Rebuilding-need 50 points for mortgage. Help!

[rckstrscott]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

It's a bit embarrassing to put it all out there but we gotta start somewhere to fix it right? These are the companies, amounts, and dates of collections. I have about 1k I can spend right now. The rest will have to wait. I want to get the most out of that 1k.

Mine

AT&T-sequium - $120 03/20- I CALLED THEM THEY SAID THEY WONT PFD

Credit one - Lvnv funding- $1253 09/19

Credit one - lvnv funding-$746 09/19

Sprint - ic system - $992 08/19

Way fair - lvnv funding-$659 06/19

Progressive - recmgmt srvcs -$422 02/19

My husbands

T-Mobile - convergent outsourcing-$3025 12/19

Cox communications-convergent outsourcing-$87 01/18

Progressive-Caine weaver-paid 346 09/16 - THIS WAS SETTLED PAYMENT MADE 03/20

Comenity capital bank- portfolio recovery-$1771 08/16

Citibank -Portfolio recovery-$523 06/19

---

Don't be embarrased! Look at most of our signatures. Many of us started in the same boat, with tons of issues. It is mangable and you will be able to do this. I was below 500 when I started, most of us were in similar boats. The best thing we can do as a forum community is to be honest with you.

The bad news is with 1k; I personally just don't see enough you can do to really see much scoring increases with your derogatories since your current cards are already paid off. You said you were added as an AU? What is the status of that card? Are their balances on that card? What does your total utilization look across all reporting cards? Those Citibank, Wayfair, Credit Ones.. Do those show are charge offs?

The good news? Nearly ALL those collection companies have many successes on this board. Portfolio Recovery will generally remove once you pay those. LVNV and Credit One are owned by the same parent company, and I had success removing LVNV with a PFD. Covergent, same deal. IC System removed for me with a GW letter. Looks like if you can just GET to the score you need, you will actually be able to really work on the credit report post close.

September is a bit away still. Covid shocked the lenders a bit, but it is starting to come back towards normal. If you don't have anything else hit and you keep your util down your scores will tick up. 

-scott

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately they are charge offs. The good news is I haven't had a single late payment on my current mortgage or auto loans. The AU card is a16k limit that my dad charges maybe $100/month to, so that helped. I keep my utilization rate on all my current cards 15% or less and leave maybe a $5 balance after being paid. Short of having the $$ to just sit down and pay off all the collections I feel like I've got to a stagnant point. My husband unfortunately didn't use credit at all after his foreclosure in 2016 so we just got him  a secured and a regular card back in Jan. I cut up the cards, hooked up Netflix and Hulu to them and set it up on autopay. And it's been helping... Just slowly. The good news is if our financing falls through that we get our deposit back on the house which is why we did it because it was virtually no risk to us. We thought maybe by the grace of God we could get there by the fall. I'll keep plugging away at what I can but it really seems like time is what is going to help the most at this point. Before covid they would have done my VA wish a 580 😭😭😭

[rckstrscott]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunately they are charge offs. The good news is I haven't had a single late payment on my current mortgage or auto loans. The AU card is a16k limit that my dad charges maybe $100/month to, so that helped. I keep my utilization rate on all my current cards 15% or less and leave maybe a $5 balance after being paid. Short of having the $$ to just sit down and pay off all the collections I feel like I've got to a stagnant point. My husband unfortunately didn't use credit at all after his foreclosure in 2016 so we just got him  a secured and a regular card back in Jan. I cut up the cards, hooked up Netflix and Hulu to them and set it up on autopay. And it's been helping... Just slowly. The good news is if our financing falls through that we get our deposit back on the house which is why we did it because it was virtually no risk to us. We thought maybe by the grace of God we could get there by the fall. I'll keep plugging away at what I can but it really seems like time is what is going to help the most at this point. Before covid they would have done my VA wish a 580 😭😭😭

---

Well, you might actually get a few points if you go AZEO, all cards reporting a 0 balance except one, and that card below (I believe) 8 percent utilization or something along those lines? If the AU card reports a low balance every month that could be the one card showing a balance.

