So frustrated and don't know what else to do...

[RW771]

For the past year I have been working on repairing my credit so that by the end of this year I could hopefully be in good shape to buy my first house. I have limited credit and haven't always been the most responsible with my finances, but now I'm on track and have been in the 'maintenance' phase of my credit for quite some time.

I went to the bank in June to see where I was at so I'd know what to prepare for and my middle score was 575. My LO suggested that I work on a few small things the next few months and come back in November and try again.

Here's a quick run down of my credit situation:

No mortgage loans (ever)

No car pmt

Student loan pmt: $75/mo...consolidated thru DOE back in May but NEVER any lates

1 department store card (2 lates reported May 2010 and June 2010); paid on time every month since

2 share secured credit cards for re-building purposes

No unpaid collections

Back in June when I went to the bank I had 1 unpaid collection that I was going back and forth with a CA over and decided to settle with in July; They would not delete it under any circumstance, but it does show to be 'paid' and not 'settled'. Not sure if this makes a difference or not, as I know paying this off probably didn't help my credit other than just having no unpaid collections. (We were in a legal battle and it was going to end up costing more to go to court over this then to just settle...even though my attorney and I had them in a corner).

Anyways, Here I am 3 months later and it has only moved a few points. My share secured cards and department store card are paid down (under 9%) and I continue to pay everything on time each month. Of course I haven't applied for any new credit and am to a point where there seems to literally be nothing more I can do to get my credit moving. I need to be at a minimum 620 before the bank will approve me and never in my life thought I'd have to fight so hard to obtain a 620. I have 2 more months to get this going and coming to the realization that 40 points in 2 months just isn't probably going to happen. I understand that I'll need to give it more time than 2 months but just really hoping and praying something would give to help me out of this situation I'm in.

Any suggestions on what else is left to do? As always, any advise is greatly appreciated!

[llecs]

Send GWs to the department store lates.

For max points, pay 2 of the 3 to $0 and get the third to report under 9%.

Do you have any paid collections? If so, you'd want them off via a GW letter. A $0 balance CA is just as bad as an unpaid one.

[RobertEG]

While you can fine-tweak your % util, that does not appear to be the major factor in your scoring.

A collection, paid or unpaid, is a major payment history derog that is killing your score for at least the amount of the point increase you are looking for.

FICO scores the presence of derogs and delinquencies, and not their ultimate payment.  It is a risk analysis of your liklihood of delinquency, and not of your liklihood of thereafter paying off delinquent debt.

I would concentrate on efforts to get the collection removed from your CR.  Try good-will letters to the debt collector.  Additionally, collections are usually preceded by negative reporting by the OC prior to their collection referral.  Does your CR also shows delinquencies reported by the OC?  In particular, did the OC report a charge-off? w  If so, both the deliquencies, any CO, along with the collection, all count cumulatively in your score.  You might also try to get GW deletions from the OC.

[RW771]

Thank you both for your input!

I've paid one card down (that reports today) to 1.9% and getting ready to pay the other 2 almost completely off before they report next week. Even though I'm sure this only will help with a few points, I'll take everything I can get!!!

I do agree that it's these paid medical collections I have on my credit that are hurting me the most. I'm going to send some GW letters out to each of them and hope that at least some of them would be willing to remove them.

Has anyone had any luck getting a collection with Asset Acceptance LLC deleted? This is the CA I battled with for years (scheduled to fall off of my credit next year) and I just settled with them in July. I've begged with them multiple times over the phone and they've refused every single time saying they are legally not allowed to delete them.  Would it really be worth sending them a letter in a last ditch effort to see if they would delete it? I guess it wouldn't hurt to try!