What am I missing here?

[favegroupbeba]

Halo Everyone,

I am so happy I found this forum. I hope some of you can give me a pointer or two.

Here is my situation. After being young and stupid and then hit by some bills my credit was destroyed. I then started cleaning out my bills. I got Capital One (first $300, then $500 and now $1,000 credit limit), then I also got First Premier Card ($700), Merrick Bank (first $1,200 and now $1,500 limit), Barkley Card ($500) and Orcahrd Card ($300 then increased to $500). So total of about $4,200 in Credit Cards. All are paid off, I owe zero on them.

I used them monthly and pay off what I owe several times during the month (as soon as I charge something, a week or so later, before the payment is due I pay it off). I also have amazon.com credit line of $700 (paid off fully), Citibank/Goodyear $1000 limit (also paid off fully), and Firestone Card $1200 (paid of fully). So on none of these do I owe a single dollar.

I do, however, have student loans (about $14,000 left) and I am currently paying them off monthly about $200. I also have some hospital bills that went to collection and they will be paid off in about 2 months as well. I assume I then need to send "pay to delete" letter the collection agency (National Recovery) will send me to all 3 credit bureaus?

That being said, my scores seem to be "stuck" at around 635 to 660. I just pulled my fico report and it shows Experian:637, Equifax:662 and TransUnion635.

My problem is, I need to somehow bump these scores to at least above 680 score by next March *(2015). My wife and I want to buy a house. We have the income but we need our score to be at least 680 (her score is actually already 680 or so).

What am I missing here please? I will send the "pay to delete" letter for the hospital bill, I owe nothing (zero) on my credit cards, store cards (since 30 days ago all are paid). I have no car loans or mortgage - only student loans. The hospital/collection bill will be paid off in two months.

What else can I be doing to increase my score in time for next March when I need to apply for a Mortgage Loan. My wife and my income combined should be by the end of this year around 100k. We need about 300k in mortgage loan.

Thank you for whatever time (and patience) you can find to answer.

Dino

[RobertEG]

The two major scoring cateories are until of credit, and payment history.

You seem to have tweaked util, leaving your payment history scoring, which is the most heavily weighted.

Presence of any major derogs, such as a collection, keeps our scoring in that category in a less favorable "bucket."

You ost likely will continue to see stagnancy until your file is rid of major derogs.

You dont send a pay for delete letter after paying, you send while there is still a balance.

After paying, you have no debt to offer its payment in exchange for CR deletion of their collection.

The incentive is $ in their pocket today, so I would suggest making your PFD offer now.

If you wait until after the debt is satisfied, you would be limited to a simple GW request.

[Lechte]

You should see an immediate increase in score (how much I don't know) by letting one of your CC's report a balance between 1-9%. 

[favegroupbeba]

Hi RobertEG,

Thank you very much for your reply. I just want to make sure I understood your instructions correctly; so, I am supposed to contact the collection agency (which I have already been paying for the past 6 months) and tell them what exactly? That I need them to send me (or to credit report agencies) pay to delete letter in exchange of what? Me paying now?

[favegroupbeba]

I just spoke to National Recovery Agency (collection company) and they are telling me they do not issue pay to delete letter until balance is paid, and that, upon payment of ballance, they updated (she said it is required by the Federal Law) the three credit reporting agencies.

That bein said, I will, however, now fax them in writing my request for pay to delete letter to see if I could still get it.

Thank you for your help all - I really appreciate it. 

[favegroupbeba]

Thank you Lechte.

[RobertEG]

Once the debt has been satisfied, they are required to close the collection and report $0 balance under collection.

There is no requirement that they delete the collection based on payment of the debt.

To the contrary, they are instructed by the CRAs not to delete based on payment of the debt.

They can always choose to report deletion of their collection at any time of their choosing, regardless of the CRA policy.

They need not submit any reasons to the CRA for their deletion, and clearly will not inform the CRA that they are deleting based on a pay for delete agreement.

That is purely a prvate matter between you and the debt collector.

Quite simply, send or call the debt collector and offer to pay the full amount now in exchange for their agreement to delete their reporting.

A genral statement that they will report as required is not sufficiient, as there is no requirement to delete.

 If you get agreement, you have an oral contract, and then promptly send the $.

[favegroupbeba]

Thanks Robert.

I already fax them (that is what they said I needed to do) letter requesting pay to delete and I will follow up with a call.

They already have my checking account info (they deduct automatically my monthly payments from there), so it is a matter of me just calling them and telling them to deduct what is left (about $800) from the account. But I will wait to see what they do with my faxed request first.

And my wife just yesterday got three letters for hospital bills that were covered under our Blue Cross Blue Shiled health insurance. We sent them letters today disputing t he bill with copies of our health insurance cards so we will see how that will go.

It seems to be that the hardest (Biggest B.S.) bills to dispute are hospital bills. The hospital never sent us any bills previously (these bills are supposedly from 2009 and we always had the insurance) nor any itemized charges. After my surgery last year they tried (Hospital and then collection agency) to claim I owed them $3k. However, the first time hospital sent me the bill, I asked for itemized bills (what the charges are for) and for disclosure of their agreement with my health insurance company (they cannot bill me $5 for the same item that they bill my insurance for $1). Hospital ignored me (I sent all via FedEx - signature requested).

When the collection agency tried to collect, I sent them copies of all fedex-es I sent to their client (hospital) and disputed all. They dropped the whole thing and it never showed on my credit report. 

[BigBS]

Think it was mentioned before but having some utilization (< 9%) on a single credit card would be beneficial.

[favegroupbeba]

Thank you BigBS.