What do you think my chances are?

[Xev0luti0nXx]

I am getting married in early December 08 and my fiance and I would like to buy a house soon after (January or February at the latest). My scores are as follows

2/27/08
EX - 559
TU - 572

2/22/08
EQ - 547

My cards and Util. are as follows:

American Eagle Card:
250 CL - 0 Balance - 0% Util

Chase Rewards Mastercard
500 CL - 435 Balance - 87% Util

Gordon Jewelers Department Card:
1,800 CL - 793 Balance - 44% Util

I also have the following Installment Accounts:

National Credit Corp. (Gym Membership)
1,290 Original Amount - 430 Balance (Never Late)

Citifinancial:
928 Original Amount - 613 Balance (Never Late)

I have 5 paid collections on my account and none will drop off until 2013 I have already tried PFD but after I paid all of them off (didn't know about it until after I had paid them all). So those baddies will stay on there. I already have had several late payments removed from my CR and haven't had any lates in 11 months.

My real question here is do you think that in 11 - 12 months of timely payments and paying my revolving debt util from 48% down to 1-2% my score will be high enough to qualify for many loan programs?

Second question is would you advise making additional payments to my installment accounts to get them paid off by that time or do you think making my monthly payments on time and drawing the account out for more total on time payments would be a better idea?

I live in Michigan where we have the MSHDA (Michigan Housing Development Authority) and the minimum score is a 620 to qualify. I would like to get that or an FHA loan even though we are planning to have around $25,000 saved for a down payment. Also from looking at my scores, are there any cards that I could qualify for that would help me out a great deal? I am nervous about opening any seeing as my average account age is only 2 years and my oldest account is 4 years 3 months.

Sorry for the lengthy post, any help is appreciated!

Message Edited by Xev0luti0nXx on 02-27-2008 10:28 AM

[fused]

Welcome to the FICO Forums!  I noticed you seem to be having some trouble posting. It is possible to edit your own post if you have posted an incomplete message. To edit your post, go to the post. To the right you'll see "Options." Click on "Options" and select "Edit Message" from the drop-down menu. If you need any help with anything, let me know.  Thanks for your contribution to the FICO Forums!

--fused

[Xev0luti0nXx]

Bump

[Xev0luti0nXx]

bump bump bump!

[Anonymous]

You would be best off to pay off as much as you can of all of your accounts and maybe send out GW letters to get those collections off.  Try, and try again.  Don't give up on them.

The more your util goes down, the more your score will go up.  Mine just went up 70 points after I paid over $2000 on some of my cards.  You can do it. 

[Xev0luti0nXx]

Yea, I am planning on paying my util down over that time to 1-2% or I could do it now, but I don't know what the best approach would be. Do it over a time preiod or do it all in bulk right now and then not have to make any payments on the cards. I could always charge a few bucks on my chase card here and there and pay it off, but the Gordon's Jewelers I wouldn't have anything to buy for a small sum of money so I was going to pay that down gradually. Would my score go up if I paid off my installment loans or would it be better just to pay those off gradually and let the accounts age more? Anyone know the best cards I could get with those scores? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

---

Xev0luti0nXx wrote:
Yea, I am planning on paying my util down over that time to 1-2% or I could do it now, but I don't know what the best approach would be. Do it over a time preiod or do it all in bulk right now and then not have to make any payments on the cards. I could always charge a few bucks on my chase card here and there and pay it off, but the Gordon's Jewelers I wouldn't have anything to buy for a small sum of money so I was going to pay that down gradually. Would my score go up if I paid off my installment loans or would it be better just to pay those off gradually and let the accounts age more? Anyone know the best cards I could get with those scores? Thanks!

---

Definitely keep the installment loans as long as you can. Paying down the utility will help boost your scores, but it will take a bit for everything to report to the bureaus. Do you use a monitoring service to check your credit reports?

[llecs]

First, don't apply for anything (other than for your future mortgage). Apping for a new card can hurt your avg. age and lower your score.

Send a DV letter to those PAID collections. Some CAs have been known to delete after receiving a DV letter.

Dispute the CAs off your CR if you see something wrong with the reporting (dates, names, etc.)

Continue to send GWs, over and over and over and over and over again.

If you are going to purchase that home this time next year, make sure all CC balances are down to near or at 0 by December, at the latest. I can take a CC a month or two to report the accurate paid off balance.

Pay off CitiFinancial ASAP! A consumer finance loan (CFL) is hurting your score and may continue to hurt your score long after it is paid off. Continue to pay the installment loan as scheduled.

Do all of this and I bet your scores will be above 650 by December!

[Xev0luti0nXx]

Great, thanks for the help! I've searched the site, but do you have a link to a Debt Validation letter template or anything? I don't really know how to write one. All I know is to send it Certified Mail and if they don't respond within 30 days I can have the account removed, correct? Didn't know that about the Citifinancial financing that I had. I'll go ahead and pay that off ASAP then! Thanks! Also, I was looking at the mortgage rate calculator on the main page and my question regarding that is that I've read posts from people who have had a certain score and stated that their interest rate was much lower than what appears on the calculator for their score bracket. Are there any mortgage brokers out there who might be able to tell me what I could get with a mid of 640 - no lates for the the last 2 years and 20,000 available for a down payment (what I hope my report to look like at the time of applying)? I live in Michigan, bring home 60k/year and would be looking at a home in the range of 95-100k. Thanks!

[llecs]

DV info:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=4328

The 30 days applies to the CA as per giving you a chance to respond to the initial collection letter. The other 30 days applies to a CRA in the validation process of a dispute. CAs can take forever if they want to respond. They have no time limit. The debate come into play in these forums when a CA reports already to a CRA. Does this constitute collection activity? As per the FDCPA, a CA cannot engage in any collection activities during their requirement to respond to the DV. Personally, IMO, the DV applies to the initial 30 days that the CA gets the account and not after. What if you never receive that letter? Well I can see others point that the time you first see the CA on your report starts the clock on the 30 days per collection activity.............Gone too long here. In short, they can take forever, IMO.

But send always a DV CMRRR.

Check out and post in the mortgage section in these forums.......Great info. I hear the prices in Michigan as low now.