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My Mortgage Journey using FICO

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Anonymous
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My Mortgage Journey using FICO

Well, here goes...the good, the bad, and the ugly!  I thought you might want to share in my journey as a single mom trying to buy a first house (a little pathetic in my late thirties, but better late than never).
 
I started my goal in February with the following eq 593 (now 646), tu 577(now 622), and ex 590(now 664*).  All are FICO except the current experian that is from Experians freecreditreport.com.  I plan to pull that through FICO.  I have Score Watch and the TU (My Fico) Identity Theft watch.
 
I have a barrage of issues that some of you may identify with...
 - Multiple defaulted student loans from years past that never seem to drop off no matter how old they are (I had them re-purchased in Dec 05 and are showing as a new account since then with no lates and perfect status), but the old ones are so damaging and they show new every time they were sold, etc. so 4 overall loans look like 12!!!  Has anyone had luck with dealing with student loans?  I tried to dispute some that I thought were inaccurate or duplicates, but it seemed to make it worse.
 
- Bankruptcy that is now 7 years old, but has 3 more years before it drops off.
 
-  Old Collections - all but 3 were paid.  Of the 3, 2 are minor balances (<$100) and the other was bigger. My lender said they would have to be dealt with, so like a dummy, I paid the highest one.  I now know that it will appear as a current issue and despite the $0 balance, it will hurt my score.  Stay tuned and I will report the damage as I expect it to hit any day...  Has anyone had any experience with asking to pay past collections as a condition of escrow instead???
 
-  Judgements/lein ...this part kills me.  I have an Innocent Spouse status with the IRS (my ex was a real creep, which is a big reason I have all of these messes to begin with).  However, the State acted on unpaid taxes only notifying the "primary" (my ex) and not me - something about their process says they don't have to, how convenient.  While the IRS was giving me IS status, the State gave me 2 judgements and a tax lein.  Now they are working on applying my IS status to the State.  I really hope that they will remove the lein at that time, but I have no idea what to do to get those judgements removed.  Since they are judgements, can they be reversed, removed, anything??? Will this take another lawyer?  I would appreciate anyone's past experiences on thisSmiley Happy
 
-  On the positive side I have 4 strong accounts with low/no balances and no lates ranging from 7-22 months old.
 
Well...welcome to my saga.  I will keep you posted and I appreciate any helpful input you haveSmiley Happy
 
LER
Message 1 of 14
13 REPLIES 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

The good news is that paying off the old collection will NOT make it any more recent it will prevent it from being resold and possibly cropping up again.  Most mortgage lenders will require that you pay off any delinquent accounts before they will touch you.  Now on to the lien...
 
I really hope that this is taken care of for you.  I have a friend who was in the exact same position as you and successfully had the lien removed.  I would forward any supporting documentation from the IRS to your state and request that the lien against me be dropped.  Look up innocent spouse rules for your state to see if you shuold have protection under that rule.  The fact that you were never notified should also give you a leg up to have it emoved.  That's with all things being equal.  However, we all know the power of the state.  I have my fingers crossed foryou on that one.
Message 2 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

Congrats, your scores have gone up somewhat even across the board. What have you done since feb to get them to jump. Did you just pay down cc balances. Collections falling off. Your bk became 7 years old when? I'm trying to gather what factor do you credit the most you think caused your increase. Keep strong I know it's even often time frustrating, but this has turned into a credit repair crusade. It is eeasier in life to get some of the things you want/need with good fico scores.
 
BTW I also tried to dispute student loans. Some did come back updated as paid transferred or paid in full, maybe one or two was deleted. For the most part thry do make a credit report look a mess. Good luck on that.


Message Edited by LadyFICO on 05-07-2007 10:46 PM
Message 3 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

Part of what I know increased my score is just understanding what balance for my main cc was being reported.  Luckily, Capitol One seems to report the statement balance, which is easy for me to keep track of.  I went on vacation at Xmas so the balance was high ($800 something for a $1000 limit) for the Jan statement.  Once I paid it mostly off my score got way better.  I have also received a limit increase to $1500.  I noticed that although my limit went up I was dinged for my balance being up just slightly so I paid that down under %20 again and we will see what happens.
 
I have 4 current accounts all in perfect standing all between 7 and 22 mo old.  The card above was the most recent and I also noticed a jump after it hit the 6 mo mark.  Since 2 accounts carry a $0 bal (one a $5,500 limit and the other a bank line of credit for $750) and the 3rd is a student loan of around 5K, that one cc seems to carry a big impact on the change of my score.
 
 
PS...the collection agency called me on behalf of the state for the first time....well ever.  I told them the Dept of Revenue who hired them know exactly my situation with the Innocent Spouse being in process.  I then faxed the IS department for a status update and am waiting for a reply.  This makes me really nervous!  Give you an update soon I hopeSmiley Happy
Message 4 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

Luckily for us we had cc with high util that could give us that quick boost. Unfortunately we must be aware of our util since it can also ding us rather quickly as you saw for xmas or big purchases. I got about a 31 point jump in EX today after 4 more cards updated. It is exciting to see the scores go up. Good Luck to you and keep us posted.
Message 5 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

YooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!  Good news for me!  I got my letter from the state giving me Innocent Spouse status.  They are calling off the collectors and removing the lein.  Now I just have to do something about the judgements.  I will keep you posted on how it effects my FICOSmiley Happy
Message 6 of 14
Tuscani
Moderator Emeritus

Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO



LEBR4113 wrote:
YooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!  Good news for me!  I got my letter from the state giving me Innocent Spouse status.  They are calling off the collectors and removing the lein.  Now I just have to do something about the judgements.  I will keep you posted on how it effects my FICOSmiley Happy



Awesome!
Message 7 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

Just an update for you.  The state is removing the judgments and the lien.  I am not sure what effects that will have on my FICO.  Anyone have any knowledge how much a judgment/Lien can impact your actual score?  These are not the only ones I have (I will have 2 or 3 older ones that I could not do anything about, but they are satisfied) so will taking off these three have any impact on improving my score?
 
Also, satisfying the one collection above has not made any changes to my FICO scores.
Message 8 of 14
Tuscani
Moderator Emeritus

Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO



LEBR4113 wrote:
Just an update for you.  The state is removing the judgments and the lien.  I am not sure what effects that will have on my FICO.  Anyone have any knowledge how much a judgment/Lien can impact your actual score?  These are not the only ones I have (I will have 2 or 3 older ones that I could not do anything about, but they are satisfied) so will taking off these three have any impact on improving my score?
 
Also, satisfying the one collection above has not made any changes to my FICO scores.


There is no way to say for sure. But be sure to let us know the end result.
Message 9 of 14
Anonymous
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Re: My Mortgage Journey using FICO

lebr4113:
Keep us posted! How is this effecting your credit have you seen any improvement due to this yet?
Message 10 of 14
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