Michigan Mommy Needs FICO Help!

[MichiganMommy]

Hello. I am new so bare with me. I am trying to buy a home in the foreclosure fiassco in Michigan, going FHA. There are some very good deals so this is a good time for me. Here is my story and I would be most appreciative if anyone could help.

1) I owned a FHA home over three years ago and sold it prior to it going into Foreclosure. It was sold for less than the full price and that shows up on my CR. It hasn't caused me a real problem yet, but one lender mentioned something about a CAVIER report. Does anyone know much about this?

2) I got a 300 limit CC from Orchard. How much of it should I spend to boost my CR? I was told 10%...If this is true, then do I only pay the $25 per month bill when it comes or do I pay off the entire 30 dollars? AND if I pay the entire $30 when the bill comes, how long do I wait until I charge another 30 bucks. This is somewhat confusing to me.

3) I have been working with a great company who has raised my sister's CS by 100 points in 3 months. I just started with them last month and already two things have come off. That is GREAT because one of those two things was for a large amount (well to me) $2,000 and I know that my lender was going to make me pay it off before they give me a loan. It has not come off of Equifax though and I have noticed that they are REALLY slow and sometimes won't take things off... Has anyone else had this experience with EQ? If so, what did you do?

4) Related to #3 above, the one thing that I have noticed is that some things that were disputed, the collection agency did not remove, but updated with more accurate information (so If I disputed that I was not 30 days late 5 times, they may have removed two of the time and now have me listed as 30 days late on 3 times). So, with this new "update" the have recently shown up on my report as "last updated" with a recent date. Does this affect my credit score??? Also, will a lender see this as new activity???????

5) Finally (for now) how much do inquiries really affect your score? What is the difference between a hard and soft inquiry?

Thanks all for sharing their wisdom...

2/14- EQ447EX542TU546

5/28-EQ498EX566TU583

[Anonymous]

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MichiganMommy wrote:

Hello. I am new so bare with me. I am trying to buy a home in the foreclosure fiassco in Michigan, going FHA. There are some very good deals so this is a good time for me. Here is my story and I would be most appreciative if anyone could help.

1) I owned a FHA home over three years ago and sold it prior to it going into Foreclosure. It was sold for less than the full price and that shows up on my CR. It hasn't caused me a real problem yet, but one lender mentioned something about a CAVIER report. Does anyone know much about this?

2) I got a 300 limit CC from Orchard. How much of it should I spend to boost my CR? I was told 10%...If this is true, then do I only pay the $25 per month bill when it comes or do I pay off the entire 30 dollars? AND if I pay the entire $30 when the bill comes, how long do I wait until I charge another 30 bucks. This is somewhat confusing to me.

3) I have been working with a great company who has raised my sister's CS by 100 points in 3 months. I just started with them last month and already two things have come off. That is GREAT because one of those two things was for a large amount (well to me) $2,000 and I know that my lender was going to make me pay it off before they give me a loan. It has not come off of Equifax though and I have noticed that they are REALLY slow and sometimes won't take things off... Has anyone else had this experience with EQ? If so, what did you do?

4) Related to #3 above, the one thing that I have noticed is that some things that were disputed, the collection agency did not remove, but updated with more accurate information (so If I disputed that I was not 30 days late 5 times, they may have removed two of the time and now have me listed as 30 days late on 3 times). So, with this new "update" the have recently shown up on my report as "last updated" with a recent date. Does this affect my credit score??? Also, will a lender see this as new activity???????

5) Finally (for now) how much do inquiries really affect your score? What is the difference between a hard and soft inquiry?

Thanks all for sharing their wisdom...

2/14- EQ447EX542TU546

5/28-EQ498EX566TU583

---

1) Never heard of them, sorry.

2) HSBC usually reports your balance on the last business day of the month. You can use your card, but I would pay it down to less than 9% before that time.

3) EQ, TU and EX have 30 days (45 if you use the free report) to do investigations.

4) It's great that they are reporting accurate info and have 3 times late instead of 5. It does make it look like a fresh ding to your FICO score's unfortunately. The lender is going to do a manual review for the mortgage and will be able to see the actual date's the late payment's occurred. I would recommend sending GW letter's for the lates you do have. It would be ideal if they weren't there.

5) Inquiry's only affect a small portion of your score. (10% under new credit) Hard inquiry's are those that you have initiated for credit request. Soft's are done usually by lender's to review accounts, extend you pre-approved offer's and when you check your own credit. These do not affect score's and are only seen by you.

[Anonymous]

Also, in regards to 5, I don't recommend applying for new credit before a mortgage app. Most say atleast 6 months prior.

[MichiganMommy]

Thanks, but what does GW mean??? Also, please explain more...what do you mean when you say "I would recommend sending GW letter's for the lates you do have. It would be ideal if they weren't there..." remember, I am a newbee and don't know what the blank, blank I am doing!!!!

Again, Thanks for your advice thus far. I plan to be in the 700 club next year this time (smile).

[Anonymous]

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MichiganMommy wrote:

Thanks, but what does GW mean??? Also, please explain more...what do you mean when you say "I would recommend sending GW letter's for the lates you do have. It would be ideal if they weren't there..." remember, I am a newbee and don't know what the blank, blank I am doing!!!!

Again, Thanks for your advice thus far. I plan to be in the 700 club next year this time (smile).

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GW stands for good will. You ask, beg, plead your case to a creditor you got off path with, in hopes that they will forgive your wrong and update your information favorably. There is a section on sample's listed in the credit scoring 101 thread. I will post a link. The abbreviation's are also stickied at the top here.

Welcome to the forums!

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

[Anonymous]

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MichiganMommy wrote:

1) I owned a FHA home over three years ago and sold it prior to it going into Foreclosure. It was sold for less than the full price and that shows up on my CR. It hasn't caused me a real problem yet, but one lender mentioned something about a CAVIER report. Does anyone know much about this?

I would suggest posting over on the mortgage forum about a CAVIER report. As it seems to be mortgage related, you'll likely get more information there.

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I would recommend reading the following threads-

Freq Request Threads -

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=6834

Common Abbreviations-

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=52625

Credit Scoring 101-

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=11303

GW means goodwill, where you ask the company to be nice and remove accurate, but negative, information. You will read more in those threads above.