Hello all - I've been reading the board for almost a month now, and learning a lot. Thanks, everyone. A few weeks ago, I ran my FICO score, and it came up 531! My fiance and I want to buy a house in a couple years, and want to start rebuilding my credit - which is not *that* bad, except for a couple things: 1.) I have a collection agency listed on there from 02/00 that is erroneous - it was for my cable company when I moved - and it took a while for the last bill to catch up with me, but I paid them - then got a collection notice, so I called the cable company (original creditor) and they told me to disregard the collection notice, as I'd already paid, but it's showing up on my report as an unpaid collection. I'm sure this one will come off pretty easily. 2.) I have a Sears card, and did not pay them for 8 months - it never charged off, and I am now current with them and working rapidly to get them paid off completely - but for each of the 120-day-late marks on my report, there's also a 90, a 60, and a 30 - for a whopping number of total lates. Is there anything I can do, or are they entitled to report a 90, 60, and 30 along with each 120? If I could get the Sears mess all cleaned up, I'd be in pretty decent shape, I think. I have two car loans with only one 30-day late (over 5 years), and an AMEX Gold with good payment history - I typically use it for ~$300 purchases that I already have the money for. Any advice, anyone? Should I wait till the Sears card is completely paid off, and then use Junum to dispute? Thanks, -Dan
Danny Boy, By the way, even if you have a bad credit you can even qualify for the mortgage but it is not a good rate. I mean it is going much higher rate. Any negativeor late payments will stay in credit report for seven years. In the meantime you try to may payment on time and rebuild your credit history. In about a year or two you hopefully will get a higher credit score. Ron.
Ron, Thanks for answering. We recently talked to a mortgage broker, and he told me that to qualify for any sort of HUD loan, there must be no late pays during the past two years, as one of the qualifications, so that's what I'm shooting for - he quoted us a loan rate of between 9.5 and 11.5 percent, based on our current credit, and assuming a 25% down payment (which we currently don't have). I want to get as good a rate as possible. Luckily, my parents own the house we are buying - they are going to rent it to us for $750/mo for the next two years, which will allow us to save around $900/mo toward a down payment. And my parents have offered to apply all the rent we pay toward the sale of the house, as well - so this should be close to 25% of the total value (or more). I think we'll be in a good position when we apply for that mortgage, but I want to get whatever negatives we can removed from our credit reports in the meantime. I guess my main question to the board is, can Sears put all those redundant late pays on there? Are they allowed to report a 120-day as also being a 90, 60, and 30-day? Do I have any chance of getting these removed? Should I wait utnil I pay off the card to dispute? I'm planning on signing us up with Junum after our wedding in June (spending most of our money on that right now...) -Dan
Danny_Boy, I think Sears can put the late payments on your credit report and it stays on the credit reports for 7 yrs. You may take a chance to dispute with the credit bureaus and sometimes you can get off from the credit report. I did some of the charge-off accounts with credit bureaus and I got some of mine off.In the meantime you try t o pay your bills on-time. Good luck. Ron.
Thanks, Ron. I just recently got current with Sears - all my other bills have been on time for the most part, and I'm planning to pay off the complete Sears balance when I finish a freelance job I'm doing - hopefully at the end of this month. I moved last August, and managed to change my address with everyone but them - and then our company moved, too - and then shut down in December (when I couldn't pay them if I'd wanted to!) so I'm sure they must have done some skip-tracing work to find me, because they called my cell number! Luckily, I got caught up before it charged off, so hopefully I can close the account once it's paid down all the way, and then sign up with Junum and see what they can do. Thanks again. Everybody on this board rocks!