Since you have charge offs, those are ALSO factoring into your overall util if they have balances. Do any of those charge offs show balances? That could be a place where you could get some points back if you paid off a charge off (if there was a balance) - The derog still hits but the gains in util drop could get you some points too.

You still might get there by fall. It's just June at this stage. Have you talked to any of the mortgage pros on the mortgage forum? I recommend talking to @ShanetheMortgageMan  - he was very helpful to me both with my first purchase in 2011 and then again this year.

-scott

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  I commend you for taking the first steps. In April, I started the process of paying off the 3 items I had in collections and once paid deleted my score has jumped 33 points. Since you only have 1k, I would suggest attack them from smallest to largest. You won't see any improvement until they are deleted and they won't be deleted until they are paid. Many of us have been where you are. My score was in the high 400s last summer, when hit bottom (truck repossession & student loan default on the way to a wage gernishment). There is hope for you. 

[Anonymous]

---

@rckstrscott wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunately they are charge offs. The good news is I haven't had a single late payment on my current mortgage or auto loans. The AU card is a16k limit that my dad charges maybe $100/month to, so that helped. I keep my utilization rate on all my current cards 15% or less and leave maybe a $5 balance after being paid. Short of having the $$ to just sit down and pay off all the collections I feel like I've got to a stagnant point. My husband unfortunately didn't use credit at all after his foreclosure in 2016 so we just got him  a secured and a regular card back in Jan. I cut up the cards, hooked up Netflix and Hulu to them and set it up on autopay. And it's been helping... Just slowly. The good news is if our financing falls through that we get our deposit back on the house which is why we did it because it was virtually no risk to us. We thought maybe by the grace of God we could get there by the fall. I'll keep plugging away at what I can but it really seems like time is what is going to help the most at this point. Before covid they would have done my VA wish a 580 😭😭😭

---

Well, you might actually get a few points if you go AZEO, all cards reporting a 0 balance except one, and that card below (I believe) 8 percent utilization or something along those lines? If the AU card reports a low balance every month that could be the one card showing a balance.

Since you have charge offs, those are ALSO factoring into your overall util if they have balances. Do any of those charge offs show balances? That could be a place where you could get some points back if you paid off a charge off (if there was a balance) - The derog still hits but the gains in util drop could get you some points too.

You still might get there by fall. It's just June at this stage. Have you talked to any of the mortgage pros on the mortgage forum? I recommend talking to @ShanetheMortgageMan  - he was very helpful to me both with my first purchase in 2011 and then again this year.

-scott

---

mortgage score love $0 balances on CCs, so I would do as Scott recommended and implement AZEO to gain some points.

When CAs get removed or/PIF, the score changes are often not immediate.

I see you said you dealt with Caine & Weiner. Did you get them to PFD? The absolutely do PFD, so I hope that one is going to drop from your CRs.

As others have said, most of those CAs will PFD. COs will likely stay. There has been success with Credit One do GW TL deletes, but the accounts need to be dealt with, they will not do it if there is still a balance.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Can anyone give me tips or templates for goodwill letters? I have two collections that were paid. One was Caine and Weiner the other was Southwest Systems and i want to try to send a goodwill letter for deletion. 

I have been scouring the internet trying to find resources and a way to fix my credit. How did you all do this? We just simply dont have the money. My husband is on disability and we have three young children. I can afford to pay a collection here and there which is what im doing but at this rate it will take FOREVER to pay things off, especially the larger 2-3k bills. We have alot of equity in our home and the plan was when we sell our home we can pay off pretty much all our debt BUT im nervous to sell our home before we are approved for our new mortgage- and we cant get approved for the new mortgage without the credit scores meeting the min requirement. Once we get that 640 everything else can be a conditon that its paid off at closing. I feel like im stuck between a rock and  hard place. Even if this home falls through our credit STILL needs to be fixed. I dont think i have good enough credit to tap into our equity via a HELOC to pay everything off, and it would probably hurt taking out new credit anyway.

