I’m trying to decide on the best course of action to improve my credit score as quickly as possible.  Like everyone else, right?  Here’s a quick overview of my situation:  There are 14 accounts on my credit report, 10 of which have negative history on them for late payments and serious delinquency.

The good news is that my credit situation has drastically improved, and I have paid all of the account to zero balance except for one.  This same creditor (it was a credit union) has three accounts listed on my report.  I had two accounts with them – an auto loan and a credit line.  I’m not sure why the three accounts, but the one that shows a balance doesn’t even have an account number.  The balance is around $3500.  I should also note the date of last activity was July, 2006.

My question is what is the best advice on how to handle this account that would best affect my score quickly?  They haven’t tried to collect on this in over 4 years.  It doesn’t seem likely that they would start now.  But the balance of the account makes my revolving credit ratio appear to be 100% because all of my other accounts are zero balance and closed.  I have read about pay for delete letters.  Is that possible in this case?  If so, how much should I offer them for settlement?  Are there any better solutions?

As it stands, my credit score is 609.  I’m looking to purchase a house as soon as possible.  I need at least a 620 to get there.  Any thoughts on how long it would take to raise my score to 620?

John (more…)

My husband and I were one week from closing on a house when we got a denial call from the mortgage company. When they check his credit to prequalify they found that My husband has or had 0 credit. When they went back to check our credit before closing, they found a 2600.00 collection debt on my credit. upon some investigating it appears to be my husbands debt. It appears that they placed it on my credit report, instead of his is that legal?

he sublease [without having him sign any papers] his apartment to a friend who moved out oweing rent. I had nothing to do with that. wh and how can they go after me?

Curry (more…)

Hi Paul,

I wanted to send you a quick note about your blog, Broken Credit.  It’s a great site and I can tell you work hard to produce high quality content.  I’m actually building up a credit repair site and I’m actively looking for other sites to buy.  Would you ever consider selling Broken Credit?  I think it would be a great platform for us and I can make a fair offer.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Brandon

I had a credit score of 583 and about $2300 worth of collections and negative things on my credit; 4 months ago i paid all of this off. Today i checked my credit, and it only went up 13 points to a 596. I have a mortgage that i have never been late on. Why didn’t it go up more? I need an auto loan & my bank won’t lend me the funds due to my score…! I need answers.

Jason (more…)

I have a rental property that went into foreclosure after I had my debts discharged in bankruptcy.  The lender still holds a first position even though the debt was discharged.  The IRS also has a lein on the property and this lein caused the lender to remove the property from the scheduled sheriff sale.  

Nobody is going to buy the property because the house is no longer worth the lein values.  If someone bought it, they would have to accept both leins. 

How can I get the bank to release the lein so I can sell the house to pay off the tax lein?  Is it legal for me to offer the bank some money to release the lein. 

Maybe I can just buy the house from the bank for a cash amount.  I am the only one willing to buy it with the IRS lein on it.  Will the IRS sit there forever holding that lein? 

Thanks.  I feel stuck in limbo.  I want to get on with my life.

Mel (more…)

We built our dream home in 2007, and up until the day before closing thought we were in heaven.  We found out the day before we closed that the good faith estimate on what our motgage was WAY off!  Like $1000 off. Not wanting to walk away from our dream and the money we put in to it, we signed. 

We put it up for sale right away, hoping that we could break even, and nothing. We kept up on the motgage for awhile, to the detrimate of our other obligations, but we could only keep it up for so long. We tried renegotiating our loan, but again…dead end.

We foreclosed on our home in Feb 08 (according to lender 2/12/08 was when forecloser was completed, and county record show transfer of title on loan happening at auction, 2/13/08).  We had a first and second mortgage.  We were defeated and tired. 

We moved and have started to rebound from the process.  We did a little reseach a few months prior to the foreclosure and found out that the home sold for more than we owed on the 1st and that the 2nd had “charged off” on our credit.  We called to find out how to help our credit due to the charge off and were told that we could settle for more money than we had available to us, or basically do nothing.  They (the mortgage lender) said that they would never persue the debt, but that it would stay on our credit. 

