What else can I do

[Anonymous]

Ok,  Im in the process of trying to get a VA loan.  My scores back in May were 581,604 and 624.  I have done everything the rep from the VA has told me to do.  I have paid off everything with 0 CC debt balances I have no lates in the past year.  My questions is what can I do to get my score to go up.  I have 9 things that were negative and I paid all of them off back in January.  There is nothing I can do or pay to change the status of my negative accoutns, they are all paid in full.  All my current and open accoutns have never been paid late and the 3 CC I have have 0 balances.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

Hox

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok,  Im in the process of trying to get a VA loan.  My scores back in May were 581,604 and 624.  I have done everything the rep from the VA has told me to do.  I have paid off everything with 0 CC debt balances I have no lates in the past year.  My questions is what can I do to get my score to go up.  I have 9 things that were negative and I paid all of them off back in January.  There is nothing I can do or pay to change the status of my negative accoutns, they are all paid in full.  All my current and open accoutns have never been paid late and the 3 CC I have have 0 balances.

Any advice would really be appreciated.

Hox

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Hi Hox! And welcome to our forum. Advice, posting this on the "rebuilding credit" board could get you some great answers. But what I would do is send GW letters (Goodwill letters) to the CA's (collection agency) you paid to see if they would delete the tradelines. Email has worked for me on several, I created a post listing the agencies I've had success with. There are examples of letters that have worked for others posted all over this forum, just search for them. But be sure to tailor it to fit your situation and sound warming and heartfelt in the letter/email. If you tell us which agencies you had to deal with, maybe someone will have the contact information that worked for them. Good luck, this entire forum holds a great deal of info and advice and the people here are awesome folks. I sometimes wish I could send a fruit basket to all those who've helped me.

[Anonymous]

JLee gives good advice. It's unfortunate but sometimes paying off old collections will actually lower your score because it updates the date and makes it look like a new collections. The resident mortgage experts here have said several times paid or unpaid collections look the same on a mortgage application, so paying them is not usually advised.

Hopefully you'll have some luck having them deleted. For future reference, you don't want to pay collections before getting the creditors to agree to delete them in exchange for payment. Good luck!

ETA - You also want to keep a very small amount charged on a credit card. If there's a 0 balance they have no reason to report an on-time payment.

Message Edited by ladyofnight on 07-03-2009 06:22 AM

[Anonymous]

Unfortunatley I paid them all before I knew about PFD

I have written GW to all of them and NONE want to delete them.  I really wish I used a PFD letter before I paid all that money (over 5K, divorce killed me).  My credit score did go up quite a bit once they showed paid in full, but now I just dont know what else to do to try and get my mid score above 620.  Do you think just have to give it more time, like a few months or would it take like a year?  As far as the CC's goes I have a $7 a month fee so that is what I pay every month for them to report the ontime payment. Here are the creditors that will not delete.

Arrow Financial, Credit Management LP, Client Services INC, FST Bank Card, Dillards, Macys, HSBC Bank.

Anyone have any luck with any of those?

Hox

[BungalowMo]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Unfortunatley I paid them all before I knew about PFD

I have written GW to all of them and NONE want to delete them.  I really wish I used a PFD letter before I paid all that money (over 5K, divorce killed me).  My credit score did go up quite a bit once they showed paid in full, but now I just dont know what else to do to try and get my mid score above 620.  Do you think just have to give it more time, like a few months or would it take like a year?  As far as the CC's goes I have a $7 a month fee so that is what I pay every month for them to report the ontime payment. Here are the creditors that will not delete.

Arrow Financial, Credit Management LP, Client Services INC, FST Bank Card, Dillards, Macys, HSBC Bank.

Anyone have any luck with any of those?

Hox

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I don't have any first hand knowledge of those you mentioned, but.....

It's not always a bad thing to pay off old debts.  Especially if any of these were the *OC's  (*check the abbreviations link in my sig block...keep that handy til you know the meanings etc)  If you paid OC's, that is a good thing, as that balance was likely factoring in your overall Util.  That is why you saw the score increase.

Also, when a LO looks at your report (not just your FICO scores) they will have a more favorable view of you if you have your old debts paid rather that letting them sit with balances.  Tells them "I got behind, but PAID what I OWED!"  That is always a good thing.

Don't kick yourself.  I paid off all my baddies too...then found this forum.  Would have been great to do it the other way around, but such is life.

What you possibly can do is...what open cc's you do have...call & see if they will give you a CLI (credit line increase!)  This will drop your util which will likely raise your FICO's.

Also, listen to J-Lee!  Here's the thread with his/her GW success!  Shows persistence pays off!!! 

Success!!

And lastly, I'd never consider paying a debt you owe (unless it's long beyond SOL & CRTP) to be a bad thing!

Message Edited by BungalowMo on 07-03-2009 07:29 PM

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I got a CC increse on my 2 of my CC just $100 but its good enough. 

One other thing.  When you apply for a home loan and do not get an automated approval do you request a underwriters approval or does that automatically happen?

Hox

[BungalowMo]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

I got a CC increse on my 2 of my CC just $100 but its good enough. 

One other thing.  When you apply for a home loan and do not get an automated approval do you request a underwriters approval or does that automatically happen?

Hox

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By "home loan" do you mean you werer trying to getpre approved for a mortgage loan, or is this a home equity loan??

No matter which it is, whoever you applied with, tell them you'd like a copy of the credit report they received.  This will be a special 3-in-1 that they get & it will have your EX FICO on it!  That, my friend, is a rare commodity & it's almost the only way to get it is thru a LO.

I tried a re-fi a couple months ago & even tho the LO kind of blew off my calls about 2 weeks later...I had that EX FICO & it was worth the hard Inq!!!  

[BungalowMo]

Oh, and CONGRATS on the CLI !!! 

Baby steps....that's how we get there.  Just like the tortise in the race!