i have been reading the psots out here and i figure i would take the plunge and put my info out and see what you all have to say. i am married and we want to buy a home in the next 1 1/2 years. my hubby is in the military and i left my job to move to where he was stationed which but the kibosh on most of our income. i have recently found a job that brings in the type of money that we can begin to pay our bills properly again. here is the debt situation: me - in college i racked up CC after CC (with no job, but that is another topic of discussion) along with serious student loan debt. after getting out of school i was broke to put it mildly, so i declared chapter 7 in 8/98. that took care of everything but the student loans (which are in forbearance and always have been) there are 5 CC that were inlcuded in my chapt 7 still reflect on my CC report with equifax. one is AMEX which shows open charge-off, makes no mention of the chapt 7. 3 other CC's show incl in chapt 7 no balance. the last is FCNB shows pays as agreed with no credit limit/no balance. after chapt 7 i bought a car with americredit w/ a co-signer. i also aquired 2 more CC's (will i ever learn?) when i lost my job last summer my car and my CC went into collections. the car was repo'd and i was advised to file chapt 13 to get it back. the ironic part was i had just gotten a job so i was on the verge of getting back on my feet. anyway i needed the car to get to the new job plus i didnt want them going after the co-signer (my grandma who is now retired w/ no money) so i filed for cahpt 13 last sept. i am scheduled to be in that for the next 2.5 years although now that i am working i intend to double up on payments to get out of it faster. my remaining 2 CC's are not rcving any payout from the chapt 13 but they are lsited on my CR as being included. i have 2 collections for cable & phone. the only other thing i have listed (outside of SL) is a citibank card that was originally my hubby's. when he went into the military he wanted me to be able to call and make payments (they gave me a hard time about that) so he added me to the account, little did we know that meant it would now be reported on my credit. the only plus is that account has been consistantly paid on time, the downside is the balance is high in relation to the credit limit. my score with equifax is 563. the hubby: he has 2 CC the citibank i referenced earlier and a macy's. both reflect a current positive payment history but the macy's records a couple of late payments that happened at the time he enlisted. he has a old car loan that was paid off but still reflects as open with no balance and a clean payment history. he also has a old CC that was paid and closed also no neg payment history on that. he has his current car note also has a clean payment history. he recently financed a motercyle which is "too new to rate". he also has a SL that has a clean history and is now in deferral because of his active duty status. now the neg - he has one collection for an unpaid phone bill, one judgement that has been paid but does not reflect as such (i have this on mine as well, former landlord dispute) and a charge off account status on a cell phone. now given his high proportion of clean accounts to bad you would think his fico would be higher than a person who declared backruptcy twice, well guess again his is 517. sorry this is so long, i just wanted to get it all off my chest and see what the gurus have to say. jenn
I'll take a stab but I'm not sure you want to hear what I have to say. With TWO BKs on your reports, I'm not sure there's much you can do to prep for a home. No matter what you do, those two BKs are gonna really surpress your scores. this looks to creditors that you did not learn from your first mistakes. Fair or unfair, this is how it appears. To start, dispute the accounts that were in BK but not showing it as "Included in BK". Normally, I wouldn't recommend admitting to a BK but in your case, you aren't gonna get away from it anyway.
First thing I noticed is that you had a American Express card that was not included in the CH 7 BK. If this debt is small this debt might be a candidate for debt negotiation. If you could offer to pay 80% to 100% in exchange for listing the card as paid as agreed/never late and maybe also they could reactivate it so you would have that account open. You want to try debt negotiation for the cable and phone collection accounts. On his report: Use debt negotiation on the collection account for the phone bill. Dispute the CRA for the paid judgment. Debt negotiation for the charge off on the cell phone. In addition make sure you each have three lines open and in good standing on each of your credit reports. Once the late pays on his credit report are 24 months old, his score should be OK. Your score is more of a problem because of the CH. 13 BK. You want to get thet over with and dismissed. In any case, which ever one of you that will be the major income earner will want to get their FICO score up to 661 or 681 if you want to get a normal low interest rate loan. If you can't wait, you can get a loan with a lower credit score but the terms wont be as good. Good luck. Erik.
okay i have already req an investigation on both our reports for the judgement that has been paid, i have not heard back. that was initiated on 4/18/02. i realize that 2 bankruptices is going to have me SOL for a while but doe sit strike anyone else as odd that my fico is higher than the hubby's esp considering the history? i just dont get it, of course it only reinforces the concept that credit is some abstract B.S. but that is another topic of discussion. we will be making about the same by this time next year when he re-enters the civilian world, but at the moment i am the principle breadwinner. with debt neg - are my hands tied because of my current chap 13 status, legally speaking? thanks for the input \jenn
Remember, the accounts being listed in BK are "not rated". Also, your total debt factors into your score. many here have BKs on their reports and have higher than expected scores.
I am not really sue but I dot see why you can't negotiate on items that are not part of the CH 13. As far as scores go. Having late pays in the very recent past can cost a lot of points. Having a credit history over five years and having a Visa or MasterCard over five years is a big plus. On another note both of you might consider not getting or having things like cell phones or cable if you want to build your score fast. Also you want to try to have no debt just before you apply for a mortgage. That will help both your FICO score and the chances if getting a good loan. I had a ch 7 bk in 6/97, and I still have $19,000 in a student loan and my Equifax score was 663 on 2/1/02. It hopefully is up to 670 by now.
