Hey guys, I really need some advice on what to do. Let me start from the beginning: When I was 18, my father used my name and SS# to open a bunch of credit cards. He got a lot of stuff charged off and demolished my credit. By the time I was 20, I realized what was going on, but it was too late. Loyalty has kept me from doing anything legally about the charge-offs. I'm now 28 and my credit is finally recovering. I checked myfico.com today and bought both Experian and Equifax. My EQ was 764. It's clean of all the negs that were keeping me down for years. My Experian is 660. It's holding onto one big neg that I need to get rid of. I think it's almost obselete, but can you tell me? And what should I do? I don't want to accidentally re-age this. Here's the acct in question: Cap One Bk Status as of [?] Feb, 2008 Date opened [?] Jun, 1997 Date of last activity [?] May, 2002 Date of last payment [?] May, 2001 Date closed [?] Not Reported Account number [?] XXXXXXXXXXXX Loan type [?] Credit Card, Terms REV Credit limit [?] Not Reported Largest past balance [?] $14,936 Terms [?] Not Reported Account Type [?] Revolving Account holder [?] Joint Account Scheduled payment amount [?] Not Reported Account status [?] Account is Closed I'm going to be trying to get a mortgage in May, so I really need to know if there's anything I can do to get this removed. Also, why has my Equifax recovered (this dropped from EQ) but it's still lingering on Experian? Thanks! - Jeff
1st, what's your TU score? The mortgage brokers I've worked with take the middle score so if 2/3 are OK, then don't sweat Experian. 2nd, if you can wait until Aug or Sep, then that would give you time for it to age out and then dispute it with EXP as being obsolete. (That's not to say CapOne won't keep trying to post it). If you have a mortgage broker you are working with, take your FICO scores to him or her and ask if they are good enough for what you're trying to accomplish. Get the scores yourself from MyFico.com instead of asking your broker to do it. It will cost you a bit ($30-50 look around for a discount code) but if you want to talk to several lenders, you can tell them that you're shopping and these are your FICO scores. If they look them, up it can lower your scores. If YOU look them up, you just take a hit in your wallet.
Hey, I just broke down and bought my TU score: It's a 708. The massive Cap One CO isn't on that credit report either, WTF! Experian is torturing me! My fiancee (who has perfect credit) and I are going to be trying to get a $200k loan (we have 20-25% to put down). We don't make a lot of money (probably 60k between us), but I make the majority of it--- so my credit is what matters. Are you saying I should take my FICO scores to a mortgage broker? We have a realtor saying that we need to prequalify for a loan before we start looking. We need to be moving out of our present rental by August, and I'm hoping to get us a house for then.
Also, since the old CapOne line is not showing on EQ or TU, does that mean it's gone from them forever? Might it now fall off EX too?
Looks like you are looking at a trimerge. From the above date, it should be falling off any time now. Maybe May or June. I would pull your Experian report from Experian and see when the account first went delinquent, and was never caught up.
Agreed, as this account should fall off in May 2008. Experian is usually pretty good at listing the schedule fall off date. They ususally are just a bit less than 7 years for reporting. If you have any question as to its fall off date, then you cal call Exp and ask what the date is. It is tough to get a person on the phone, but it can be done. So, pull your Experian account by itself, and check the date. As a note, many times if an account is disputed just prior to its SOL expiration date, it is removed a bit early. You may want to dispute this tradeline sometime in late March or April.
What I would do between now and this summer would be to look carefully at you reports for any late payment notations and your usage. Dispute any late payments you find. If you can pay down any credit card balances, that will help. If not, you might benefit from moving the balances around. FICO looks at how much you owe vs. your credit line on the aggregate as well as on each account. If you have 3 credit cards, each with a $10,000 credit line (for a total of $30,000 available credit) and you have an overall balance owing of $10,000, it's better, score-wise, to have that balance show as $3,333 on each card than $10,000 on one and $0 on the others. Also, now is a good time to shop for a broker. Take your scores from FICO and make some phone calls. Tell them you're shopping for a loan to buy sometime this summer, these are your FICOs, this is your price range, what can they do for you? They'll want to run a tri-merge (i.e. hit each bureau) but DO NOT LET THEM until you've decided on a broker AND you've got your reports straightened out. Your score of 708 is too close to 720 (sometimes a "magic" number for rates) to lose a couple of points due to excessive inquiries. Keep in mind, the mortgage market is changing rapidly so, at this point, you're just looking for a broker who you think will work best for you and what sort of scores and debt/income ratios they are looking for. The specific loan will be hard to pin down until you get closer to buying. A month or so before you get serious, (and when you've cleaned up your reports some) you'll want to do the application process, let them get your "tri-merge" and have them pre-approve you for a loan. You've got time on your side, right now, use it to your advantage! From everything you've posted, you should be in pretty good shape by this summer.
