Improving Score

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, Hope you can guide me to some assistance.  I have a FICO of about 520 and it was nearly 600 about a month ago.  I was a late on a credit card payment due to my wife being off work for the last couple months.  Balance on the card was about $6800 and I've paid $1700 over the last two months (it's not in collection).  My interest rate sky-rocketed on the card due to the late payment (25%) it was about 15%.

I also have a bankruptcy on my negative items.  It is due to come off in April 07...been a long ten years!!  Other than that, I only have one other credit card payment which will have a zero balance when the latest payment posts.  I have a Lease from Chrysler for my wife which ends July this summer and a truck payment that is auto-deducted from my check every month (been paying on it for nearly two years).

My question is this, we would like to purcahse a particular house which we are currently living in.  We did a lease to own and put $2K down on it last April.  I am concerned that my late payment and huge drop in my FICO will prevent me from buying.

What score change can I expect once the Bankruptcy falls off?  Do I need to do anything in April to get rid of it.    I should only have a truck payment $500 per month and my Cap One card with about 2500-3000 on it come July 07.  No other debt.  I'm netting about $2100 per month 'after the truck payment'. 

What chances do I have to buy this house and please tell me if there is anything else I can do to improve my score.  Thanks

PS, it seems like it took a year to get my FICO up to about 600 (598 to be exact), and the recent drop has me totally bummed!

[Anonymous]

What happened in the meantime?  Has everything else included in your bankruptcy fallen off?  How long after filing did you attempt to reestablilsh credit? 

With a score of 520, I can't say you will be anywhere near home loan approval.  Check your score and anything past the SOL dispute open a new line of credit if possible.  Its hard to believe that one late payment put you in such dire straits as far as your FICO is concerned.  I have a BK that won't fall off till 08.  Unfortunately, I did not include all debts in my BK because I wasn't smart enough to pull the CR before hand and had 3 new collections added to my profile but my scores are still 650-700.

[Anonymous]

Brammy,  Thanks for your time.  I pulled a new scorewatch today and found that I have a collection of $104 from June 2006.  Last activity was Oct 2006.  I have no idea what this is.  There were two other collections (347 and 111) which have paid in full.

Most of the derrogatory infomration is from some time ago.  Current status says Pays as agreed and worst delinquencies mostly at 30 or 60 days (but very few and mostly 2004-2005) when I lost my job. 

For the items listed which state Credit Grantor Information 'Not on Record', can I petition to have those removed?  My FICO did move up to 546 .... wow!!

I could send a copy of my report to you if you could make some suggestions.

[Anonymous]

If I were you I would dispute the collection that you dont know what it is with the credit bureaus. If you dont know who they are or if they are yours then after you dispute it you will get a letter from the credit bureaus and it should have all that info on it. I had one on mine and after I disputed it they took it off because it could not be verified as correct

[Cory]

Hello,

I have also shopped around for more credit cards to improve my score, however with the 5 collection accounts that are constanly updating themselves is not at least bugging my score.

I have gotten new credit in 2006 with a cople of banks like, First Premier, Credit One Bank and Macy's. I pay on time on all of these accounts, but my score has not improved.

I am not concerned about the score improving so fast, because I know that score improvement takes time. Now, my only concern is paying off the collection accounts so I will have a peace of mind.

I have a question for anyone who can answer, should I pay off the large collection accounts with installments or should I just get a consolidation loan to pay them off?

Don't collections account tack on interest too?

Thank you,

Cory

[Anonymous]

my scores are in the high 500's.  I have disputed everythihg imaginable on my credit reports and paid most of the delinquent accounts off.  I still have only 2 small ones to pay, they are old and not reporting anymore. It is my understanding that paying them won't help my score, but FHA requires them to be paid?  My score analysis indicates too many inquiries, I tried to get credit cards and such to reestablish credit after BK, how long does it take for inquiries to stop affecting the score? 

[Anonymous]

I pay mine off even though you can as them for a settlement which they say is not good but least your paying it off and your standing will grow overtime which your report will start saying paid instead of owed