Hi all, I've gained alot of great ideas from this board, thanks for the stories and advice. I'm a bit of dilemma here and need all your "what would you do in my situation" advice. Thanks in advance. I'm looking at building a house, have prequalified with my current income (at 6%) and have no late payments for the past 12 months. Almost all of my late payments on CC's are from 1996, during my divorce, which FHA people will ignore. I did pull my 3 reports before hand which all three are reporting a medical collection account, listed under "Gulf Coast collections". The amount owed is 132.00. Date is Jul 2000. Transunion lists the MD's name, which was mine, which I PAID off in May 2001. My dilemma is this: I'll need this house to be finished next summer, so I'm at a time crunch here. Price of house going up 10K in November. Challenging this as "not mine" will take months to clear up. I'm positive I paid it off as I keep that info in a book....but didn't keep the exact date or check numbers/cancelled check. Can't get a loan thru FHA with an unpaid collection. Also should mention that I've NEVER heard of this CA, they've never contacted me, and I've lived at my current address for over 8 years now. Do I contact the MD's office with a settlement offer, pay it off, and insist on having them put in writing that they will remove it (collection status) from the CRA's? Or do I need to contact the CA? I have no info on them at all. I need to get this taken care of ASAP. Also, how long does it take to get this off your reports? If I paid it today, does it take a month to get reported? My thinking is, 132.00 today is much better than waiting and having to pay 10K more for the house next month.... Thanks so much for your help. Chelle
