I really can't thank the members of this forum enough for helping me with some specific guiance the last few weeks - and for the countlass weeks I've spent over the last 2 months reading every bit of information I can to get a game plan together.
I talked my wife into selling a home she loves for my dream home with not enough money in the bank and a set of credit scores that didn't qualify. I managed to round up the money and with enough effort, the remaining things fell into place better than I could have hoped - With the exception of my credit scores.
On 6/15 I bought my 1st of 18 3B reports to obsese over and start determing a game plan. At that point my FICO 8s were 608/609/626. Mortgage scores weren't much higher and I needed minimum 700 to qualify.
Managed to get guidance on getting my 1st CC in 7 years, getting a bunch of AU accounts added and challenging and deleting a few things. I felt good on 7/1 about where I was at; 645/670/644....Movement but not enough. We were prepping to put our house on the market. We were 2 weeks from making an offer on the home we wanted to have built for us. Talked our LO into writing a carefully worked letter stating we should be credit eligible when we make formal application. Somehow that worked.
Things started getting wonky in mid August... My repair efforts stalled out. I was running out of negative items to dispute and remove. The last week of August I discovered the WhyChat HIPAA dispute process for a 18 month old medical collection....Letters sent. Also managed to get an EE on an old CC balance....
September 1st. Home sale closes in 10 days. We're no longer going to be home owners and I don't qualify for a home we expect to buy in December. We're panicing. Find out that the old CC dropped from EQ as well on behalf of First Premier. I'm shocked and pleased. At this point, all scores are in the 690ish range. 10 points away... I can do this.
This morning, I bought a 3B report and see that my only negative item on TU is gone. The Whychat HIPAA method worked. I am an 817!!!! I know Experian is only a matter of time. I had no dispute in on this, it was removed by the CA on behalf of the OC. I fully expect to be at 800+ on 2 reports by Friday. I have a clever dispute in on my only remaining negative on EQ and fingers crossed, it'll be gone by the end of the month.
After wiping away my tears, I thought of not only the advice I've received from members here, bu words of encouragment I received at times when I felt that I wouldn't make it. Thank you to everyone who helped and keep fighting to everyone that is on the path to improving their scores.
I intend to stick around, continue learning & offering advice to anyone that I can help. The debt of gratitude I owe cannot be repaid.
Thank you.
