@AllZero wrote:
@timshifty
1. Do you have the available funds to address the collections?
2. Do you have the available funds for a down payment on a house, if required?
3. Some Collection Agencies will do PFD, Pay For Delete. Some CAs will not.
4. If you do not have the funds to address the collections, perhaps wait until the derogatories are removed from your reports at the 7 year exclusion date.
Your scores are a tad low. You both have some work ahead of you. It is achievable to clean up both your credit reports and increase your scores. It will require both of you to tackle your derogatories.
are any of these COs or CAs paid, just still showing, or are all owed?
To expand, if you do have funds to work on these derogs, it would help if you could list out each CA/OC with balance owed. I am assuming every CO and CA drops in 2022?
I totally understand hitting a rough patch in life that turns your credit upside-down! That has basically been the story of my whole adult life! I am finally reigning everything in tho, but to be perfectly honest, even 1 year ago I was about in the same position as both of you, having 10+ CAs and it can definitely be overwhelming, but can be dealt with! I chose/believed the path was wait out the 7 years, I found out that was not the case, but rather tackle it, and like you most everything is/was due to drop off in 2 years or less. I decided to wait out most of it, but anything outside the bulk of negatives falling off in 2021, I decided to tackle. That was a financial and personal decision. Me and my SO want to own a hime too, but had to be real in our capabilities. We couldn't throw every dime we had at debt that was outside the SOL *and* have a down payment for a home, so that was our compromise. It was definitely *not* what we wanted, but what we had to do.
Feel free to list all those CAs out to see if we can help guide you to get rid of some of these baddies and clean up your credit to be home ready! Even if you choose to wait, you should still work on building your credit, and if you haven't already, because once everything falls off you will have no credit, and that is a whole different situation.
I always thought once it all fell off and I had a completely clean slate, that I would have "excellent" credit, and I was sorely mistaken about that, too. I had been given such bad advice over the years regarding credit!
So think about it and what you both want to do and we can help guide you either way.
Good luck!
