middle score 594. need fha! help need to undispute?

[drowninginrochester]

So my scores are 594 from equifax and 615 from transunion.

I have one open credit card with a $1500 limit with with a 550 balance. The balance was wrong in April so i disputed it. Now however, the credit card isn't showing up as revolving debt on my report anymore and i contacted the card company and they said it can take up to 90 days for the status to return. I think this is hurting my score and keeping it from coming up.

In april i had a score of 599 and 595 from equifax and transunion.

In april I had an auto loan with a $8500 balance and 2 collections totaling $500 dollars. I have paid all these items things off and they all report as $0 balances on my report now in June.

What can i do to get my score up to the 620 range? I need to close on my house at the end of June.

I have 22 days.

Please help!!!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Will likely get better and more accurate advice on credit score improvement in the general credit section.  I will ask a mod to move/repost this for you there.

However if you have to close on the home by end of June, what made you feel comfortable submitting an offer on it if your credit scores are below the level needed for the loan approval?

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

As you experienced, never dispute a balance. It won't take 90 days, though. CCCs update once per month and it will update within the next 30 days. I don't know what the balance should be, but ideally you'd want it at $1 or so.

The CAs updating with a $0 balance is really hurting your score. Send them both a GW letter and ask them to remove.

Paying the car to $0 may or may not help. I recently paid off my last installment loan (car) and my scores went up on EQ and down on TU, but both by single digits.

[drowninginrochester]

I was approved with a score of 595 in April. However I was trying to get a grant offered through my work and they required me to use one of two specific banks. Neither bank would approve me and by the time I went back to the broker she informed me she could no longer do it because the cut off is now changed and affixed at 620.

[drowninginrochester]

I used the fico simulator in April and felt comfortable that the score would go above 620 if I paid off the collections and the car loan.

I have done that and how have one credit card open showing a balance (it has never been late is the balance is 1/3 the limit).

However, it does not seem to be coming up as a revolving account, just as an accout with a balance.

Could this be what's holding me up?

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

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@drowninginrochester wrote:
I was approved with a score of 595 in April. However I was trying to get a grant offered through my work and they required me to use one of two specific banks. Neither bank would approve me and by the time I went back to the broker she informed me she could no longer do it because the cut off is now changed and affixed at 620.

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Ah I gotcha, just bad timing it appears.  FICO score requirements have been increasing but 620 seems to be where they are topping out at, at least for now.  

[llecs]

Who is the CC with?

Paying a CA without getting it deleted can actually drop your FICO scores. I'd send them GW letters ASAP. Ask them to delete. It doesn't matter if you owe $0 or $10,000, the score damage is the same.

[Anonymous]

DIsputing anything that hasn't reported in while can drop your scores.  When my wife disputed two baddies as duplicates of current ones, the OC verified them and since the reporting was recent, her score dropped from the magic 620 to 602.  I'm assuming the same thing is true with a CA: pay it and it becomes a recent baddie instead of an aged one.

With a credit card that has a $1500 limit, you'd want to have it report not more than $135 (9%), but that's what your balance should be (or lower) when the card reports (usually the statement date), not what you should leave unpaid to revolve to the next month. as an example, here's what Experian shows as my "Balance History" for one of my CCs:

Balance History:
04/2009 $6
03/2009 $3
02/2009 $93
01/2009 $90
12/2008 $8
11/2008 $0
10/2008 $300
09/2008 $42
08/2008 $0
07/2008 $779
06/2008 $1,641
05/2008 $1,059
04/2008 $2,067
03/2008 $1,874
02/2008 $2,026
01/2008 $1,465
12/2007 $1,459
11/2007 $484
10/2007 $1,797
09/2007 $667
08/2007 $2,250
07/2007 $2,750
06/2007 $2,576

The "recent balance" is $38.  Did I suddenly sock-drawer the card in the summer of 08?  No, I just realized (through here, of course) that I could bump up my FICO score by paying the current balance online on the day of the statement date, so the reported balance became only the charges that posted that same day.

[Anonymous]

Do you have friends or family members that will add you to some of their cards as an authorized user? You want to be added to old, clean accounts with low utilization to affect a positive score change. After the mortgage closes they can take you back off. It's the American way.

[drowninginrochester]

I do have someone that can do this.

Will this immediately effect my score once it reports?