Hello All,
I, like everyone else on here, am looking to improve my credit rating. I just wanted to lay out my current situation and see what you guys think and if you can offer any tailored advice. My current scores are as follows: EX 577 EQ 586 and TU 642. I have 6, 9, and 5 collection accounts on my reports respectively. A few of the accounts are medical, two of which are paid off, the others are from two old cell phone plans I had; all accounts are well below $1,000.00. I want to buy a house in late August, I am looking to get a 203k loan to restore a house in Savannah and I understand they require a 650 credit score for that FHA loan? Do you guys realistically see me bringing my score up to that minimum by the fall?
My first question is that my younger brother (15) applied for a number of credit cards in my name (all of which were denied) and it left a number of damaging inquiries on my reports which lowered my score by 15 points in the worst case. My brother admitted to it soon after the incident and has learned his lesson. My quandary is that I am not sure if I should dispute the inquiries as fraudulent because I don't want it potentially coming back to my brother. How seriously do they take these claims? Would it potentially explode into something drastic, or do they generally remove them and move on?
Furthermore, I enlisted the help of Lexington Law Firm last week (I know from this forum that I can do everything they can, but I am a full-time student and employee, so its worth the $99 monthly fee...I hope) I figure the size of my case, being as small as I understand it to be, I shouldn't require their services for all that long. They are in the process of sending out the first batch of letters. How small must an account generally be for the creditor to feel it's not worth fighting for? Should I call and pay off all of the creditors or wait to see if they fall off?
Finally, I have one charge-off scheduled to fall of my report in October of 2013. If I dispute it now, will I risk having it remain on my report longer? Or do you think they will just let it go since it's only a few months away?
Okay, anyways, thank you so much for all your information! I am excited to begin the next leg of my journey with a cleaner slate. (:
