First timer trying to get his FICO scores up...

[Anonymous]

Notfancy, that's the plan. I use these two cards 99% of the time for all of my purchases so its become a science to me and im loving it.

Update: re-contacted 3 of my derog accounts today for pay for delete confirmation. Paid off the following...

IQ Data - $3200 (ouch)
Sprint | Enhanced Recovery - $252

Actually felt great to do so, obviously a hard pill to swallow knowing that i shelled out over 3grand with two calls. But my lender said they needed to be paid asap, so i agreed of course. I got the PFD agreements in writing before i gave those two companies my cc info. IQ Data stated that they will contact the three bureaus come monday of next week to get the derogs off of my CR. Excited to see how much of a jump my scores take. Enhanced|Sprint may take 30 days for deletion, so also excited about that as well.

By the time i close on the newly built home, ill more than re-coup the amount im having to shell out for the PFD's. Looking to ultimately close july 1st with construction starting in march.

I have to give a buzz to Joseph & Brown as they were a little confused on the PFD process. Aarons will also be a work in progress as they stated weeks back that they dont allow a PFD. And as others have stated, whether a collection is paid or not on your CR, its scored the same.

[notfancy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Notfancy, that's the plan. I use these two cards 99% of the time for all of my purchases so its become a science to me and im loving it.

Update: re-contacted 3 of my derog accounts today for pay for delete confirmation. Paid off the following...

IQ Data - $3200 (ouch)
Sprint | Enhanced Recovery - $252

Actually felt great to do so, obviously a hard pill to swallow knowing that i shelled out over 3grand with two calls. But my lender said they needed to be paid asap, so i agreed of course. I got the PFD agreements in writing before i gave those two companies my cc info. IQ Data stated that they will contact the three bureaus come monday of next week to get the derogs off of my CR. Excited to see how much of a jump my scores take. Enhanced|Sprint may take 30 days for deletion, so also excited about that as well.

By the time i close on the newly built home, ill more than re-coup the amount im having to shell out for the PFD's. Looking to ultimately close july 1st with construction starting in march.

I have to give a buzz to Joseph & Brown as they were a little confused on the PFD process. Aarons will also be a work in progress as they stated weeks back that they dont allow a PFD. And as others have stated, whether a collection is paid or not on your CR, its scored the same.

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Congratulations on the successes that you had!!!! That is a huge, albeit painful, step! I hope you can keep continuing on as you have! Keep trying with Aaron's! Try to politely let them know that while they have to report accurately there is nothing in the law that prevents them from asking for a tradeline to be deleted, or deleted early. They don't have to give a reason to the credit bureaus. I hope it works out for you!

[MortgageMinded]

Congrats on the payoffs, I too am in the throws of paying off debts.  I was told by my LA to apply for 2 more SCC's.  He was optimistic I could buy within the year, but I am on a tight deadline to move out in July.  

Keep up the good work....

[Anonymous]

MMinded, how many CC's do you have now? Obviously every lender is different, as i just recently found this out true and true. After speaking with around 10 lenders since november, i felt like only one of those knew every single thing about the loan process, fha guidelines, credit scoring, etc. This includes most of the major banks as well. It became very frustrating!

But im updating this thread to announce to the masses that i was pre-approved for my construction home as of 3PM today. Im madd excited about this as ive worked my rear off since November (i know, short time) to clean up my credit report for a mortgage asap! And also working my rear off saving up every single dime that i can since Feb of '13.

My lender let me know that my median score is officially 625 as of today. Which if you glance back to the first page of this thread, you'll see a difference. This is all before my IQ Data derogs Enhanced recovery derogs are deleted off of my report. I received the pay for delete letters from IQ this morning and they'll be contacting all 3 CB's to have it deleted. Enhanced is doing the same thing with the two CB's it reports to and is will be sending my letter via postal mail.

Looking forward to the score increase that will hopefully happen in the next 30 days with those two major baddies being deleted off of my CR.

[MortgageMinded]

As of today, I have just 1 (Wells Fargo - On time, 1 year, 9% uti).  I was told to acquire 2 addl cards, I applied to CAP ONE Secured (asked to verify income / done/ now waiting on a response) .  I recon with them 2x a week until I get a rejection or the card.   I am also leaning towards acquiring the BoA SCC, just like you have.   I am not sure I have the credit for it, but will try next week.   I just don't want to keep getting HP on my CR esp before applying for a Mortgage, but in order to get my scores up I have too.  You can't get one without the other. 

I have spoke w 2 lenders (first said within a year, the other I haven't heard from).   I sent second the copy of the firsts HP to save me the score drop.  At this point, it doesn't look like I can get this accomplished, but even if I could, I would be hardpressed to come up with the 3% FHA requires and FDA wants a higher score and pay off all my bills.  So, I may just rent another year and get my scores as high as possible and put some time behind this.   I'd really wished I didn't to have to do that, but I may have not a choice at this point in time.  

I have 4 baddies, I contacted one of them today to offer them $200 on a $800 acct, they started playing games (offering 20% off balance and saying they couldn't give any less and no way would they settle for $200) and the call ended leaving the ball in their court to make a decision about my 25% offer (fingers crossed).  The one thing about a creditor they always act like there your parent, even if the events that caused my delinquency is health related.  Just curious, when you paid off baddies, do you give them your checking account or pay them with a personal check / certified check?  It seems like the only way some folks will work with you is to give them a check over the phone, something I am not comfortable with.

