Lots of Newbie questions, sorry :(

[Anonymous]

I have been reading here and at CB for the last 24 hours straight(Ok I did break to eat and such ). Now I have questions and LOTS of em. My DH and I are looking to buy a house sometime next spring or summer but his credit is not good at all. So I am starting the process of getting inaccurate information off his credit report and opting out. Will getting LOTS of wrong info off his report help raise his FICO, stuff like incorrect names, addresses, my ss on his report, and employers he never worked for. Also he has two cc debts that are scheduled to be removed from his report this summer/fall, how much if at all with this help his score? And should we contact these creditors and set up payment schedules or let them go? We have had many late payments, 30 days 6 times and 60 days 1 times over the last 2 years, on the only active loan that we have. We are now current but that is not showing on his report, how long should that take? And how long before we start to see an increase for on time payments? They will be on time from now on! How much if at all will a large down payment 25% or more help our percentage points when we do go to get a mortgage? Last but not least is it a good idea to get a secured CC to help boost his score or will this only hurt us in the long run? Thanks so much for any and all help!

[Anonymous]

Names, addresses, employment info will have no bearing at all on one's credit or scores. That said, I get bad info corrected off mine, and many others do this as well. Perhaps it reduces the risk of ID theft.

If your SSN is appearing on DH's CR, shouldn't have any impact but you probably want it corrected. SSN "variants" always make me nervous.

For unpaid CCs in collection or chargeoff, try for a PFD.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=2659

For lates, try GW.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=5933

Large downpayment certainly helps with a mortgage getting a lower interest rate.

Do you have any CCs now? What are the balances, CLs and APRs?

What are your FICOs?

[Anonymous]

DH to BEG here. Credit scores are 540-550. The CC are scheduled to come off my reports sometime this summer to early this fall so not sure if I should do a PDF or just let them go. Other than those two very old cards that are no longer open accounts I we have no others. We will be looking to get a 200,000 mortgage with somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 down, would like a 30 year fixed and will take a hit on the interest rate if we have to. The house will be built for us in a very desirable part of our state, our current home, in the same neighborhood has appreciated 50-70K in the last 4 years, so this new house will definitely appreciate at a pretty good rate. I make 52K a year and BEG will be making 25-30K a year starting in October, which is a pretty good income for our area, median income is 43,000. Thanks a lot for any info, it is much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Deleting old addys and names help later when you try to dispute a TL.  Many times, when you dispute with the CRA, they will only check certain info before verifying.  My understanding is if you can get that sort of incorrect stuff off, they won't be able to verify based on that info only.  They will have to do a little more checking. 

[jandj]

My DH and I are planning to buy a house by the end of the year so we have been in major credit repair mode too.  I have found that our scores go up the most and the most quickly simply by paying our debt down (lowering our utilization).  I also have had erroneous accounts deleted which raised my score about 14 points per account.  I started around 550 in January and am now ~650!  It can be done, just budget, write it all out and stick with it!