Talked to my bank in mid-April about a home equity loan for home improvements. At the time I had a 639 EQ FICO. Bank requires a 641 (they pull EQ). Got a couple items deleted/corrected. On May 7th, score was 647. On May 30th I submitted a few more disputes: Sears (DOLA is 10/97 but they keep reporting R5/120 days past due), RMA (DOLA reports 4/98 but should be 10/97, same as Sears), and Direct Merchants (already verified, just thought I'd try again). These are my only remaining derogs - all have been paid. So, I check my score on 6/06 and it is 742 (I'm assuming artificially inflated due to disputes). Question is, do I go ahead and apply now for the home equity loan? Or do I wait until the disputes are over, even though my score might be lower then? Also, my mortgage does not report to any CRAs. I'm just really nervous about getting turned down and don't know how current disputes will affect a decision...??? Then again, I'm nervous about putting it off in the event something that has been deleted "magically" reappears. Would really appreciate any input. Thanks!
What, you want to wait until you have a low FICO score to apply for the loan? I say go for it now. I don't know about your bank, but where I work the rates on these HELOCS are pretty sensitive to the FICO score. That means that not only will you be approved now, but you will get a better rate too.
Thanks, that's kinda what I thought but needed confirmation. My bank's current promotion is a home equity loan at 5.99% no closing costs. I'm not sure if I could do better somewhere else, but my bank pulls equifax only and that's my best report/score. Thanks, Mycroft!!
Unlike a lot of automated credit card applications, I believe that all banks and mortgage brokers will not only look at your FICO score, but also go over your credit report line by line. If they see a lot of disputed items on there they will definitely ask about them, so have an answer prepared. Something as simple as "They are not mine" should be fine, I would imagine. Also, be sure that you close on the loan before the investigations are complete, otherwise if any of the TL's that you disputed stay on your report your FICO will go down again and the bank may change the terms or 'unapprove' you. HTH, Brett
Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equity L Okay, thanks Brett. I figured there would be some questions about the disputes - I've got 3 of them going on EQ. I'll get the app in right away in order to stay within the dispute time frame!
Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equity L I did this a couple of months ago with inflated scores and when I was asked about the disputes I told them that I had paid a lot of credit cards and wanted them to update the balance, but one thing that I didn't know was that they can still see the lates and everything it's just that the score is inflated and they don't know it's beacause of the diputes, e-mail me and I will give you the information of the guy I used.
Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equity L I totally agree with the above post, I dont think you want to say they are not yours if they are. I would have RAN to the bank the minute I saw the fico up because that's what my bank cares about. Did you apply???
Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equity Loan "NOT MINE" works a lot of times (if they really NOT yours)...especially since it is a well known FACT that 70% of credit reports have WRONG information...(I THINK THEY ARE LYING ABOUT THAT NUMBER...I THINK IT IS MORE LIKE 99%)
Re: Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equi Yeah, they are mine, but they are reporting incorrectly. So... the Sears and RMA are so old, I don't too much mind saying they are mine - it's pretty straightforward and easy to see that since the DOLA for Sears is 10/97 and the account was sold to RMA whom I've paid, I can't be currently 120 days past due. And, it's easy to see that RMA should have the same DOLA as Sears... Anywho... Yeah, I guess I should have run to the bank - but this week there is no one but me in my office and I haven't been able to get away to during the day. I will definitely go this week though.
Inflated FICO/Home Equi Has anything happened with this? my DH is about to do the very same thing soon....I'm curious to know how this ends up....
Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equi Hi Crowmom! I applied for the loan on the 12th and it is still processing. I did get approved credit-wise (YAY!!!) but they are waiting on the market survey from the appraiser (who didn't get the order so it has taken a week longer than it should have to close). So I'm expecting to close next week. Funny thing is, by the time I was able to get to the bank to apply, I think the 3 items I had in dispute had already verified or updated so my score wasn't inflated anymore but apparently it was good enough. It's amazing how quicly CSC was able to verify a 6-year-old collection (3 days!!!). Good luck to you and your husband on this, let me know how it goes!
Inflated FICO/Home Equi ack! why so many double posts at this site!! crowmom site glitch THE END ** *** ** LB 59 """""""""```~~~```'"""""""""
Re: Re: Inflated FICO/Home Equi Thanks, and congrats! We havent even applied yet because our scores are way low....high 500 range. Its weird. We were in the mid 500s 3 years ago when we 'cleaned up' our credit (we just payed everything thinking our scores would go up--duh.) And now...2 years of perfect payment history on car loans, CCs, installment loans, etc. and all judgements and other derogs paid...we're not even to a credit score of 600 yet. Doesnt make any sense. We do have one horrible Sears TL we're trying to get deleted, but I dont see how that could keep our score down this low after all the positive things we've done. I hate sears.
