Hey everyone, I've been on this forum for about a week - shortly after putting in a pre-qualification request to BofA for a home mortgage. When they ran my scores, they didn't have good news for me. However last I checked my scores in December, my FICO scores were all above 700.
After picking myself up off the floor, I decided to find out what had happened. Well it turns out that some fraudulent charge showed up on my BofA MBNA card which I had a $-72 balance last I had checked. The charge was for $99 - and long story short, it caused a 30 day late on my reports. I have learned my lesson that I need to check each account every single month, no matter a balance or not. I have had the MBNA card since 1998 - I use it very rarely. So out of sight, out of mind. What did that do my FICO scores? I saw roughly a 70+ point drop.
Anyhow, that day I got on the phone with BofA/MBNA regarding the account. I have to say I was dreading the call, but they ended up being WAY more helpful than I ever thought. The agent spent at least 45 minutes on the phone with me, and by the end of the call I had the lates removed, and my late fees refunded, etc. We discussed how she liked shopping on Ebay, and they even lowered my APR way down cause they noticed I didn't use the card much. That was an easy thing to haggle too. I now have a -$129 balance with them and a much lower APR (9.9% fixed).
I have one collection on my account from a power company that when I moved, the next tenants decided to keep on using my account, even though the land lord stated he would transfer the gas and power utilities back into his name. So I'm disputing that and also sent a GW letter to both the OC and CA. Then I had a 30 day late from Capital One in September 2006 as it's the only CC I have with an annual fee, but it's one of my oldest cards, so I keep it around. Anyhow I did not get the statement when the "service fee" showed up and ended up paying it 30 days late. I called them and he said he would add a note that if I disputed it, they should see that and remove it. Not sure if that was the result I was after, but we'll see.
The good news is that when I ran my scores on MyFICO April 9th, they were TU 620, EX 646, EQ 686. Since I have active disputes with all to verify information, I received a credit alert from TrueCredit today. I logged in and saw that my 30 day late was gone from my MBNA card on Experian. So being very impatient, I went and paid 'mo-money' to MyFICO to get my new Experian score. It went up from 646 (04/09/08) to 719 (04/12/08)! Sweet - now my mid score is 686 and I need a mid of 680 to qualify for the No Fee Mortgage Plus loan from BofA.
I may hold off and let the others rebound as well, since it may get me a better rate. I go and look at a home no Monday in a gated community here in the Sacramento area. This home had to be close to 500k in 2005, and it's now listed at 289k. I'm sure someone will have an offer on it already, since it's a sweet deal, but I'll just keep looking if that is the case. Wish me luck that I can get some approval from BofA this week - that 73 point bump may have been just what the doctor ordered.
Message Edited by unixadm on 04-12-2008 09:12 AM
After picking myself up off the floor, I decided to find out what had happened. Well it turns out that some fraudulent charge showed up on my BofA MBNA card which I had a $-72 balance last I had checked. The charge was for $99 - and long story short, it caused a 30 day late on my reports. I have learned my lesson that I need to check each account every single month, no matter a balance or not. I have had the MBNA card since 1998 - I use it very rarely. So out of sight, out of mind. What did that do my FICO scores? I saw roughly a 70+ point drop.
Anyhow, that day I got on the phone with BofA/MBNA regarding the account. I have to say I was dreading the call, but they ended up being WAY more helpful than I ever thought. The agent spent at least 45 minutes on the phone with me, and by the end of the call I had the lates removed, and my late fees refunded, etc. We discussed how she liked shopping on Ebay, and they even lowered my APR way down cause they noticed I didn't use the card much. That was an easy thing to haggle too. I now have a -$129 balance with them and a much lower APR (9.9% fixed).
I have one collection on my account from a power company that when I moved, the next tenants decided to keep on using my account, even though the land lord stated he would transfer the gas and power utilities back into his name. So I'm disputing that and also sent a GW letter to both the OC and CA. Then I had a 30 day late from Capital One in September 2006 as it's the only CC I have with an annual fee, but it's one of my oldest cards, so I keep it around. Anyhow I did not get the statement when the "service fee" showed up and ended up paying it 30 days late. I called them and he said he would add a note that if I disputed it, they should see that and remove it. Not sure if that was the result I was after, but we'll see.
The good news is that when I ran my scores on MyFICO April 9th, they were TU 620, EX 646, EQ 686. Since I have active disputes with all to verify information, I received a credit alert from TrueCredit today. I logged in and saw that my 30 day late was gone from my MBNA card on Experian. So being very impatient, I went and paid 'mo-money' to MyFICO to get my new Experian score. It went up from 646 (04/09/08) to 719 (04/12/08)! Sweet - now my mid score is 686 and I need a mid of 680 to qualify for the No Fee Mortgage Plus loan from BofA.
I may hold off and let the others rebound as well, since it may get me a better rate. I go and look at a home no Monday in a gated community here in the Sacramento area. This home had to be close to 500k in 2005, and it's now listed at 289k. I'm sure someone will have an offer on it already, since it's a sweet deal, but I'll just keep looking if that is the case. Wish me luck that I can get some approval from BofA this week - that 73 point bump may have been just what the doctor ordered.
Message Edited by unixadm on 04-12-2008 09:12 AM
