Waiting to apply for a mortgage

[Anonymous]

In early August I contacted a mortgage broker to apply for a home.  I explained to him that I filed bankruptcy and was discharged in 7/2009.

I had restablished my credit got a car loan at 9% in March this year and had gotten some credit cards, all are paid on time etc.  He said that was great should not be a problem and then I got the rejection letter with my credit scores in the mail.

Equifax +587

Transunion +605

Experian +557

He also referred me to a credit repair agency and after a length discussion with that company and requesting a guarantee that what they would do for the $700 would work.

They explained that I had errors on my report and after refusing to provide such guarantee, I decided to go to Equifax.com, TransUnion.com, and Experian.com and do it myself.

There were many errors on my report and I was able to remove them.  I also figured out the timing of when the credit cards reported to the bureaus as I pay them off each month so they would show a true zero balance.  (I use them for work primarily.)

The scores on these sites gave me an idea of how my scores have improved especially since when seeing my bank at the end of August to discuss getting a mortgage, they said I could with a middle score below 600 but it is longer in underwriting and would require a 5% down pay.

My scores jumped by 80+ immediately on these sites after the negative items were removed.

I then came here to check my fico as I was not sure which ones the lender would use:

Transunion on myfico.com 683

Equifax on myfico.com 694

Equifax.com is 635

Transunion.com is 674

Experian.com is 704.

Another thread a moderator told me to use the myfico but how do I guage the experian score.

Does anyone know what the time frame on "Amount of new credit" is?

The last credit I have obtained was March,2011 when I got my new card.

I would like to move in January to apply for a loan as well thinking my scores may be all in the 700's.  Does anyone have a good idea if the experian score I have would be lower than what the fico.  My credit bureaus now have the same information so I really do not know why they have different scores either.

[RW771]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

In early August I contacted a mortgage broker to apply for a home.  I explained to him that I filed bankruptcy and was discharged in 7/2009.

I had restablished my credit got a car loan at 9% in March this year and had gotten some credit cards, all are paid on time etc.  He said that was great should not be a problem and then I got the rejection letter with my credit scores in the mail.

Equifax +587

Transunion +605

Experian +557

He also referred me to a credit repair agency and after a length discussion with that company and requesting a guarantee that what they would do for the $700 would work.

They explained that I had errors on my report and after refusing to provide such guarantee, I decided to go to Equifax.com, TransUnion.com, and Experian.com and do it myself.

There were many errors on my report and I was able to remove them.  I also figured out the timing of when the credit cards reported to the bureaus as I pay them off each month so they would show a true zero balance.  (I use them for work primarily.)

The scores on these sites gave me an idea of how my scores have improved especially since when seeing my bank at the end of August to discuss getting a mortgage, they said I could with a middle score below 600 but it is longer in underwriting and would require a 5% down pay.

My scores jumped by 80+ immediately on these sites after the negative items were removed.

I then came here to check my fico as I was not sure which ones the lender would use:

Transunion on myfico.com 683

Equifax on myfico.com 694

Equifax.com is 635

Transunion.com is 674

Experian.com is 704.

Another thread a moderator told me to use the myfico but how do I guage the experian score.

Does anyone know what the time frame on "Amount of new credit" is?

The last credit I have obtained was March,2011 when I got my new card.

I would like to move in January to apply for a loan as well thinking my scores may be all in the 700's.  Does anyone have a good idea if the experian score I have would be lower than what the fico.  My credit bureaus now have the same information so I really do not know why they have different scores either.

---

Unfortunately, you're not able to get your EX FICO score anywhere but through a bank anymore. This became effective as of 02/2009, I believe. It stinks I know, as I was a little nervous to see where my EX score was when I went to the bank last week to see if I could get pre-qualified for a mortgage loan. I urge you to still pull your EX credit report and make sure that everything that appears on it is reporting accurately. I wouldn't take the "FAKO" score to heart though. However, my EX FAKO was only like 2-3 points off. I've heard of the EX FAKO's being off as much as 100 points in some instances, so that's why it stinks to not know where you truly stand with them. EX always seems to be my middle score, so it was like taking a shot in the dark to see what the bank showed me at with them, and I was totally surprised that they FAKO I was given was almost exactly the same. Good luck to you, your scores look really good so far so I bet you'll be just fine.

