I am a newbie to the board and have been reading alot of the old threads. I need so advice ASAP. I want to get approved for my first home mortgage hence the screen name first home. Here is my situation: The lender says I need to increase my score by fourty points. June 2003 my scores were EX- 552, EQ-533 and TU-547. I have three collections. One collection was for $175 and I settled for $150. After I agreed to pay I stumbled across this board. I did not negotiate a deletion but I did send in a letter asking they validate the debt and delete any negative information from my credit report with the money order for remaining balance. Did waiting to hear from the CA. I made payment arrangements with Academy Collection Service, Inc for my citibank visa collection. I made two $300 payments over the phone (still hitting my head upside the wall for that move). I still owe the company $700. Should I pay the remaining balance to Academy or go through Citibank Visa directly to negotiate a settlement with deletion for remaining balance? Gateway is the last collection I owe money one. My remaining balance is $1200.00. Academy claims they have that collection but they have not sent me a letter. The Collection agent told me about Gateway when I was arranging my Citibank payments. Should I write a letter to Gateway offering a settlement offer with a deletion of trade line. Or should I send a validation letter to Gateway and then wait 30 days to offer settlement. Many of you offer great advice for long term credit repair. But I want to be aprroved for a mortgage loan by no later than October. What can I do in the short term to improve my scores. By the way I did dispute on my CRAs the Gateway and RMA (southwestern bell) collections but they came back verified. Please offer any advice. I Will have about $2200 to play with to catch up my debt. But like many of you say, a paid charge off is just as bad as a charge off. I need a trick that will help me earn more points. Also I applied for a Capital One unsecured card in hopes that it will bring up my score if I get approved for the card.
I would really like some advice. I know I am a newbie trying to get caught up on all the past threads. But I would really like some advice.
Your only shot at quick repair (doesn't realy exist) is to request validation on the collections and hope for deletion. Try negotiating paid in full for deletion first though. If they balk, go the validation route.
Thanks Tmitchell for responding. The mortgage company just wants the collections paid off. But a paid collection will not help my score if I still have deragotary tradeline.
I just wanted to add something to what tmitchell said. FIRST OF ALL: DO NOT TELL ANY OF THESE PEOPLE (THE OC, CA, OR CRA) THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO CLEAN UP YOUR CREDIT REPORTS TO BUY A HOUSE. THEY WILL MOST LIKELY USE IT AGAINST YOU. IF THEY ASK WHY YOU ARE DOING THIS, TELL THEM YOU'RE "TRYING TO REPAY YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY (hehehehehe)". BUT ALSO, TRY NOT TO TALK TO THEM ON THE PHONE. DO EVERYTHING IN WRITING. THIS WAY YOU HAVE A DOC TRAIL AND YOU WON'T TRIP OVER YOUR TONGUE AND SAY SOMETHING STUPID. Also, if you do validate (which would be a good idea), try sending in dispute letters to all the CRA's when you get the green card back from the CA's. This way, they will definitely be tied to a time frame in which they must respond. This is also a good way to rack up violations. Violations give YOU leverage (especially with RMA aka scum suckin' pigs). In your negotiations for deletion, you might want to negotiate for Citibank, Gateway, and Southwestern Bell (if they report), to simply remove derogatory info and change to paid as agreed instead of complete deletion of the OC accounts with the CA accounts. This way you would have 3 positive tradelines on your credit report. They may not be open, but they would be positive. This way, you get to keep the length of history factor in your scores for the OC's. I don't know if this would work out, but it would be worth it to try. Good Luck!
