Update and looking for ideas (Challenge anyone?)

[jandj80]

So our lender pull on 7/01/12 was EQ 416 EX 468 and TU 498. As of today, this is what I have: EQ (myfico) 474 EX FAKO via Credit Sesame 594 and TU Vantage via Credit Karma 613. First of all, do you all think the differences are realistic? TU does not have my hubbys student loan lates reporting. (4 accounts, all reporting 1 30 day late from Jan 2012). We have two open medical collections that will be paid off next week. All the other medical collections are paid and over 2 years old. We have one charge off from July 2011 that I paid in full in Aug, and a couple 30 day lates that are well over 3 years old. I also paid off another open collection in Sept. There are a couple other baddies but they are all over 4 years old. One paid off tax lein from 2010 is still reporting. We had a bankruptcy discharged in 2006 after cancer. I have current disputes in on the lates, but they have been repeatedly verified, so little chance of getting anything else removed. I also have Hipaa process going on the paid medical accounts (yes I opted out). 

Since July I have removed: one medical judgement from 2010, two 30 day lates on credit cards (now have 3 flawless 4 year old accounts), 7 paid medical collections removed, and a bunch of lates on the student loans 3- 30 and 2- 60 days, 4 accounts total so 20 total lates removed, (fell off deferment, bank was understanding, however the one 30 day late was my fault). I have also paid our credit card util down from 100% to 80%, which will decrease to 0% by Feb. (3 cards, 4K limit total)

Postivies: 25 accounts total, cards, car loans, lines of credit, etc. All perfect history, paid as agreed. 

What do you all think our odds are of getting to 580 mid score by March 1? We want to buy a home. We have all the qualifications and the down payment, just need the scores. Ideas?? Thanks for your input folks! 

[Shogun]

Keep cleaning those reports and I think you can make it.  GW those paid accounts!

[jandj80]

I have goodwilled the crap out of them. The problem is, they are local and will not budge. The attorney who owns the firm has a reputation to uphold. I have tried and tried. I even have left the two unpaid ones (same agency) as a bargaining tool. But at this point I think its time to just pay it. 

Other bad news....Got a letter today from experian that they will no longer investigate my disputes, so those are all there to stay. Guess they are sick of me. I also got a response to a goodwill letter from a bank that said "What our agency has reported is small in comparison to your other credit problems." I could not believe that one, but again that was my third goodwill and I am sure they are sick of me. 

It is looking like I have reached the end of what I can fix.... I can only hope the credit card utilization going down is going to give me the HUGE increase I need, as I don't see much else I can do. Sad day. 

[snsforever916]

If you have goodwilled and PFD everything you could, then the only thing that could help at this point is time/things falling off.

Honestly, I think 580 in 6 months is wishful thinking at best. You really need to clean up your reports by paying even if they won't delete and trying to goodwill later. I think that one creditor hit the nail on the head, as horrible as it is to come to terms with, you have tons of baddies!! One or two creditors deleting will not help. What will give you a bit of a jump 20-30+ or more is paying down your credit cards and getting everything current.

And to be frank, I do not think a home purchase should be on your agenda for at least 2-3 years. You have had many issues since a bankruptcy and currently have maxed out credit. Fix your past mistakes, build your savings and then by that point your scores will be in the range to purchase a home.

By the way, this is the advice I was given and my scores were 100 points higher with about 60% of my credit lines maxed, no liens, no bankruptcy, no judgements...just a couple of chargeoffs and old phone collections. Now I am 32% on a bad month and my scores have rose 40 points. Give it time and pay everything on time. Cut back and budget....stop living on credit! I wish you luck!

[jandj80]

The only unpaid items on the report is a total of $300 for medical (which I left open so I could try to get a pay for delete). If we don't get to the 580 we will just put 10% down, as the bank will give us a loan with 10% due to our large amount of good credit. I have had numerous loan officers say our report is puzzling as we have far more good than bad. I realize we have several bad items, but we DID NOT file bankruptcy on irresponsible spending. My husband was diagnsosed with cancer at the age of 19, six months after we started dating, and had no insurance (in college). Our fakos have gone up from mid 500's to low 600's, so I don't think it will impossible. My eq fico has gone from 416 to 473 in 2 months (which was the lowest BY FAR). Also, transunion only has 4 total baddies on it. Every medical collection on the report is from ONE creditor, and they took ONE bill and itemized it out to show 18 seperate accounts on credit. I called the OC about this and they "don't control how the CA reports." I don't have 18 collections at 18 different places. Its all one, from one bill. We already owned a home, and we sold it when we moved for a new job. We are not idiots who cannot manage a mortgage. I have a 4 year mortgage history with flawless payments. As I said, we have 25 perfect accounts dated 2006-now, and I would not think that an almost 7 year old bankruptcy, a few paid medical collections (over 2 years), a paid lien/judgement (over 2 years) and a couple 30 days lates a few years ago would make a home loan unattainable. Also, my hubby makes very good money, and I will be done with school in April. We want to close before April since our income will be too high for the loan program we want to use if I am working. Our big card is maxed out cause I pay bills and payoff each month, right now I am toying with it to see when it reports. We have money saved, so that is not an issue. I asked for advice on fixing the credit problems we have, not advice on how irresponsible I am. I am pretty sure most the people on a rebuilding forum have made poor decisions. 