[timkrof]

I was/am in a similar situation.  For the "new accounts", this factor seems to be based on the hard inquiries that are on your reports.  They are factored in if the hard inquiries were made up to 2 years ago.

I've heard from a few lenders that you don't want to have any hard inquiries on your reports within 6 months before you apply for a mortgage.

Also, 620 seems to be the magic number for getting a mortgage these days.  I'm sure the higher the score the better the chances/rates will be.

My Experian Fico and Plus (experian.com) scores were off by less than 10 points.  In my case, my Fico was 8 points lower than my Plus score.

Hope this helps!  

[Holly1221]

RW7711....just wondering how you improved your scores so quickly in such a short period of time?  I am in the mortgage process & was told I need 26 points and he wants to wait til payments update to CB.  I just paid all of my cc's from 97% utilization (overall) to 27% (paid 2 of 10 cards to $0 balance).  I can't stand the wait for them to report so I can see my new score. 

Anyone have a guess at my increase?  I have 1 - 30 day late from Aug of this year (paper billing & missed it), Sallie Mae is reporting me with 17 - 90+ days late from before Dec of 2006 (all on time since then & I'm working with their advocate to get those straightened out...if she would EVER answer her phone!), and 3 old medical collections.

SW simulator says possible 40 point increase.

Anyone?  I'm going CRAZY waiting!!!

[RobertEG]

As for the use of a credit repair organization, if one of your needs is to dispute inaccurate informtion, use of a credit repair organization can actually put you to a distinct disadvantage.

In my opinion, use of the direct dispute process for disputing inaccurate information is far superior to disputing through a CRA.  You avoid the sanitation of your dispute by the CRA use of the horrid e-OSCAR automated dispute process, which almost always results in the CRA not forwarding all your supporting documention to the creditor/debt collector.  You obtain, if successful in your dispute, credtitor obligation to correct or delete the disputed information without your need to dispute separately with each CRA.

Credit repair organizations cannot dispute using the direct dispute process.  The implementing rules, at 16 CFR 660.4(b), specifically exclude even their assistance in preparation of a direct dispute.  So if you use a credit repair organization, they cannot represent you as well as you can represent yourself.

Their exclusion from the direct dispute process speaks volumes, at least to me, of the view that the federal agencies who implemented the direct dispute rules have regarding credit repair organizations........

[RW771]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

RW7711....just wondering how you improved your scores so quickly in such a short period of time?  I am in the mortgage process & was told I need 26 points and he wants to wait til payments update to CB.  I just paid all of my cc's from 97% utilization (overall) to 27% (paid 2 of 10 cards to $0 balance).  I can't stand the wait for them to report so I can see my new score. 

Anyone have a guess at my increase?  I have 1 - 30 day late from Aug of this year (paper billing & missed it), Sallie Mae is reporting me with 17 - 90+ days late from before Dec of 2006 (all on time since then & I'm working with their advocate to get those straightened out...if she would EVER answer her phone!), and 3 old medical collections.

SW simulator says possible 40 point increase.

Anyone?  I'm going CRAZY waiting!!!

---

The biggest thing that helped my credit score was having 2 lates removed on one of my CC's. It was the most recent thing on my credit (from almost 2 yrs ago) and once they agreed to remove the lates, it jumped up like 40 points! Hard to believe something like 2 late payments could devastate your credit like that. I also paid down my CC utilization....I paid 2 of my cards completely off and left one at like a $5 balance. Now that I am  going through the mortgage process, once I close I'll continue to keep my balances low, but probably won't be as obsessed with keeping it all completely paid off like I have been. I'll definitely keep the utilization down and continue to pay it down and maintain it though.

I also had some old paid collections removed. I'm not sure if they really helped my credit much, if any (since the damage had already been done) and several years old, but it at least cleaned it up some. That's the majority of what has helped my credit. I think with adding this house payment on, it will definitely help boost it up some more since my credit is so limited. 

Good luck to you! In June my middle score was a 577 and I needed a minimum 620 to get pre-approved. As of this past Friday, 11/4,11 my lender had to re-run my credit again and it was even higher than when I first applied and was approved on 10/28! I'm now sitting at a middle score of 682 and my highest score is in the 700's already. Up 105 points in 4.5 months time, not too shabby I don't think! I credit this forum and all of the amazing members for their wonderful advice!