If the collections are still on your reports (sounds like they are) those will be hurting your score. A paid collection scores the same as an unpaid collection. You need to write GW letters to the CAs to see if they will remove the collections. If you have any collections you have not paid yet, try to negotiate deletion from your reports in exchange for payment (PFD - pay for delete).
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
@kneumann wrote:@Anonymous wrote:
You should understand what is causing the poor score. If you have not already done so you should get your credit reports. These are available free once per 12 month period at annualcreditreport.com. Once you identify the issues read through some of the information on the "rebuilding credit" section of the forums.
Will that count as a hard pull? I monitor our credit monthly w free credit report.com (idk if that's the best to use) all all of our collection accts have been paid in full but remain on our report. Considering we use this monthly monitoring do you still suggest pulling pur reports w annualcreditreport.com? Thank you!
Start with pulling your FREE CR's from (ACR) annualcreditreport.com . they tend to have more info on them, then ones from a 3rd party. The CR's from ACR, come directly from each of the CRA's. You can pull 1 Free CR from TU,EQ and EX every 12 months.
Save your money and Don't Buy the Scores, they are what we call FAKO's.
This is the federally mandated place to get your detailed reports once per year directly from the CRAs. It is never a HP when pulling yourself.
July 2013 score: EQ FICO 819, TU08 778, EX "806 lender pull 07/26/2013
Goal Score: All Scores 760+, Newest goal 800+
Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge
Current scores after adding $81K in CLs and 2 new cars since July 2013
EQ:809 TU 777 EX 790 Now it's just garden time!
June 2017 update: All scores over 820, just pure gardening now.
You also need to understand that the scores you are getting from your monitoring service are not the scores that a mortgage lender will use. To get an understanding of where your credit scores are at then you will need to pull at least one score from this site. I would suggest that you and your husband both pull your EQ FICO score from here. The version that is sold on here is the same one that almost all the mortgage lenders use. Then when you look at your full credit reports from the annual credit report site you can compare the three bureaus. If the information is the same then you can get an idea of where your credit scores for the other bureaus may be. What I mean is if all the collection accounts appear on all three reports and have the same status (paid) and any other accounts are on all three reports then the score is not likely to vary widely across all three.
Most likely you will find that some information will only appear on one or two reports and not all three. I have a collection that reports to only two bureaus. The score difference between the bureau reporting the collection and the clean report is about 60 points. You can also get your TU FICO score from this site but it is a slightly older version and there may be some variation in the score that a mortgage lender will see. The EX FICO score is not available for most of us and will only be seen when a lender pulls your credit
As was stated before by other contributors the Rebuilding section will provide a wealth of information in cleaning up past mistakes. Time is your best ally and you can overcome a previously bad credit history and graduate to home ownership. I know that personally. I went from 500's scores in 2007 to being a homeowner in 2011. Good luck on your journey.