betterme

Help! I would love to spend a lot of time researching on this board and learning all from all of the collective wisdom, but I have a baby and a toddler and I just don't have the time, so I'm sorry if these topics seem easy to find. I did search on the site for several hours over the past few days and I haven't been able to figure out exactly what I should do... I came to creditboards over a year ago and was able to improve my credit enough to buy a house, but now I am in need of a loan and need to fix my credit up more. On my husband's reports are 3 liens. Two of them show correctly as being paid, the third does not show it has been paid although it has been. The third one which does not show as paid is also on my report. I remember from my research in the past that it is possible to have these completely removed off of our credit reports, but I can't remember how. Also, does removal always depend on them reporting something wrong? The only thing wrong is that they aren't showing we've paid off one of them. But I know I should not validate it by sending them proof we paid it if I have any hope of having it removed, correct? If someone could please explain how to get it removed that would be awesome! Also, one of the banks we applied for a loan for our house with pulled our credit again months after we had chosen a different bank and without our permission (the 1st time they pulled it with our permission, but this was months later after we were in contract with a different bank). Is there a way to have that inquiry removed since we did not initiate it and they did not have our permission to pull it the second time? Thanks in advance!

Ok, Thanks, I'll give it a try.

This bill I originally posted about has now fallen off of our reports, I think due to age. However, I have 2 other small medical bills on our reports now. One paid, one not paid, 1 on my husband's, one on mine. Before I read up in the medical forum I had already sent in disputes on these to the CRAs (not HIPAA), just normal disputes. The CRAs "verified" the information and they remain on our reports. I was going to send WhyChats initial HIPAA letter to the CRAs yesterday, but then I noticed that it says "I have no knowledge or records of this account." I'm worried about putting that line in since I already recently disputed it, obviously I have knowledge of that account. Is there something else I can say so I won't be lying? Also, since they've just "verified" this is there a way to get it through since last time I tried to re-dispute something they just said it had previously been verified and they were not going to look into it again unless I had new information.

I would pay cash again for a car if you possibly could (even a junker) until your credit scores are higher. Otherwise if you can get a loan it'll be 29% or some such ridiculous percentage with your scores. I've had no success with PFD either. The CA I tried it with will not respond. It's frustrating.

How do you remove your dispute? Do you just tell the CRAs "I no longer dispute this?" Is this the same for USDA loans?

Thanks for this info. I just learned about the USDA loan since I was trying to find one that didn't need a down payment. I hope we can get our scores up there! Thanks again.

Does anyone know the minimum credit score requirement for a USDA loan, or if it's not a score requirement what requirements they have? The info I found yesterday for qualifications stated you must have "reasonable credit." I have no idea what that means! Thanks.

better asked in the mortgage forum, but i dont believe there is a score "requirement" for USDA. You're right - I did a search for USDA and thought this was still in the mortgage forum! I'll ask over there too. Thanks!

Does anyone know the answer to this? I would like to know this too. Also, I've been searching all morning and can't find the answer to my question. Does anyone know the minimum credit score needed for a USDA loan? Is it the same as for an FHA - 620?

Thanks for this info! This is great news. I knew it was a gov. program, but I still thought your score mattered. Do you know how to find out what the rate is- I'm sure it fluctuates. Is it a certain amount above prime or something?

Sorry if this is a newbie question- but can you explain this? How do they decide your rate if not by your score?

Okay, thanks for this info. I was assuming it was something like this. Hope it keeps working!

Maybe this is a dumb question, but may I ask what the reasoning is behind the stationary and italic font, purple letters, etc. recommended on many of the letters? Thanks in advance.

Thanks! That worked great. I think that letter would probably be overkill at this point anyway.

The info I discussed above (them saying it should be on my report because of community property etc) was from the reporting CA. The OC is not on my report. I found some very old bills from 2003, one from the OC and another from the CA. Since 2003 I had not heard anything else. When I went to clean up my report I DV'd the CA (not knowing/remembering what the bill was) and that's when I found out it was my husband's bill (their 2nd letter to me after the first one did not have enough info to validate the account) and their 3rd letter which stated it was legal for it to be on my report since it's a community property state. I just looked at my report and the estimated date this will be removed is listed as 12/2009. I disputed (not properly from what I see now) with this CRA earlier this month (they received it the 9th). I haven't heard from them yet. I'm guessing maybe I should just wait and see what their response is? If I hear from them and they haven't removed it, then proceed with the HIPAA letter is that right? When I clicked on the medical DV for the CA the link didn't work. Also, if I want to pay the OC should I wait till it falls off first? Should I contact them to try to arrange payment with them directly rather then the CA or do they never do that? Thanks for your help. You have been so helpful!