Question, need some advice

[Anonymous]

my husband and I have been working on his credit.  we are wanting to purchase a house and have a lender who can get us approved if his middle score is at 500, our income is good, his work history is excellent and our debt is low - 2 car payments owing less than 50% on each and 1 student loan below 60% of balance. 

My husband had a hand full of collections, I was able to negotiate a PFD on 2 and then settled on the other remaining 4 items.  There is 1 medical that we are disputing because it was a workers comp claim and the hospital needs to bill the workers comp insurance. 

I signed him up for credit monitoring and have been keeping an eye on his score for 3 months now.  It is odd though, when our lender pulled my husbands score he came up with these - EX - 457, EQ - 506, TU - 499; but according to the score watch here is what I received the very next day - EX - 491, EQ - 521, TU - 489. 

I am also seeing that the payments on the collections have not been posted to the CB's yet and I went online and submitted the disputes to have those accounts verified, I provided the payment dates, amounts and the confirmation numbers. 

We need to get his scores above 500 immediately to get approved for this house that we stumbled on that is perfect.  I noticed on our reports that one of our loans, an auto with our Credit Union is showing late 4 times last year - 1 is incorrect (they allow you to apply for skip-a-payment) which I did and was approved, the late is showing for a skip a payment month.  The other 3 are directly related to our house fire which occured in March.  We were then late in April, May and June (30, 60, 90).  I am hoping that the credit union will agree to do a GWA on atleast the 60 and 90.  Will that be enough to bring all of his scores above 500? 

My other question, my husband works and I attend school full time.  My scores are EX - 525, EQ - 515, TU - 514; I am going on the mortgage with him but the lender states he must use my husbands scores because he is the one working.  Is this correct? 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[guiness56]

Paid and unpaid collections hurt your score equally.  A settled account is worse than a paid collection if that is what is showing on your CR.  If you could, I would try to PFD for the remaining balance.

Is any of these collections still within SOL?

As for the medical collection, look up the HIPPA process here and follow it exactly as it says.

How long has it been since you made the payments?  Sometimes it can take up to 90 days to update.

If you can get the lates removed, you could see an improvement.

Also, I would try to get a credit card. This will give you a balance on the types of credit you have.  A good spread of different types of credit is a plus.

I do not own a house so I can not answer the question about which scores to use.  It seems to me that if it is a joint mortage they could use your scores also. 

[Anonymous]

so you found a lender that will lend at 500 middle with lates in the last 12 months? sounds almost too good to be true, unless it is an unreal rate. i was under the impression that they always use the lowest middle score, which would be your husbands. i would definitely work on PFDs on the collections you settled, if you can afford it. I would think you would get the couple points you need just by doing that.

[teaka69]

I would like to know what state do you live in and who would finance you with 500 scores.  your situation is similar to mine.  l lost my house to fire and now can't get a loan.  teaka69

[Anonymous]

Thanks guiness56, I was working with our mortgage broker and he said that as long as they were "paid" it wouldn't hurt us, maybe for his purposes it won't but I still want my husbands scores to be in the 700's by 2010.  After your post, I contacted the companies I settled with and offered a PFD on the remaining balance, both responded immediately and agreed - yippee! 

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Acutally the lender will lend with a middle 500 as long as you have a solid work history, the lates must be over 12 months old, that is what's causing the issues.  Working on a GWA with our loan administrator since we had 4 lates after a house fire and those were our only lates in 3 years. 

[Anonymous]

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laileigh79 wrote: 

There is 1 medical that we are disputing because it was a workers comp claim and the hospital needs to bill the workers comp insurance. 

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I'm going to start out by assuming that the claim was considered valid by the WCD. And that other expenses on that claim were paid.

For the Worker's Comp bill, go straight to the hospital and tell them that by state (and usually, Federal) law, they are required to bill the employer's insurance company directly. Your name should NEVER have been on ANY "financial responsibility" paperwork. NEVER.

Let them know that a complaint against them to the Worker's Compensation Compliance Division is forthcoming. You'd be surprised how quickly they'll pull that bill back and get it off your CRs.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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laileigh79 wrote: 

There is 1 medical that we are disputing because it was a workers comp claim and the hospital needs to bill the workers comp insurance. 

---

I'm going to start out by assuming that the claim was considered valid by the WCD. And that other expenses on that claim were paid.

For the Worker's Comp bill, go straight to the hospital and tell them that by state (and usually, Federal) law, they are required to bill the employer's insurance company directly. Your name should NEVER have been on ANY "financial responsibility" paperwork. NEVER.

Let them know that a complaint against them to the Worker's Compensation Compliance Division is forthcoming. You'd be surprised how quickly they'll pull that bill back and get it off your CRs.

---

Forgot: If you tell me the state you're in, I can find out exactly where you'd file your complaint (or threaten to).

[Anonymous]

Great news, Harvard Collection Services will do a PFD on debts if paid in full.  I now only have 3 unpaid collections on DH's report that are all from 2004.  His score has increased from July 2008 (EQ: 443, TU: 385, EX: 463) to now February 2009 (EQ: 541, TU: 501, EX: 502).  Once this Harvard Collection debt for $1133 comes off (which was DOFD 05/2007) we should see another jump in his score, hoping for 20 pts. but we will see.  

Also, I have prepared GW letter's to all other CA's and OC's who are paid, might as well give it a shot.  Really annoyed with a few CA's b/c they are reporting as 120+ late and open on paid collections.  Need to get on this too, really soon.  Has anyone sent a letter out regarding this?  Was it sucessful?  Do you have a template?

Thanks to everyone on here, hope I can gain enough knowledge to help other's improve their credit scores. 

[BungalowMo]

Looks like all your hard work is paying off! One question...those PFD's that they agreed to...did you get that in writing and have any been removed yet??

Just curious how that's coming together.  Good luck!!!