Hello, everyone! I’ve been carefully monitoring these forums for 5-6 hrs at a time the past few days and finally decided to take the plunge and make my first post. Forgive me if it is wordy and lacking the abbreviations (Newbie). Also, since my post is regarding multiple issues/areas, I’ve decided to post in a couple different forums (credit/mortgage/medical collections). Hopefully someone from 1 or all of the forums will be able to help me address these issues appropriately.

Here it goes:

My hubby and I want to obtain a mortgage, hopefully in the next 3 to 6 mos. We previously applied for a USDA Direct loan back in April 09’, and didn’t hear the final decision (which was a denial) until Sept 23, 09’! Anyway their loan specialist informed us of some negative items on hubby’s credit report and his lower scores as the reason for the loan denial. Which leads me to this week… I decided to seek an FHA loan preapproval in order to see where we now stand currently. One mortgage broker told me that we should leave hubby off the loan (since his scores are still low) and get a cosigner to be on the loan with me (which is quite funny to me since I’m a SAHM and don’t have a job!) Cap One told that they required my hubby to be on the loan since he’s the only one working (Duh!) but that his scores were too low.

Then they actually gave me both of our scores (FACO, I’m sure): His 497-486-524, Mine 646-650-659. I was surprised that his had dropped so low, but that leads me why I am making this post. I want to focus on cleaning up my hubby’s credit, since that’s what will be looked at mainly for obtaining a mortgage. Hubby has a Med Collections of about $5,000 and his students loans are reporting $1,700 past due (which isn’t true, only $200 is past due), and also a Tax Lien/judgment issued by the State of WI of $7300 (which is also the incorrect amount, as we’ve paid this down to $1884). We also have a BK that was discharged Jan 05’. I know that he has old and incorrect addresses and previous employment notated on his CRs.

I’ve been intrigued by Jack1212’s “new method of disputing”…. which kept me glued to my computer screen for hours. (BTW, echoing some earlier sentiments, Jack1212 is my Hero!) I’m wondering how I should go about tackling this momentous job of cleaning up my hubby’s credit? Should I start with Jack1212’s disputing format? Or should I start with HIPAA and tackle the medical bill first? I have to admit that reading and gathering info about HIPAA was rather overwhelming, and feel like I really need someone to help walk me through it so that I don’t mess up my hubby’s credit further. I know that I need to order an updated CR from all 3 agencies in order to confirm what baddies are actually listed on each, so that’s what I am going to do next. After that… not so sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much for giving me hope in this credit war!

We can give NO valid advice based on the data you posted.

Get both your and your husband's credit reports, the BEST WAY is to get free credit reports mailed to you.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

Opt out on both your reports;
http://whychat.5u.com/OPTOUTINST.HTML
Check both your reports carefully for errors on addresses, name spellings etc.

If there are errors, fix those FIRST before doing ANY type of credit repair.

Come back to THIS post for further advice AFTER you have done the above steps, no credit repair is possible without the correct data.

Um, not sure if what I was asking was fully understood. I have both of our credit reports already from a couple of months ago. Ordering updated ones to see if anything new was put on them. Hubby has a couple of medical collections, tax lien (with the wrong amt listed), student loans (also with wrong amt listed in default), BK (discharged in 05') and a Cap One, along with some old or obsolete Sallie Maes and a few collection accts that were paid off with the BK. He also has wrong addresses listed with EQ and EX.

My question is: Should I start by disputing the wrong addresses/accts and paid accts? Or should I focus on the medical collections first (using the HIPAA method)?

You need to opt out and get incorrect/invalid addresses deleted from your reports BEFORE doing ANY type of ANY credit repair.
The opt out will prevent any changes you make re addresses from being SOLD to data miners, the address corrections ( for addresses listed on your reports) will prevent the automated "match-up" verification of your disputes.

Ahh, I see. Thanks for clarifying. I'll give an update as soon as I do that.