Improving Credit Scores Quickly!

[olgagirl1953]

Hi Guys,

I was going to attempt the home buying process at the end of this year but my credit scores have been stagnant for the past 4 months or so. I have a charge off that is still reporting monthly so I know that's partly what's holding it down. However, it's set to fall off by the end of 2022 so I don't want to touch it. My fico scores are roughly 600, 605, and 606. My mortgage score from Experian is 622. I would really like my regular fico scores to get to at least 620 before I apply for a mortgage. How reliable is that mortgage score from Experian?...these are all fico score btw....Any tips to try and improve my scores in the next couple of months? Other than that charge off that's still reporting, I have two paid collections (paid in full) on my report. I was going to reach out to these agencies to see if I could get a deletion since they are already paid. Any thing else I could consider, thank you?

[TheGameofCredit_]

You're on the right track. You most certainly should contact those collection agencies for them to delete those old clllections that you fully paid off. Fight and pay everything that comes up negative on your report. Take care of this first. It is by far the most important thing. Also you will want to keep your utilization on your cards as low as 2-8.8% for most optimal score results.... follow this the next few months and your scores should start moving. If you have any late payments on your reports, reach out to your lenders and work something out.

[olgagirl1953]

Thank you for your response, I will reach out to those collection agencies and see what can be done. I have no lates, and my utilization on my cards are all at zero, because as soon as I use them I pay them off. The only thing killing me is that charge off, because although it's charged off, it's still accumulating interests and reporting monthly. Even though it's set to fall off soon, I had reached out to the collection agency to try to settle. They agreed on a settlement but wouldn't send anything in writing which makes me suspicious , so I decided against it because I needed that paper trail. 

[VALoanMaster]

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@olgagirl1953 wrote:

Thank you for your response, I will reach out to those collection agencies and see what can be done. I have no lates, and my utilization on my cards are all at zero, because as soon as I use them I pay them off. The only thing killing me is that charge off, because although it's charged off, it's still accumulating interests and reporting monthly. Even though it's set to fall off soon, I had reached out to the collection agency to try to settle. They agreed on a settlement but wouldn't send anything in writing which makes me suspicious , so I decided against it because I needed that paper trail. 

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FYI, you do not need the charge off account to be deleted (like a collection) for your scores to go up. You just need it to report paid, zero balance.

[olgagirl1953]

Yea but the problem is that charge off account from Santander is still accumulating interest. So the amount I owed is doubled with all that interest. I'm not even sure they can do this since they already charged off the account. This is the only thing on my account that is still unpaid and reporting. Some collection's agency reached out to me to settle. But when I request the settlement agreement in writing, they were giving me the run around, so I lost interest. It should be falling off my account in the next year or so, so I'll just wait at this point.