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This is my first time to write on this forum, but have received a lot of information on here about home loans. I am needing advice/help but not sure where to start. Basically, my husband and I are under contract to sell our home. We close August 8. Unfortunately, my credit is not good enough for another home loan and although my husbands is, he owns a business and the "average" of the last two years of his pay (thanks to all the write offs) came out to be a loan of $112,000, which is not enough for a home loan for our family of 6.
We are moving to be closer to our work, church, friends and just want to live in the town that we do our lives in. It looks like we will be renting for the next year, but would really like to be able to buy again when our lease is up. In order to do this, I need to raise my score by about 100 points in one year. How is this possible? I have seriously a ton (probably 25 or so on each credit bureau) of collections on my credit - nearly all medical. I have one "good" line.. an auto loan. Never been late. The balance is about 13k and payments are $385/month. My credit scores are about a middle score of 580.
We we close on our loan we will get enough money to pay off our car, but i'm not sure that's a good idea because i'm afraid paying off the one good thing will hurt us. My husbands credit is fine. Not great, but middle score of 650.
What will help to get me the best advice? Should I post my collection details on here? If we added up ALL my collection accounts, it would probably come up to about $4,000...... $2000 of them that are within the past two years or so. There are several that should fall off completely in 2015.
Thanks so much for any advice you can give. So appreciate the help.
Hi and welcome! My advice is to post the information as there are several here that can give you a great plan of action!
Research (google) HIPPA process. While we cannot discuss it on this board, it has been helpful to many members....myself included.
Take your time, read and read.
I would use the cash where it would do me the most good.
Getting rid of those collections is HUGE. Please post them, so we can review. You may be able to have OC recall them from collections and pay them direct.
HIPPA can help you tremendously. Some CA's will be willing to do a Pay-for-delete. It's going to take time, so be patient.
There are other factors in play here.
Credit Cards? What do you have and what are the balances vs credit limit?
Some options for you:
1) If you can afford to pay all the collections in full, I'd recommend doing that ASAP. It will cause a short-term reduction in your score as those accounts all update, but it will cause your score to recover faster as they all report a 0 balance, and will allow you to start a GW campaign to hopefully remove several if not all of them from your report completely. If you take this step, start by calling each creditor individually, and ask if they would be willing to delete their reporting in exchange for immediate payment in full (but ONLY take this step if you are in fact prepared to pay in full, since once that offer is on the table they may become much more aggressive in their approach if you do not follow through). If they agree, get it in writing and pay immediately. If they don't agree, you should still pay it, and then follow up shortly with a GW letter.
2) If you can afford to pay some, but not all, accounts in full, basically take many of the same steps above, but first create a "short list" of creditors that you will be targeting. Personally I'd recommend starting with the largest balances and getting those paid off first. Look at how much cash you could afford to part with today, and see how many of your largest balances that amount will cover. Start calling those creditors, ask if they will delete in exchange for full payment, and proceed to get them paid off (securing any pay-for-delete [PFD] offers in writing).
3) If you can only afford to pay one in full at this time, then just pick whichever balance is the largest you can afford to pay off, and contact that creditor for PFD. Repeat each month (or every few months) as you build up enough cash to make similar offers.
Note/Warning: If you can't afford to pay a creditor in full, immediately, and the account is still within your state's statute of limitations, you might be better off not contacting them at all. If they think you can pay, and they're within the SOL, they may choose to sue you if you don't pay them in full immediately. So, be thoughtful about only re-opening lines of communication with creditors that you're prepared to pay-in-full immediately if necessary.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
@fishbjc wrote:I would use the cash where it would do me the most good.
Getting rid of those collections is HUGE. Please post them, so we can review. You may be able to have OC recall them from collections and pay them direct.
HIPPA can help you tremendously. Some CA's will be willing to do a Pay-for-delete. It's going to take time, so be patient.
There are other factors in play here.
Credit Cards? What do you have and what are the balances vs credit limit?
We have no credit cards at all. Well... I think we still have an old zales account (don't have the card) it's a zero balance and was paid off. We are considering getting a credit card, keeping a low balance and paying off every month.
Okay! Here are the specifics. Pretty embarrasing. Took me a while, but this should be everything that is in collections:
The following are Medical:
Southwest Recovery - $268 - Original date: April 30,2011
West Asset Management - $2038 - Original Date: May 7, 2014
Account Management Resources LLC: $23 - September 27, 2013
Account Management Resources LLC $58 - July 31, 2013
Account Management Resources LLC $21 - July 31, 2013
Account Management Resources LLC $79 - June 7, 2012
Account Management Resources LLC $61 - November 10, 2010
Account Management Resources LLC $20 - November 26, 2008
Account Management Resources LLC $83 - July 15, 2008
ARS Account Resolution - $112 - August 26, 2013
CAC Financial Corp - $235 - January 16, 2013
Tulsa Adjustment Bureau - $34 - May 14, 2009
Berlin Wheeler - PAID - original $92 - March 11, 2011
Berlin Wheeler - PAID - original $111 - March 11, 2011
Berlin Wheeler - PAID- original $182 - March 11, 2011
Berlin Wheeler - PAID - original $50 - March 11, 2011
Medical Data Systems - PAID - original $50 - June 8, 2010
Credit Services INC - $280 - December 2012 - December 2012
Works and Lentz - $847 - March 2008
Credit Collection - PAID - March 2008
LTD Financial SVS - $913 - September 22, 2009
CMRE Financial - PAID - November, 2011
OKAY! and there is ONE that is not medical:
Unique National collections (Library) - $93 - July 29,2011
I also have two paid judgements
Dec 10,2008 - $747 paid
May 12, 2009 - $951 paid
We have no credit cards and I have a car loan that I have never been late on. It has a balance of 12,620. Payments are $385/month. August 8 we will be getting a check for about $13,000 when we sell our home and can take care of these if that is the best option to improve my credit in order to buy a home this time next year.