According to my LO, my middle score is 611 - hubby's is 599. The aspect that is hitting our scores hard is payment history is considered "not good". Everything else (length of credit, amount of debt and amount of new credit) is either good or great.
We had some major financial problems when we were conned into a fraudulent mortgage and we sold our home to get out of that mortgage, we weren't foreclosed on, but we are listed as 120 days late and the current status still says that even though it's been paid for almost 2 years now. That was Oct 2006. We had some legitimate utility bills - one for $1340, one for $332 and one for $120 - that went to either collections or just listed as negative, but they all have since been paid in full. Unfortunately that was before I found out about the PFD letter! 
I have one account in collections that I'm DVing because it's not my account. That's for $297. There's not much more info on the report - it all says "not reported" - no dates or anything.
There is also a negative on my report from AFNI and the OC is Nextel. This was from early term fees that I was not supposed to be charged for due to the account being a government account. I disputed this, but all it says on my report is the note that I'm disputing the charges. The original charge was from about 5 years ago, but the date on the report says 2007! GRRR
We recently each got a couple of small balance CCs that we've been paying regularly and more than the minimum due. We also have a car loan that is about 14 months old and we've never been late.
So other than waiting years for some things to fall off our report, what can we do to increase our scores? We have no current debt, other than the small balances on our CCs (less than $200) and our car loan. I've been trying to GW some things off, but I haven't had any luck yet.
I really need some advice!
LOL, I know I'm impatient, but did everyone go to dinner? 
I have leftovers. 
If the mortgage is paid, then GW this company and ask them to remove the 120 day late.
Same goes for the paid utilities. All you can do is write the OC and ask them for some help to remove any lates and ask them to remove any reference that is was charged-off.
DVing is fine. I would also pull the CR directy from the CRA to find more info than what you have now (e.g. drop off date, OC name, etc.).
Per AFNI (I recently killed them....still very 
), DV them. Don't dispute anymore. And also try contacting Nextel. Get confirmation from them of the balance due, CO date, etc. AFNI, if they don't delete, will send you a form letter with the OC name, address, and amount due. Compare Nextels records with your records.
), DV them. Don't dispute anymore. And also try contacting Nextel. Get confirmation from them of the balance due, CO date, etc. AFNI, if they don't delete, will send you a form letter with the OC name, address, and amount due. Compare Nextels records with your records.Per the CCs, don't app anymore, but ideally you'd want to have 3 or so CCs with one of them being a charge card. Wait to app because of the loan-to-be. However, pay LOTS more than just the minimum. You want to make sure your balances report to under 10% of the CL on each CC. So if your CL is $200, for example, make sure only $19 or less reports.
Do these things and I bet you will have an increase of 30-40 points each within a couple months. Takes persistent work. Never ever give up on GWs. I personally sent up to 20 per month now for a CapOne with 2 lates from 2002.
We have been pre-approved for an FHA 30 year fixed at about 6.5% already. I just want to get my scores up and figure out how to get rid of all the crap that is lingering on my report.
My mortgage was 120 days late just before we sold it. The closing date / payoff date was October 2006, so it's almost 2 years. My LO is ok with it due to the type of mortgage it was (fraudulent subprime mortgage from Ameriquest) We are in the middle of a class action lawsuit against them now. If they didn't overstate our income and overstate our home's value, we would have had no problem paying it. I'm sure that if we had no good reason for being so late, then that would have been a totally different story.
It's just frustrating to be doing so well financially and still have crappy scores! 
But I'm going to get my util down. I had no plans to app any more CCs, in fact I didn't even want the 2 that I have, lol! But since I had them and my pregnant daughter needed some baby stuff for my almost born grandson.... what kind of grandma would I be if I didn't make sure he had a decent carseat, huh? 
Right now, though, I'm stuck between a rock and hard place. I want to get my util down, which means about $200.00 - but I'm being stingy and trying to save every penny for the down payment, etc. for the new house. We are trying to sell my hubby's motorcycle for some extra cash to do some fixing up after we buy.... know anyone that wants to buy a great bike???