My journey through my VA loan process

[hankejp]

Greetings,

I've been posting on here just recently asking questions and now my wife an I are moving forward in trying to obtain a VA home loan.  I thought that maybe it would be a nice idea to post/blog my journey. 

Currently our credit scores aren't that great.  Mine are 536(Eq) 589(Ex) 643(TU).  We called a national VA mortgage lender, who also has a division to help raise the credit score.  After talking for a bit, with our counselor we have come up with a game plan.

To start off with, I have a credit card, that can only be used for Vetinary purposes, and my wife has a regualr credit card.  Both have $500 limits on them.  My wife's banalce is maxed out and my balance is at $446.  The 1st thing we are going to do, this Friday, is to see if we can pay those 2 credit cards down to a $10 balance on each of them.  After that has been done and showing on the Credit card balance statements, my wife is going to add me to her credit card., to give me another line of credit.

Then in 2 weeks or so, we will be talking to the counselor again and she will pull another report to see where we are at and to go from there.

I am sort of nervous.  Our counselor thinks that we can have the score raised high enough and have a house purchased by October.  We are looking to be into a new home by then because we have a clause on our rental agreement that says we can't move between Oct. - April, which would suck.....

So, stay tuned.......

[hankejp]

***UPDATE.....

Well my credit card has been paid down to a balance of $10 and my wife's is down to a 35% utilization.  We couldn't swing payign both down to a $10 balance, but are getting there.  Before I had found this site and got the advice to not do it, we disputed items on all 3 credit reports.  Well, 2 out of the 3 are all done.  My wife and I are both waiting on 1 more disputed to be done, adn then we will be done with the disputes and can get moving forward.

Do you think it wold be a good idea now to have my wife put me on her Credit card, since the balance has come down?

Thanks and stay tuned.

[vlaw1084]

You can do it!  I would also suggest, and this is what my LO told me is to " opt out" of all solicitation credit on your credit report.  This will give you about 10-15 points a piece in your score.   Also if you want to know your true fico, every 2 months pay 19.95 and go to fico.com to really check your score to see if your making progress. 

* a few things to check as well, just to save you issues, that I had to go through *

* advise lender to check caivrs, for any goverment debt you may owe. make sure you are clear or you cannot get VA loan until it is.

* Make sure lender checks your 2 yrs tax returns EARLY,  the IRS has had a big slowdown, so get those early in the game to save you headaches

* keep your cc balances low, no more than 15% utility until you close on home.

* NO LATES on anything that is reporting.  and make sure that you have no lingering collections out there, that could haunt you down the road. 

Good luck in your journey, and I will be monitoring your progress!  

[lillygooch4]

My husband and I are in a similar situation. We are looking for a good mortgage company to use. My husbands score is 620 mid and mines is 640 mid. The problem is we also have one 30day late Sept 2011 and a new collection from Verizon popped up in Dec of 2011 that was paid as soon as it reported. Is it possible to get approved now or will we have to wait til Sept of 2012 to apply. If you could pm the company you used that helped with bringing your score up also that would be great. Reading your post on your VA loan is very helpful. There is not a lot of recent information on the forums on peoples VA loan journeys. Thanks!

[destiny36912]

Can you PM the VA Lender you are using?

[hankejp]

I have sent you both a PM.

Just a quick update.  Not a whole lot has changed except that I had applied and was approved for a real credit card. The first credit card I have can only be used at the Vetinarian's office.  This one if a normal credit card with a pretty good limit on it.  So my score must be improving if I was approved with a $2000 limit.  I think this should help raise the score more.  We will be gettign our scores pulled in about 30 days again to see where we are at.

Otherwise, nothing has really changed.  Just making timely payments on everything and getting my wife's card down.

Thanks

[OptimalFICO]

Hankejp,

Congrats! Which credit card did you get? Is it from a bank or national credit card agency?

[OptimalFICO]

vlaw1084 wrote:   "... I would also suggest, and this is what my LO told me is to " opt out" of all solicitation credit on your credit report.  This will give you about 10-15 points a piece in your score."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have never heard this before. Am going to try it for my fiancee. At the very least, it reduces the chance of identity theft via stolen mail. Did your LO specify whether there is a difference between doing the temporary 5-year opt-out versus the permanent opt-out? Note the permanent one can be started online, but they register the temporary 5-year option and then send confirmation of the permanent option in the mail that needs to be signed and returned in order to be processed.

The info to Opt-Out is the same for all the major CRAs:

(888) 567-8688

OptOutPrescreen.com

[hankejp]

I got one from Capital One. They report regularly and not just monthly.

[vlaw1084]

My Loan officer advised that I use the " Opt out" for  5 years.  If you want solicitations down he road just opt back in, and you will get them.  This also prevents creditors that are looking for changes in your report to not be able to see what you are doing if your going for a mortgage and don't want any unexpected surprises.