need to raise score fast

[buyhouse36]

The Mr & I had a financial crisis from Dec 2007 to May 2008.  Needless to say, our scores bottomed out due to missed and late payments. Things are back to normal and we havent missed a payment since June. Most of our creditors already have or are in process of re-aging our accounts but our scores are still under 600. My husband has one collection which will be paid by end of this year. Outside of that we just have a bunch of late payments. Is there anything else we can do to raise our scores fast??? We would like to buy a small house soon.

[llecs]

---

buyhouse36 wrote:

The Mr & I had a financial crisis from Dec 2007 to May 2008.  Needless to say, our scores bottomed out due to missed and late payments. Things are back to normal and we havent missed a payment since June. Most of our creditors already have or are in process of re-aging our accounts but our scores are still under 600. My husband has one collection which will be paid by end of this year. Outside of that we just have a bunch of late payments. Is there anything else we can do to raise our scores fast??? We would like to buy a small house soon.

---

Well, send GW letters to all of your formerly-late, but current accounts asking them to remove the lates. That could go a long way in bumping your score.

With the CA, assuming you are inside SOL, don't do anything until you have the $$$ to PIF. Once you do, then send a DV to the CA and then offer a PFD for its removal. Don't pay the CA w/out a PFD. Per FICO scoring, a paid collection is just as bad as an unpaid collection (sometimes worse).

Other than tackling the two baddies you mentioned, another way to bump scores is CC utilization. Bring down your CC balances to under 9%, leaving 1/2 of your CCs at $0 and the other half at $1.

[buyhouse36]

I am sorry...but I am new to this site. I dont know all the abbreviations!!! What is GW? SOL? PFD?

Thanks for the quick reply though.

[llecs]

---

buyhouse36 wrote:

I am sorry...but I am new to this site. I dont know all the abbreviations!!! What is GW? SOL? PFD?

Thanks for the quick reply though.

---

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=5000

The 4th link in the above has a list of common abbreviations and the 1st link is a great read too.

[buyhouse36]

Wow!!! I am learning alot!!!

IS it worth it to do GW when I still owe on the accounts?  Or will the creditors only consider that once the debt is paid???

AMex is the one collection account. I hear they dont budge. But the collection agency did say AMEX will give us a new card if we pay off in 6 months?? Is that true??

[buyhouse36]

Also...how is a GW different from RE-AGE??

[Junejer]

A GW is just asking the creditor to go back and not report the late for those particular months.

You are going to educate me on what your understanding of a RE-AGE is. Tell us what you believe it to be and we can tell you the difference between the two of them.

[Anonymous]

Hello:

If the goal is to buy a house. You may want to check out NACA.  Specific credit scores or perfect credit not required. Its alot of work involved such as explaination letters for late pays and established savings but its worth it.

[buyhouse36]

What does NACA do???

[buyhouse36]

This is a quote from an AOL MONEY site:

If you already have a late payment on your report, you could try calling your lender and asking for a "goodwill adjustment." Also called an account "re-age," the adjustment reports your account as current, rather than late.

So I guess RE-AGE and GW are the same. 

We have either made up all missed payments or re-aged all credit accounts yet our credit score hasnt moved one point. WHY???