topic Re: credit scores in General Credit Topics

credit scores

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:14:39 GMT

On my credit report, I have two charge offs that are shown on it. They were medical bills from back in 2005. I paid the bills back then. As you might guess, they have dinged my fico scores. I am, currently, near 670. As luck would have it, I have a mortgage that needs to be refinanced. When I refinance later this year, I need to have a good score, so as to get a great interest rate. Sooooooooooo, what should I do? Should I send a goodwill letter to the credit agency asking them to remove the bad information, and thus, hopefully, getting them to send it to the credit reporting agency? Should I send something to the original person that sent the bill to the collection agency?? In other words, what can be done? In essence, what does everyone here recommend?

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:52:19 GMT

and without shame, he awkwardly bumps up his, obviously, lame question.

Re: credit scores

fused — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:00:41 GMT

Here are a couple of sample GW letters. If it doesn't work the first few times around, don't give up, keep writing them. Send them to the party who is reporting them. Edit the letters to your situation. GL!

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=2661

Re: credit scores

sunrise — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:16:16 GMT

Do the GW thing..as fused mentioned.

Also, do not add any more debt or go applying for anything...your scores will take a hit. If you have any cc debt, lower it over the next several months. (preferably under 10% util)

Even if your GW's don't work....your scores should go up just by lowering cc debt, adding no new debt or credit inq's, and having more history between now and later in the year!!! (when you mentioned you wanted to re-fi)

I think currently they want a 680 score for re-fi's....but, later in the year who knows where it may be. (720?)

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:52:56 GMT

thanks for the advice. I'm going to do the Goodwill thing. I'm going to send it to the credit agencies, right? RIGHT??? Not to the credit REPORTING agencies, right? I am going to plead for mercy with the credit reporting agencies and I am not going to dispute anything, because they have already been paid. Okay,,,think I have got it. IF ANYONE SEES ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS, stop me before I send anything off. And for all you noobs out there, I want you to notice that this post did not contain CRA and GW. I did this, because I remember how I almost went nuts trying to figure out what all the abbreviations meant.

Message Edited by wordslayer on 02-24-2008 04:52 PM

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:55:08 GMT

STOP!!!!

Send GW letters to the OC's

wordslayer wrote:
thanks for the advice. I'm going to do the Goodwill thing. I'm going to send it to the credit agencies, right? RIGHT??? Not to the credit REPORTING agencies, right? I am going to plead for mercy with the credit reporting agencies and I am not going to dispute anything, because they have already been paid. Okay,,,think I have got it. IF ANYONE SEES ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS, stop me before I send anything off. And for all you noobs out there, I want you to notice that this post did not contain CRA and GW. I did this, because I remember how I almost went nuts trying to figure out what all the abbreviations meant.

Message Edited by wordslayer on 02-24-2008 04:52 PM

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:58:09 GMT

OMG...man, I am glad I checked back on this. THANK YOU FOR STOPPING ME. I want to make sure I am clear. NO GOODWILL LETTERS GO TO THE CREDIT AGENCIES! GOODWILL LETTERS ONLY GO TO THE Original Creditor?????? The original creditor is the only one that can make the credit agency take away the charge offs (that were paid by me) off of Transunion, Equifax and Experian???? am I correct now? And why do my posts not have paragraphs???

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:01:49 GMT

Yep - You have it right now.

If you are using Firefox- click that little check box in the lower left corner-

There is a post around here some where to fix that so you don't have to click it each time you post.

wordslayer wrote:
OMG...man, I am glad I checked back on this. THANK YOU FOR STOPPING ME. I want to make sure I am clear. NO GOODWILL LETTERS GO TO THE CREDIT AGENCIES! GOODWILL LETTERS ONLY GO TO THE Original Creditor?????? The original creditor is the only one that can make the credit agency take away the charge offs (that were paid by me) off of Transunion, Equifax and Experian???? am I correct now? And why do my posts not have paragraphs???

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:06:00 GMT

Yep, I am using Firefox and I did just put a check in the little box, so hopefully, that will work.

Thanks, Timothy!

Like I said, my charge offs were medical bills that I did pay, as soon as I found out that I had them. Fortunately, I know the dentist and the clinic where I had the work done, so it will be easy for me to send a letter and beg for mercy. I wonder if they will really go through the work to remove these negatives, though.

Anyhow, this is the only way that I can raise my credit scores, because I have no charge cards or anything. My credit scores barely ever move, because I never apply for credit and I don't have a utilization rate.

Frustrating

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:10:01 GMT

You might be suprised-

After this stuff is cleared - get yourself a card and use it for everything you are using your debit card for- and then PIF-

Besides Points/rewards I use my cards for cash flow reasons-

wordslayer wrote:
Yep, I am using Firefox and I did just put a check in the little box, so hopefully, that will work.

Thanks, Timothy!

Like I said, my charge offs were medical bills that I did pay, as soon as I found out that I had them. Fortunately, I know the dentist and the clinic where I had the work done, so it will be easy for me to send a letter and beg for mercy. I wonder if they will really go through the work to remove these negatives, though.

Anyhow, this is the only way that I can raise my credit scores, because I have no charge cards or anything. My credit scores barely ever move, because I never apply for credit and I don't have a utilization rate.

Frustrating

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:41:30 GMT

Been thinking about this some.......

Since I don't have credit cards, and since I don't have much open credit at all, and since I want to refinance in about four or five months, SHOULD I apply for a credit card???

My scores are around 665-670. Would applying for a credit card drop them very much? What if I get a low approval amount, such as 300 dollars? Could that hurt or help?

I am paying my second mortgage off by June, so now I am wondering if I need to add the credit card to the mix.

I swear, since I started this whole credit score repair thing, it's nearly all I think about.

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:12:24 GMT

Is the 2nd a HEL or HELOC?

wordslayer wrote:
Been thinking about this some.......

Since I don't have credit cards, and since I don't have much open credit at all, and since I want to refinance in about four or five months, SHOULD I apply for a credit card???

My scores are around 665-670. Would applying for a credit card drop them very much? What if I get a low approval amount, such as 300 dollars? Could that hurt or help?

I am paying my second mortgage off by June, so now I am wondering if I need to add the credit card to the mix.

I swear, since I started this whole credit score repair thing, it's nearly all I think about.

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:48:50 GMT

it is a fixed rate, at 8.75%, 15 year term note. It's like an installment type of credit.

Re: credit scores

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:23:29 GMT

Gotcha- Yes this is a HEL or Home Equity Loan

I normally would say don't do anything this close to closing a loan- as it could easily backfire-

You are pretty safe opening 1 card-

wordslayer wrote:
it is a fixed rate, at 8.75%, 15 year term note. It's like an installment type of credit.