Repo, Credit cards, Mortgage Pre-approval OH MY!

[Itgem679]

Hey all,

It's me again. So many of you have helped me so much in the last couple of years. Because of this forum, over the last few years, I have been able to rebuild my creditworthiness, made the '700 Club', no missed payments on any credit cards, was approved for high limit credit cards (such as 7500 and 10K), and a home pre-approval.

Here are the issues I'm facing now:

I have a 5-year-old Repo that I've been unsuccessful in removing (thus far; basic dispute with Experian) that is reporting to my credit as charged-off but still dinging me as a missed payment every month. Is this supposed to happen? It's really killing my Equifax score.

My pre-approval is for $270K which in Portland, OR isn't getting us anywhere. I am building up my savings again so I can have 3.5% down (yes, I know - I dipped into it to pay for an engine on one of my car's and then my boyfriend said we should apply for a mortgage - not my favorite moment in life). The $270K requires the seller to pay closing costs (since I didn't have the 3.5% to put down) so we've been VERY unsuccessful at finding a house. My question here: I'm ready to put purchasing a house on hold, and save, save, save $. We reviewed the budget and we should have about $3K to put in savings every month. We've stopped spending. I'm getting a CC offer I've been waiting for (Southwest) - should I just apply for it? Does this rescind the pre-approval?

I hope you're not reading this rolling your eyes at these (dumb) questions. I'm sure I've written it to sound rash and irresponsible, however, I promise you - it's not. It's just the timing of everything.

[OmarGB9]

Yes, the repo can keep reporting as "missed payment" every month. It's not that you're still missing payments, obviously. But once an account is charged off, the creditor has the option of either reporting "CO" every month, or the worst delinquency prior to charge off, which is what this creditor is choosing to do. This is of course only if the repo remains unpaid. Is it still unpaid? Paying it off will stop these monthly updates. But disputing is not the way to go.

If you've decided not to get a house anytime soon, then yes, you could go for the credit card. Just be sure that 12 months prior to your actual mortgage app, don't apply for anything.

[Itgem679]

Thank you Omar!