[Shogun]

Well I still think you can make it.  Get the GWs going, pay down that utility to under 9% and you should make 580.  Get on it, get aggressive.  We've got to get this house.  Use this forum, we will love to help you!!!!!!!

[snsforever916]

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@jandj80 wrote:

The only unpaid items on the report is a total of $300 for medical (which I left open so I could try to get a pay for delete). If we don't get to the 580 we will just put 10% down, as the bank will give us a loan with 10% due to our large amount of good credit. I have had numerous loan officers say our report is puzzling as we have far more good than bad. I realize we have several bad items, but we DID NOT file bankruptcy on irresponsible spending. My husband was diagnsosed with cancer at the age of 19, six months after we started dating, and had no insurance (in college). Our fakos have gone up from mid 500's to low 600's, so I don't think it will impossible. My eq fico has gone from 416 to 473 in 2 months (which was the lowest BY FAR). Also, transunion only has 4 total baddies on it. Every medical collection on the report is from ONE creditor, and they took ONE bill and itemized it out to show 18 seperate accounts on credit. I called the OC about this and they "don't control how the CA reports." I don't have 18 collections at 18 different places. Its all one, from one bill. We already owned a home, and we sold it when we moved for a new job. We are not idiots who cannot manage a mortgage. I have a 4 year mortgage history with flawless payments. As I said, we have 25 perfect accounts dated 2006-now, and I would not think that an almost 7 year old bankruptcy, a few paid medical collections (over 2 years), a paid lien/judgement (over 2 years) and a couple 30 days lates a few years ago would make a home loan unattainable. Also, my hubby makes very good money, and I will be done with school in April. We want to close before April since our income will be too high for the loan program we want to use if I am working. Our big card is maxed out cause I pay bills and payoff each month, right now I am toying with it to see when it reports. We have money saved, so that is not an issue. I asked for advice on fixing the credit problems we have, not advice on how irresponsible I am. I am pretty sure most the people on a rebuilding forum have made poor decisions. 

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Well, obviously you know everything! Good luck!

[hendersj31]

First of all I a msorry to hear about the cancer and I hope all is well with that.  It must have been difficult to get such awful news at 19 years old.  You will definitely see gains in credit score by paying off the credit cards.  If you have the money, you might as well do it immediately and see what your scores are after they update.  No sense in waiting to do this if you can spare the money.  You will then know exactly what you have left to do to accomplish your goal.  If I am reading everything correctly, most of your negative items are medical related and I would not even consider paying them unless told to do so by an EXPERIENCED Loan officer.  Even then I would ask the Loan Officer to check with their underwriters on this.  Check the specifics on medical collections and see what they are. 

One of the reasons I say this is because sometimes paying off an old collection will change the date of last activity to the current date it was paid and it will lower your score further.  There are tons of posts on that topic, you should be able to find some that make sense. 

Definitely pay the cards off.  Make sure they have as low a balance as possible when they report to the Bureaus.  This make sup 30% of your score.  It matters big time.  Maybe not 100 points, but it is huge. 
Also, maybe you can piggyback or get added as an Authorized User on a family members account.  It would need to be an aged account with very low utilization for best results.  Maybe get added to 2 or 3 of these? 

Of course it wouldn't hurt to have an experienced credit repair company have a look at your credit report.  I may stand to be corrected, but I had a co worker get some items deleted due to errors.  Not necessarliy "the account is not mine" errors, but things like mispelled name and wrong address.  He said the items were deleted because of this.  Yes, these are things you can do yourself, but there are people who have a better eye for these things and may be able to help. 

Hopefully some of this will be helpful and best of luck. 

[Shogun]

Please remember to play nice in here.

OK, with that out of the way.  Have you got the ball rolling yet?

[madmann26]

For the local 'attorney' that won't budge,

File a BBB complaint and see what happens.