What should I do next?

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2010

Looking for advice please. I need to improve my CR in the next 2-3 months and I'm not quite sure what to do. Here's the situation:

My current FICO is 660/670.

The Bad:

BofA Credit Card - was a CO. Acct PIF Dec 2006, multiple 120 day lates up to Dec 2006. $0 Balance.

Chase Credit Card - was a CO. Acct PIF Jan 2006, multiple 120 day lates up to Jan 2006. This acct does not say it had been paid. It was PIF. This account also shows scheduled payment amount of $581. I had no payment schedule set up. $0 Balance.

Verizon - was a CO. Acct PIF Jan 2007. Acct type shows as "Open Account", this is not an open account. $0 Balance.

SST/CIGPF1 Corp - was a CO. Account PIF Dec 2008. This account shows scheduled payment amount of $723. I had no payment schedule set up, the account was PIF. $0 Balance.

The Good:

BofA Credit Card (secured) - Open account, $1000k limit, pays as agreed, acct 13 months old. Never late.

Capital One Credit Card - Closed account Nov 2005, pays as agreed, never late.

Credit One Credit Card - Closed account Dec 2008, pays as agreed, never late.

Capital One Auto Loan - Cloased account Dec 2008, pays as agreed, never late.

What I've done:

Sent GW letters on the 4 baddies. Heard back from SST, they said no. Haven't heard from others yet.

In process of being placed on wife's BofA credit card as an AU. $4500k limit, she's never been late, account is 4 years old. Has not hit my CR yet.

A couple of things that are wrong on the baddies:

The Chase and SST accts show payment schedules that I never had.

The Chase acct does not state it was "paid".

Verizon shows as being "open" when it's not.

What should I do next? Should I dispute these accts with the CRA's? Go through the DV process? If you think I should dispute, should I do it online through the CRA's or send CMRR letters?

The AU BofA acct from DW should help my score, but what else can I do to increase my Fico?

DW and I want to get an FHA this Spring and I need to clean things up before then.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

RobertEG · ‎01-02-2010

PIF of any debt never removes it from your CR, so no improvement there by paying.

You appear to have mulitiple serious derogs. Any 60+ late is serious. Each remain for 7 years.

CO's and collections are just further, accumulated serious derogs. They remain for 7 1/2 years from the DOFD on first defaut witt the OC.

Paying any of them without a prior acceptance of a PFD agreement wont help.

I do not, based on what you have disclosed, see any reasonalble prospect for FICO increase, unlessn you get some SOLID PFD agreements/

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2010

Sorry Robert, I should have been more clear.

All of my accts have been PIF (paid in full). Several were paid a couple years ago, the last was paid in 2008. I have no outstanding collections or balances.

If I had known I could PFD back when I paid, I would have. Stupidity and ignorance on my part.

llecs · ‎01-02-2010

Keep sending GWs.

The scheduled payment remark isn't a payment arrangement but rather an amount you owed at some point in time up to paying it. It has zero bearing on your scores or DTI come loan time.

So as long as Chase is at $0, then your FICO score and lenders would know that it was paid. Not every paid CO has a "paid" comment in the comment field.

Ignore the "open" comment for Verizon. It also has no impact on your FICO score or the way lenders view this TL.

IMO, there's nothing disputable. Just keep sending GW letters. Also, at least for Chase and BofA, reword the GW letters asking them to remove the derog info vs. deleting. If deleted, you can lose history as your AAoA drops and that can hurt your score.

You can't DV. DVs are only for CAs.

Anonymous · ‎01-02-2010

Thanks for the reply IIecs. Much appreciated. I will send another GW to SST on Monday.

Should I send more GW's to the others before I hear back on the first round? I'm assuming I should wait to hear from them.

Lastly, my CR has 2 old addresses - previous homes that I have not lived in for almost 7 years. The "newbie" info/FAQs I've read says to dispute these with the CRA's as "erroneous" to get them off my CR in case I want to dispute something else down the line. Should I dispute them?

Message Edited by lucent on 01-02-2010 07:37 PM

llecs · ‎01-02-2010

lucent wrote:
Should I send more GW's to the others before I hear back on the first round? I'm assuming I should wait to hear from them.

Persistence is key. I had some baddies I was sending anywhere from 10-15 letters per month to the same creditor.

lucent wrote:
Lastly, my CR has 2 old addresses - previous homes that I have not lived in for almost 7 years. The "newbie" info/FAQs I've read says to dispute these with the CRA's as "erroneous" to get them off my CR in case I want to dispute something else down the line. Should I dispute them?

IMO, no. There's no harm in having old addresses/names/employers report, so as long as the current demographic info is correct.