We just found out that we qualify for a VA Loan and that there wait after foreclosure is shorter than a conventional or FHA (2 years vs 3 years).  Excited and ready to move on, we started to check proir to the “timeline’, just to make sure we would be able to purchase another home.  So…found out that the “2 year” wait starts the day the foreclosure hits your credit, same with the the 2nd mortgage charge off. It is only 3 month shy of the “2 year” mark for us. But during my checking process I found out that up to 8 months after the foreclosure was reported my mortgage company continued to report me as late??? Can they do that?

They said that the sale wasn’t finalized until 10/08. But again, according to county records the title transfered from us to the buyer on 2/13/08.  Also, the second is continuing every month to report a charge off on my credit up to now!!  How can they do this? 

I understand that it is considered a debt that is still outstanding and that they have deemed it uncollectable, but how can they continue to “re-new” that debt? Is this legal? If I am trying to rebuild me and my families life after foreclosure, how am I to do that if the lender can continue to report me like it just happened?

I did contact the leaner,who by the way is the same for both mortgages and where originated at the same time, said that the 1st credit reporting months later was because of the sale not being complete until 8 months later.  And the 2nd, because we still “owe” the debt they can continue to report it.

I am so tired, please let me know what to do?  Fight…give up??

Defeated,
Gary and Jeni (more…)

I currently do not have any credit cards. I have a very poor credit score of 574. Last month and this month I paid off about four accounts. I tried to negotiate a pay for delete but they said that they do not do that and made me think that I was crazy. They were all telling me things like that doesn’t exist or we can’t delete and account. They all said that all they could do is update it to show paid in full, and that would indicate a satisfactory account. Instead what has happened is it says Paid, was in collections and my score hasn’t increased at all. I have a terrible run of bad luck lately and I desperately need a car. I am trying to get my credit in order to be able to get a car at a reasonable APR. The thing is I need the car like yesterday.

I have about six more collections accounts to pay off. They all total about $2229.00. The one account that I have in good standing is an auto loan that I am currently still paying on because when the car was totaled I was upside down. That amount is $3973.00.

Where do I begin? What do I do first. I will have the auto loan paid off by 12/18/2009. Do you think that I will be able to get approved for a decent loan by January if I pay off the current loan and pay off all the other accounts? The problem that I am facing now is that places will finance me on used cars with high mileage for unreasonable prices at 24% APR. Please help me. I am lost.

Thank You,
Crystal (more…)

Brian,

Thankyou you have been a great help. I have sent letters to the bureaus about inaccurate information. They keep verifying what wording can I use to make they delete my inaccuracies? Please advise thankyou!!

Diane (more…)

Is it possible to have no late payments and still have a chargeoff with a creditor. Isn’t that considered to be reporting incorrectly. Afterall how can one have no late payments and a chargeoff?? What type of letter can one send to get this corrected? please help!!!

thankyou!!

Diane (more…)

Hello my name is Taylor. I am 31 yrs old and live in Nashville TN.

My question is 2 1/2 yrs ago my jeep Cherokee was reposessed because I was in jail for a few months. My original loan was through wells Fargo and has been sold to arrow acceptance. I am wanting to by a house now and my fico median is around 680. 

The loan has been turned over to a law firm who says nothing will be reported on my credit until it is paid in full. They threatned to sue me but I am a merchant mariner and it is impossible to place a garnishment or attatchment against my wages according to u.s.c. 46 part 11109. I told them this about a year ago and they have not responded back.

My real question is should I use a dept settlement company to pay them off or should I just say screw them. My credit has already taken the hit for the repo but I don’t know if a settlement would further hurt my score.

The owed balance is $10500 they said they would settle with me for $8500. I think this is hi being that they in no way can garnish my wages what amount should I be looking g to settle at? 

Thanks for any help or advice.

Taylor the towboater (more…)