Rebuilding Credit

[Ravensfan2001]

Hi everyone! I'm new here and just looking for advice, opinions, criticisms...whatever about what I should or shouldn't do from this point on. I really started concentrating on rebuilding my credit in May 2012 when I finally woke up and realized that I needed to do something about my credit NOW. I applied for a mortgage in April 2012 to buy the house I grew up in. And with my scores in the 500's, of course, I didn't get approved. Here is some information off my credit reports:

SCORES from lender as of 04/2012: TU 596, EX 550, EQ 576

NEGATIVES

2 public records on all 3 CRAs from same medical company from 01/2010. Unpaid.

11 negatives/collection accounts on TU

• 7 will fall off my credit report by August 2013 (some are repeats)
• 2 more will fall of by 11/2014
• 2 medical
• 1 paid (the most recent one from 2012, which was county property tax that I overlooked)

2 more collections on EX in addition to TU

• 1 paid (utility)
• 1 medical (will fall off 10/2014)

3 more collections on EQ in addition to TU and EX

• all medical
• 1 will fall of 4/2014

INQUIRIES (Most of them came this year after I started rebuilding journey. Yes, it's a lot!)

TU - 10

EX - 14

EQ - 15

POSITIVES

• 36-month auto loan from 03/2012
• $300 Capital One secured MC 05/2012
• $500 Citibank secured loan 08/2012
• $650 Fingerhut account 08/2012
• $500 SDFCU secured Visa 10/2012
• All accounts are 100% on time and paid in full each month
• Currently 6% utililzation

Newly approved this month

• Target $200
• Walmart $600
• JC Penney $150

Still waiting to hear from Capital One Cash Rewards MC, TJX card, and Victoria's Secret for approval (got 7-10 day message).

GOAL

Approved for a mortgage by 2014

PLAN

• no more inquiries ... I have all the accounts I want for now.
• continue to pay on-time

QUESTIONS

• I plan to pay my judgments eventually. Can I request to have them taken off my credit report if I pay it off? No action has been taken since the judgment (garnishment).
• Should I pay my collection accounts? A bunch of them are falling off my report soon. I was planning just to leave those alone. But the others are there for a while. Will it make a difference?
• Do credit limits make a difference to lenders? Mine are small and I heard that lenders favor a history of larger credit lines.
• What are some good credit monitoring services? I tried some out with a free trial. I don't really want to pay for my scores (I really don't like looking at my scores at this point. lol!)
• Any comments would be appreciated!!!!!!

[Asailorshort]

In regards to your collections, for the ones that aren't falling off anytime soon, you should try to pay them off.  Obviously try pfd first but if they won't budge, you may just have to pay them and GW the heck out of them afterwards.  Many/most mortgage lenders won't approve you until you've paid past collections.

i have seen a few posts about people successfully getting judgements vacated after satisfied.  As for the medical collections, i've always seen people suggest using the hippa process.  I don't know anything about it other than you cant discuss it on these forums, so its likely a bit of a shady way to get them removed.

[Ravensfan2001]

What process do I take to get a judgment vacated?