Welcome and you've come to the right place!
AngelKat wrote:
Our goal...
We want to get our scores up to at least 650 before we even consider applying for a home loan.
The low down on our credit....
My credit scores are 498/515/540(Where did you pull these scores), my husbands are pretty comparable. The positives that we have on there...Mortgage (yes the one from over 4 years ago) that was never late, car loan that is paid off, $2500 loan that is current, couple other small things that have nothing derogatory. The negatives...medical bills in collections,- there are about 10 of them totaling $1800 worth in collections, numerous old credit cards that have gone to collections, including some that are written off, plus a state lax lien that is paid off, and we no longer have any open credit cards.
So here are the questions that I have come up with so far...
1) We know we need to get a credit card opened in each of our names, to get one though we will have to get a secured card. Should we be taking extra cash and getting secured credit cards in place now so that they are on our credit starting now and therefore won't be completely new in a year or two when we apply for a loan, or should we be taking the cash to pay the collections first? (Get the secured cards now and start building that history. You can start small, $500 or so each and let only 1-9% of the balance report each month. You can use more, just pay down to 1-9% before the statement is generated).
2) Which collections do you pay first - the medical bills or the credit cards or does it matter?(Typically you want to attack the most recent collections as they do the most harm, but one collection is the same as 10 collections. Also, I think I've read on the mortgage board that medical collections aren't scrutinized as much...but I could be wrong there.)
3) When we pulled our credit we noticed that several of the credit cards that were written off or are in collections were listed on our credit reports under the original creditor and then again under a collection agency can we request that one of them be removed?(You can ask. The OC and CA can both report the account. Neither one has to remove it).
4) I am concerned that if I touch some of these older ones that I am going to make them worse - is there a certain time frame that once it is past I should just leave it alone and not worry about it?(you need to check your state's statute of limitation. check the sticky at the top of the board to find a link to your state. Important thing to remember is that if you contact a creditor and the account is still within SOL, you need to be able to pay the account in full. Negative items remain on your reports for 7-7.5 years from the date the account first went bad and never recovered. Depending on where you got your report, there should be an estimated date the item will be removed from your report. If it's close to falling off and you have the ability to wait it out, let it go. )
5) On some of the collection agencies reporting the date opened that they have listed is the date that that specific agency received the collection - for example LVNV is reporting that we have an account opened in 2006 - what they are referring to is an old Sears account that was closed and sent to collections in 2003 - they aren't the only ones that are doing this. How do I get them to correct their dates. This should have been off of our credit already but it still sits there because of their dating! (The account with LVNV was opened in 2006, it's when they were assigned or bought the Sears date. This can continue to happen as CA's buy and sell bad debt). Only the original Sears account should be off your reports by now, if it went to collections in 2003. It should've fallen off sometime in 2010.)
Thanks for taking the time to read this and any advice you may have. We are excited to start on this journey and get our lives back to the way they were 10 years ago!!
@Booner72 wrote:llecs: What happens if the OC and the CA are both reporting a balance for the same account? What do you do about that kind of situation?
Sorry, not llecs but I'll chime in. Typically when this happens is means the OC still OWNS the debt but has assigned the CA to collect it. In these cases you have a good chance of working with the OC to pull back the collection and get the OC paid. And then sometimes, it's just an error on the OC's part in continuing to report the balance.