Is there anything else to do besides wait?

[Anonymous]

This time last year my score was in the 300s. We had to let all of our cards go to collections after a family emergency that pretty much destroyed our financial stability and we ended up living on our credit cards for a while. Anyways, I’ve done several pay for deletes on the ones that would bite. I still have about 6 collection accounts on my credit each for about $1000. I have $20k bal on closed cards with NFCU which I am paying slowly but surely. And we have 2 auto loans totally $25k. In the past 6 months I’ve opened a $500 NFCU secured card, did freshstart through Fingerhut and have already graduated and received 2 CLI with a limit of $800 now. My mom added me as an AU on an AMEX with a $6000 limit and Cap1 with a $2000 limit. I have 2 very small student loans that are deferred because I am a student currently. I pay my balances in full if I use any of the cards and all my payments have been made on time for at least 6 months. I’m not paying any of the collections unless they will agree to PFD. My inquiries are also low. My score has jumped up to approx 520 across the board. We are also building our savings slowly but surely.

We would like to buy a house, so I talked to a lending agency who ran my credit and gave us some suggestions for what to do. However, everything she suggested is stuff I’ve already done (get 3 TL, open Fingerhut account, don’t carry balances, etc). When I explained that to her she told me all I can do is wait.

Is this really my only option? I just have to wait for my payment history to improve and my accounts to age and grow? Is there anything else I can do to bump my score up by 80-100 points over this next year?

[Ardecko]

If you can do anything about those collections/negatives, it will help some. Note that the penalities you currently have from them are scaled such that you need to remove all of them to get the most benefit. Getting to just one might give you 10-20 points back, but the big win is getting to Zero.

Otherwise, no. The only thing you can do is wait, and keep paying on time.

[austingal]

The 6 collection accounts are probably hurting you the most. I would try to get pay for delete on those even if you have to write to several people at the companies before you find someone who will bite. Write to the CEO even and explain about your family emergency and state that you want to make things right now that you can. Give them a good sob story and explain that you are trying to buy a house for your family.

You may even try contacting the original creditors first and see if they can/will take the account back from the collection agency and settle it with you directly.

Most mortgage companies will make you pay all of your outstanding collection accounts before they will grant you a mortgage. So you are gonna need to do something about them anyway.

[RobertEG]

I presume that you do not challenge the validity of the debts that are now under collection?

[Anonymous]

No they are all mine. The only issue I have is that they must be charging a ridiculous amount of interest because the collection amounts are drastically higher than the chargeoff amounts. But I feel like that just gives me more leverage for a PFD. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough extra funds to PFD all of them right now. But maybe I’ll start doing one by one.