Thanks for the comments and congrats on your home.   I will get there.....eventually.

[notfancy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
MMinded, how many CC's do you have now? Obviously every lender is different, as i just recently found this out true and true. After speaking with around 10 lenders since november, i felt like only one of those knew every single thing about the loan process, fha guidelines, credit scoring, etc. This includes most of the major banks as well. It became very frustrating!

But im updating this thread to announce to the masses that i was pre-approved for my construction home as of 3PM today. Im madd excited about this as ive worked my rear off since November (i know, short time) to clean up my credit report for a mortgage asap! And also working my rear off saving up every single dime that i can since Feb of '13.

My lender let me know that my median score is officially 625 as of today. Which if you glance back to the first page of this thread, you'll see a difference. This is all before my IQ Data derogs Enhanced recovery derogs are deleted off of my report. I received the pay for delete letters from IQ this morning and they'll be contacting all 3 CB's to have it deleted. Enhanced is doing the same thing with the two CB's it reports to and is will be sending my letter via postal mail.

Looking forward to the score increase that will hopefully happen in the next 30 days with those two major baddies being deleted off of my CR.

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Awesome! Congratulations! Hopefully you'll see a good score bump, and get an even better rate once your credit bureaus  update!

[titanofold]

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@MortgageMinded wrote:

As of today, I have just 1 (Wells Fargo - On time, 1 year, 9% uti).  I was told to acquire 2 addl cards, I applied to CAP ONE Secured (asked to verify income / done/ now waiting on a response) .  I recon with them 2x a week until I get a rejection or the card.   I am also leaning towards acquiring the BoA SCC, just like you have.   I am not sure I have the credit for it, but will try next week.   I just don't want to keep getting HP on my CR esp before applying for a Mortgage, but in order to get my scores up I have too.  You can't get one without the other. 

I have spoke w 2 lenders (first said within a year, the other I haven't heard from).   I sent second the copy of the firsts HP to save me the score drop.  At this point, it doesn't look like I can get this accomplished, but even if I could, I would be hardpressed to come up with the 3% FHA requires and FDA wants a higher score and pay off all my bills.  So, I may just rent another year and get my scores as high as possible and put some time behind this.   I'd really wished I didn't to have to do that, but I may have not a choice at this point in time.  

I have 4 baddies, I contacted one of them today to offer them $200 on a $800 acct, they started playing games (offering 20% off balance and saying they couldn't give any less and no way would they settle for $200) and the call ended leaving the ball in their court to make a decision about my 25% offer (fingers crossed).  The one thing about a creditor they always act like there your parent, even if the events that caused my delinquency is health related.  Just curious, when you paid off baddies, do you give them your checking account or pay them with a personal check / certified check?  It seems like the only way some folks will work with you is to give them a check over the phone, something I am not comfortable with.

Thanks for the comments and congrats on your home.   I will get there.....eventually.

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Without knowing some of the details, it's unusual to settle for pennies on the dollar. Most of us will send a cashier's check or money order to the CA or OC to make the payment. And really you want to get a PFD rather than settle. The frontline employees you get on the the phone rarely have the authority to accept a PFD offer. Write a letter instead.

[MortgageMinded]

Have you been successful in obtaining a PFD from a CA?  If so, please PM me.   Also send me a copy of the verbiage you used to get this done.   I would rather pay it in full and get it removed completely.    I have read many posts from people who say the CA always tell them it's impossible to do OR that they won't do it.  

[Anonymous]

MMinded,

From all of the information that I’ve gathered about lenders and after speaking to a ton of them since November of last year…they want to see you having 2-3 active tradelines. Had I known that this time last year, I would have already closed on my new home by now instead of it starting construction in a months time. So I would say go for the Bofa card, upgrade it to the rewards secured version and keep all of your card balances within reason obviously. Especially since if you do get the CapOne card, the BofA one will come all at the same time and they can age together and you’ll have those HP’s right after each other. Out of my two cards, the BofA is my favorite because of the rewards feature. But like I mentioned prior, I use them as charge cards. I’m on average of running at least a $1000 thru them both every 30 days. Just wish I had a higher limit on both. It’s for sure worth having the cards as others have mentioned in order to help raise your scores.

With my baddies, I gave them my credit card info over the phone. Granted, I had the two creditors send me full documentation that If I were to pay off the debts that they would in fact delete them off of my reports. I have that in writing and now it’s a wait and see game, hopefully sooner than later. Did you creditors offer an PFD’s at all?

@notfancy – For sure. My fingers are crossed for a nice jump in score. Getting antsy, haha.

[MortgageMinded]

I spoke with a lender this afternoon who told me that July is possible.   I do have to pay off 4 baddies by end of April (which is doable).   Unfortunately, the CA I am working with on one of my accounts doesn't offer PFD.   So, it's trying to find the median and paying off the bill.   I am waiting on the Cap1, which I should hear sometime next week and will probably apply for the BoA by the EOM.   Next mos, I plan on paying the last 3, and then it's off to the races on getting a pay-off in full letters from each.  So, my credit won't be in full swing til late March early April and my bills paid off by then.  Then it's fingers crossed.