The internet is full of debt relief and consolidation loans that are likely scams and/or will cost me a fortune. If you dont make a lot of money how do you fix everything and get it paid off?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Can anyone give me tips or templates for goodwill letters? I have two collections that were paid. One was Caine and Weiner the other was Southwest Systems and i want to try to send a goodwill letter for deletion. 

I have been scouring the internet trying to find resources and a way to fix my credit. How did you all do this? We just simply dont have the money. My husband is on disability and we have three young children. I can afford to pay a collection here and there which is what im doing but at this rate it will take FOREVER to pay things off, especially the larger 2-3k bills. We have alot of equity in our home and the plan was when we sell our home we can pay off pretty much all our debt BUT im nervous to sell our home before we are approved for our new mortgage- and we cant get approved for the new mortgage without the credit scores meeting the min requirement. Once we get that 640 everything else can be a conditon that its paid off at closing. I feel like im stuck between a rock and  hard place. Even if this home falls through our credit STILL needs to be fixed. I dont think i have good enough credit to tap into our equity via a HELOC to pay everything off, and it would probably hurt taking out new credit anyway.

The internet is full of debt relief and consolidation loans that are likely scams and/or will cost me a fortune. If you dont make a lot of money how do you fix everything and get it paid off?

---

I didn't have money to fix my credit for years. My option was wait out nearly the 7 years for them to drop off. That is not a popular way to deal with it, but it was my only option, as I did not own a home to sell or tap into. I am fixing the last few things that will stick around longer than I'd like, but most everything else has or will drop off in exactly 1 year, paid or unpaid.

I did "credit repair" and it was an absolute scam. I waiste nearly 100/mo and had thing made worse for the 2-3 years I had them and could have actually put towards my debts.

The only other option is pay it off slowly. If the debts are new that will be your best bet. If they are older and you feel it will take forever and you cannot sell your home or tap into it, it just may be a wait it out situation while being good and maintaining your positive accounts so you have the age and history reporting for when all the baddies come off and while waiting work on items that will be around longer than the majority to shorten the wait a little bit.

The dates for the derogs you put are fairly new. 2016-2019, most in 2018/19. If that is going to take awhile, I would work on 2018-2019 stuff if you are outside the SOL for the 2019 debts. When you are done with the most recent items the others will either have dropped off or will be close and if not, then start working on those last.

Lnvn and portfolio def does pfd and credit one has been doing gw deletions of the TL at a much higher rate lately, it seems. Other have mentioned that those other CAs also do pfd. You just have to tackle it.

No need for a template for your gw letter. Just explain what went wrong, take accountability, and ask kindly for a removal. For the CA ask them for a GW because you paid it and insert reason why you would like it off and how it would help you greatly if they could help you out.

Good luck!

[Working-on-Credit1]

I have a similar issue I have 2 late payments for fingerhut from approximately 5 yrs ago. They will not remove it and this is such a hindrance on my cr.

[peter1974]

---

@rckstrscott wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I will get together a list. It's quite lengthy between my husband and I but a lot of it is old. My husband also has a foreclosure and repossessions that are a few years old that we can't do anything about. Should I focus on what's most recent, the last year? Or list out and look into paying everything? My research says to leave a lone the collections that are a few years old at this point because they aren't weighing as heavily and focus on anything new? 

---

Well; if the collections are PAID perhaps in some situations, yes leave them alone if no other removal action can be taken. I closed on my mortgage just fine with two old derogs on my credit report. However, the collection and judgement that showed were paid.

But @FireMedic1 hit it right on the head. The age of the accounts is far less worrisome to an underwriter rather than outstanding debt. If you have large unpaid collections or judgements it will almost certainly disqualify you from being approved for a mortgage. There are some situations where if you were on a payment plan (such as the IRS) where the mortgage will simply factor that into the DTI but I don't think that will be the case for a collection account.

You need to pay those off before really considering a mortgage.

-scott

---

Is this even the case for FHA loans?