Portfolio Recovery Associates PFD or GW?

[smith5879]

Hi guys, my girlfriend and I want to buy a house next year after our lease is up. I have a pretty decent job and good credit (750-775 range last time I checked). The problem is I have a rather high back-end debt to income ratio because I pay about $500 a month in student loans. She has very little monthly debt, but not very good credit. We haven't checked her score, but her credit report has a CA reporting from an unpaid credit card debt and two 30 day late payments on her car loan. Her credit history is also only around 3 years old. I would just put the house in my name but the amount of house I can afford wouldn't be very much because of my debt ratio. This means both of us will need to be on the mortgage and apparently, at least for FHA loans, they use the lowest credit score of the people applying (pretty stupid if you ask me).

We've sent 2 PFD letters certified because the debt isn't much and we can afford to pay it, but we hadn't gotten a response so I started emailing them. The person I was talking to said they don't delete tradelines, but if she pays it off, they will list it as paid in full. It's my understanding that this doesn't help you much as far as credit score goes. Should we continue to send more PFD letters or pay off the debt and start sending GW letters? We'd like to get this taken care of ASAP so we can get her a credit card to give her a better credit history down the road. I'm also going to make her an authorized user on my credit cards so that she can piggyback off my good credit.

Also is there contact info available for anyone at PRA who would likely accept a PFD offer or will remove the tradeline with a GW letter? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[newmomnewme]

PRA can be tough...I settled with them last year (before I joined myfico) and I have been sending GW removal letters for a few months now. No response. I even disputed the accounts because they weren't reporting accurately,  they simply updated them with new information.   I will continue to GW them since they won't be excluded until the end of 2015. 

Check the forums and see if anyone has had any PFD luck with them, I will PM you the contact information that I have. If you don't have much time, you might want to send the PFD letter and include the payment....then start sending GW removal letters immediately. 

Is the account information being reported accurately? 

[DaBears]

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@smith5879 wrote:

Hi guys, my girlfriend and I want to buy a house next year after our lease is up. I have a pretty decent job and good credit (750-775 range last time I checked). The problem is I have a rather high back-end debt to income ratio because I pay about $500 a month in student loans. She has very little monthly debt, but not very good credit. We haven't checked her score, but her credit report has a CA reporting from an unpaid credit card debt and two 30 day late payments on her car loan. Her credit history is also only around 3 years old. I would just put the house in my name but the amount of house I can afford wouldn't be very much because of my debt ratio. This means both of us will need to be on the mortgage and apparently, at least for FHA loans, they use the lowest credit score of the people applying (pretty stupid if you ask me). Minimum required score is 620 for a FHA

We've sent 2 PFD letters certified because the debt isn't much and we can afford to pay it, but we hadn't gotten a response so I started emailing them. The person I was talking to said they don't delete tradelines, but if she pays it off, they will list it as paid in full. It's my understanding that this doesn't help you much as far as credit score goes. Should we continue to send more PFD letters or pay off the debt and start sending GW letters? We'd like to get this taken care of ASAP so we can get her a credit card to give her a better credit history down the road. I'm also going to make her an authorized user on my credit cards so that she can piggyback off my good credit. Not a good idea when applying for a mortgage. AU will cause her Fico score not to be true or accurate as it is basing it off of someone's else credit history. The UW will make you remove her as a AU to see her "true" accurate Fico score.

Also is there contact info available for anyone at PRA who would likely accept a PFD offer or will remove the tradeline with a GW letter? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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[Halliep]

I don't know if this is still true or not, but when I applied for my home loans 5+ years ago, the mortgage broker said banks look at student loans a little differently in terms of what you can afford.  Yes, it still counts as far as what you can afford monthly, but it's not viewed the same way as if you were making $500 month in unsecured credit card payments.  I was able to qualify for my home as a single person with good credit scores (I think I was 720-750 at the time) and $600/month in student loan payments.  And I still qualified for a big mortgage ($400k house with $50k-ish down).  So if you have some money saved up to put down and are buying within your income/means, you may be fine on your own.  I don't think adding her as an AU will help her much because the banks take a hard look at your reports and will know she's an AU and not the credit holder.

[smith5879]

The information being reported I believe is accurate except possibly one thing. On her Equifax report PRA has the account listed under both the Other Accounts and Negative Accounts sections, both as closed accounts. Shouldn't the PRA account be listed under the Collections heading?

[smith5879]

So can anyone tell me if the PRA account is allowed to be listed under Other Accounts?

[RobertEG]

The debt collector has no control over how a vendor of a commerical credit report formats their reporting.

If they have reported as a debt collector, FICO will almost assuredly score as such, regardless of CR formatting.

Is there anything in thier specific reporting that is inaccurate?