's a score pulled from another website, and my brother informed me that it may not be the "fico" score the lenders see...

Please advise. It will be so much appreciated!!  

Jen

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When you say that the one collection "hasn't reported since 2009", do you mean that it's dropped off his credit reports? Or, do you mean that the status hasn't updated since 2009, on his credit reports? What type of collection is it-- what was the original debt? Do you know what the applicable statute of limitations is?

Paid collections, and collections settled for less than the balance owed hurt just as much as unpaid collections. Ideally, what you'll want to do is negotiate a "PFD" (pay for delete) with the CA. If you haven't done so already, I'd highly recommend that you start reading here: What Steps Do I Take? Do I DV? PFD?

What website did you pull your scores from?

[valley_man0505]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Paid collections, and collections settled for less than the balance owed hurt just as much as unpaid collections. Ideally, what you'll want to do is negotiate a "PFD" (pay for delete) with the CA.

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I second that.  Most people don't realize that a $0 collections is just as bad as a $10,000 collection in regards to FICO scoring.  Paying a collection account that is already on your CR does absolutely no good.  In fact, your score can get worse.  This is especially the case with the collection that you said hasn't reported since 2009. If you paid this one, it would likely report in order to update as paid.  This would make the collection look newer and its negative impact would become greater.

I have had this debate with many debt collectors.  I ask them if they will delete if I pay and they say "we will update is as paid with a $0 balance" and none of them understand when I am talking about when I explain that this will do me no good at all.  They actually think they would be doing me a favor by updating it as paid.

[MarineVietVet]

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@valley_man0505 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Paid collections, and collections settled for less than the balance owed hurt just as much as unpaid collections. Ideally, what you'll want to do is negotiate a "PFD" (pay for delete) with the CA.

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I second that.  Most people don't realize that a $0 collections is just as bad as a $10,000 collection in regards to FICO scoring.  Paying a collection account that is already on your CR does absolutely no good.  In fact, your score can get worse.  This is especially the case with the collection that you said hasn't reported since 2009. If you paid this one, it would likely report in order to update as paid.  This would make the collection look newer and its negative impact would become greater.

I have had this debate with many debt collectors.  I ask them if they will delete if I pay and they say "we will update is as paid with a $0 balance" and none of them understand when I am talking about when I explain that this will do me no good at all.  They actually think they would be doing me a favor by updating it as paid.

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This doesn't apply to collections. I have been guilty in the past of spreading this in error. Since HTSU explains things MUCH better than I can I will C&P this from one of her posts:

Collections are scored off the date of assignment, not the DOLA. A change in DOLA shouldn't affect the score. .

This is such a common belief that we're trying to find examples with before-and-after reports where it happened, in order to see what's going on. If either the CA or the CRA is handling the data incorrectly, it needs to be corrected.

Here's a thread discussing this: Settle or Pay in Full?

Again, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but it's not supposed to, if the CA is reporting correctly and if the CRA is putting the info into the correct data fields.

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[Anonymous]

The company I got the reports/scores from is www.freescore.com  I think they also operate www.truecredit.com, which is through TransUnion. 

So...the safest way would be to ask the collection company to delete the listing on my report..? But if they are not willing, should I go ahead and pay it?

The collections are for utilities. phone, gas and cable. $550 total. The one thats no longer reporting opened in 7/2009 and only reported until 10/2009. The other 2 opened in March and April 2010 and both reported this January.  I have the money to pay them, I just want to make sure I go about it the very best way possible.

My other big concern is the mortgages still showing balances and payments. According to that we have over 400k in debt and 4k in payments, when in reality our debt is about $2,300 and payments are $187/month. 

Thanks! 

Jen

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The company I got the reports/scores from is www.freescore.com  I think they also operate www.truecredit.com, which is through TransUnion. 

So...the safest way would be to ask the collection company to delete the listing on my report..? But if they are not willing, should I go ahead and pay it?

The collections are for utilities. phone, gas and cable. $550 total. The one thats no longer reporting opened in 7/2009 and only reported until 10/2009. The other 2 opened in March and April 2010 and both reported this January.  I have the money to pay them, I just want to make sure I go about it the very best way possible.

My other big concern is the mortgages still showing balances and payments. According to that we have over 400k in debt and 4k in payments, when in reality our debt is about $2,300 and payments are $187/month. 

Thanks! 

Jen

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Hi Jen.

Neither of those sites sells true FICO scores. In fact most sites out there sell what we call "FAKO" scores because they are not based on the same scoring criteria as FICO scores. None of these FAKO's can be relied on for accuracy and should be ignored. They can often be higher or lower than an actual FICO score. So in reality right now you don't know what your scores really are.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money.

At one time you could also purchase your Transunion score at www.transunioncs.com but that site seems to be having problems lately. At www.equifax.com EQ will still sell you an EQ FICO score but you have to look very hard to find it.

I suggest you buy either EQ or TU or both here just to get a true baseline of where you stand.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[valley_man0505]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

This doesn't apply to collections. I have been guilty in the past of spreading this in error. Since HTSU explains things MUCH better than I can I will C&P this from one of her posts:

Collections are scored off the date of assignment, not the DOLA. A change in DOLA shouldn't affect the score. .

This is such a common belief that we're trying to find examples with before-and-after reports where it happened, in order to see what's going on. If either the CA or the CRA is handling the data incorrectly, it needs to be corrected.

Here's a thread discussing this: Settle or Pay in Full?

Again, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but it's not supposed to, if the CA is reporting correctly and if the CRA is putting the info into the correct data fields.

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Interesting.  Now, if only they would base it off of DOFD instead of Date Assigned   I have a couple med collections on my reports that happened almost 6 years ago.  However, they did not get assigned to a CA until Nov. 2009, so they are affecting my score as if they only happened a little over a year ago (and they aren't even "mine", they are from my ex-wife

[MarineVietVet]

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@valley_man0505 wrote:

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Interesting.  Now, if only they would base it off of DOFD instead of Date Assigned   I have a couple med collections on my reports that happened almost 6 years ago.  However, they did not get assigned to a CA until Nov. 2009, so they are affecting my score as if they only happened a little over a year ago (and they aren't even "mine", they are from my ex-wife

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Let me clarify.

For scoring purposes the Date of Assignment is used. The CRTP (Credit Reporting Time Period) is what is used to determine how long something can report.

For collections that is no longer than 7.5 years from the DoFD on the OC account that led to the collection and nothing can change the CRTP.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[valley_man0505]

Good point.  That much I did understand.