Been a lurker of this awesome site, now needing an immediate credit fix to bump up my score. Let me mention, first of all, that I was good at paying my bills until I lost my job in 08, coupled by huge medical bills for a (RIP) loved-one's treatments. Now, fast fwd to today, we are looking to buy a house in about 3 months and I'm currently a 588 (FICO). Lender said he needs at least 620 to qualify. I have actually deployed a lot of tips from here to jump start my fix (eg: added as AU to hubby's CCs, opened a secured CC, paying off good standing CC balance, no more late payments). Negative TLs that I need to take care of: (OC) Cap One - Charged Off - CO Amt $867 - Credit Limit $500 - Balance/Past Due $1299 (OC) Kohls / Cap One - Charged Off - CO Amt $761 - Credit Limit $100 - Balance/Past Due $761 (OC) Target - Charged Off - CO Amt $874 - Credit Limit $500 - Balance $0 (OC) WFFNB - Pays as agreed- Date last payment 6/09- High Credit $614 - Limit $190 (CA) Asset Acceptance for WFFNB - Blank Status - Balance $683 - Past Due $683 - (CA) Midland Credit Mgt for Target - Blank Status - Hi Credit $875 -Balance $1058 - Past Due $1058 - (CA) Pinnacle for Citi - - Blank Status - Hi Credit $3921 -Balance $6871 - Past Due $6871 (CA) IC Systems for Cox - Status: Unpaid - Balance $40 (CA) Fair Collections for Apartment - Status: Unpaid - Balance $585 Should I start writing DV or contact the OC first? Last payments for these are 5 yrs ago and SOL has expired. Can you guys give any tips on how to deal with the CAs mentioned? I'm willing to pay only the original amount owed which is 1/3 of the (ridiculous) amounts they're asking for. I would also like to try the INDIRECT PFD - offer to settle but with a non disclosure agreemeent that they cannot disclose info on debt to anybody including the CRAs, and then dispute. Any success on getting items deleted through fighting each Negative tradeline against themselves, an excerpt from one of master jam's posts: So OC (if sold) would have to show a $0 balance, JDB and CA could show the balance. (you can use the 2 tradelines to fight each other for reporting incomplete, inaccurate, or unverifiable information, since both tradelines should be identical. And compare them to the OC tradelines as well.) Lastly, I would like to have some info on home mortgage basics. I remember reading from a thread that mortgage lenders require all negative TLs in you credit report to at least be in the "Settled" status. Do you guys know if other status such as "Paid in Full" or "Closed" affect the interest rate? Any chance that settled debts still continue to be collected after the settlement? What is the usual interest rate given to joint borrowers with 620 / 750 credit scores? Sorry for a mountain of questions. Just need some help please, please.
Hi PR12 - welcome to the forum and my condolences on your loss. OK, it sounds like you're off to a great start on the credit repair front. Those are all excellent ways to get back on the right track, so congrats to you and I'm happy to hear the forum was of such valuable use to you! As for your Negatives, if the SOL has expired then I would begin writing DV's to the CRA's to get these cleared. Could take a while but of course it's worth it ASAP. I would start w/ the biggest debts if they're all past the SOL first. Also, if you haven't signed up for a credit monitoring service, it might be worthwhile now since odds are you'll be looking for some frequent pulls of your report. Unfortunately, PIF or closed still have a negative effect on your score if the CRA's are still reporting, so if those tradelines are still w/in the SOL the Paid for Delete is the best option available. Of course, no guarantee that you can get those removed, but offering the original amount is a start. Just remember to make this offer in writing and stay off the phone. And the PFD would be w/ the OC or the CA, whoever owns the debt. Hard to say what the avg. interest rate will be since it fluctuates, but I'm contacting a broker friend of mine to see if he has a ballpark guess for you.
