Guide me from the 500's to homeownership, wise credit sages!

[cremdelacrem]

Good day,

I want to make this the starting point of my journey to homeownership. I know that posts on message boards can be very interpersonal but I want everyone to know that I appreciate any advice or help given.

 

A short bio.

I am a 29 year old male. I grew up fast and moved out of my house when I was 18. I put myself through school and had my own place when others are usually still living off the teats of mommy and daddy. I made mistakes mainly from having no financial guidance and plainly being over my head. I went through most of my 20s struggling financially pretty hard. I had to pick and choose what bills to pay and I got a sense of apathy as I just started not to care about my finances as I figured I was already ruined.

 

A phoenix rising from the ashes.

I am in a good place. I feel optimistic and relatively stress free. The only thing that stresses me out is paying off these debts and getting my creditworthiness back.

In October I am getting married to my beautiful fiance and I have a nice comfortable job where I make about 75k a year. I am finally in the position to tackle this thing and never look back.

 

Where I am at right now.

My FICO score as of right now is 523. Makes me cringe hard. My EX is my highest score at 576. My EQ is 523 and my TU is 525.

All 3 of my credit bureaus vary from the information that is on them.

 

What I have done so far.

I have literally no positive tradelines whatsoever. I opened up 3 secured cards this week to build credit which I haven't even received yet . I will always stay below 25% utilization no matter what and just buy gas and groceries with them and pay them off. The cards are Capital One Secured $200 limit, Fingerhut(cringe I know), and First Progress with a $300 Limit. I am also on the last month of my student loan rehab. So those tradelines should be healthy after and a nice positive tradeline added.

 

The nitty gritty.

Here are the contents of my reports.

 

Judgment:

1/29/2010

$2,653

This remains unpaid. I am not sure how to approach this. There is an attorney that is basically forcing me to pay and keeps sending capias warrants if I don't. However the balance I have to pay is roughly $7000. I have literally no paperwork for this as I never showed up for the initial hearing.

 

 

RI Student Loan Authority

Date Opened 5/1/2009

Account Status: Closed

Date of first Delinquency: 5/2008

Comments: Paid Collection

 

 

Santander Bank

Installment Loan

Balance:$5434

Date Opened 7/12/2007

Date of first Deliq: 02/2009

Status: Charge-off

 

Nelnet Loan Services

11-120 day late marks

Date Opened:11/27/2004

Date Closed:05/2009

Comments: Transferred/Closed

 

Nelnet Loan Services

11-120 day late marks

Date Opened:11/27/2004

Date Closed:05/2009

Comments: Transferred/Closed

 

US Dept. of Education

Balance $3,656

Date of first major delinq:09/2012

Comments:Collection

 

COLLECTIONS

 

CA:Action Credit Alliance of Boston

OC:Memorial Hospital of RI

Balance: $233

Opened 12/1/2011

 

CA:Action Credit Alliance of Boston

OC:Memorial Hospital of RI

Balance: $560

Opened 1/1/2011

 

CA:EOS-CCA

OC:Narragansett Electric

Balance:$409

Date Opened 3/1/2013

 

CA:EOS-CCA

OC:ATT Mobility

Balance: $435.00

Date Opened:8/1/2012

 

CA: Midland

OC:T-Mobile

Balance $1111

Opened 2/1/2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mendelssohn]

What's the situation on the student loans? Are they still delinquent or are you just posting the negative tradelines associated with them?

 

Take care of the student loan situation ASAP if you have not already. If those are Federal student loans, you will have to wait and let them age off your reports, they will not be deleted. I'm about 2.5 years into a 4 year rebuilding process and the only thing I'm waiting on at this point is for the student loans to age off.

 

What is the SOL in your state? Those collection accounts are very recent and you could get sued if you start disputing.

 

You should start with the medical collections and make a post in the Medical Collections forum. Do not do any other disputing while you take care of those, and follow WhyChat's method exactly. He will walk you through the process if you start a thread over there.

 

For the utility and phone collections, you might try contacting the original creditor and trying to get them to accept payment. Make sure you get a receipt. If they accept payment, those 3 should be easy to remove.

 

Is there a CA collecting for Santander?

 

Someone else who has experience with judgements can help you with that, but you need to get it removed.

 

While you are working on repair, you need to open a few CCs to start building some positive credit. I would suggest starting with secured CCs that do no credit check, like SDFCU. Ideally, you want at least 3 open CCs, and your scores will go up with each of the first 3 cards you open. The Master Secured CC thread is linked below.

 

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=500689

[cremdelacrem]

Thank you, I appreciate your response.

 

The Nelnet ones are from 2004 and have been transferred along the lines and were picked up by Direct Loans in 2009/2010. Now I had 3 Direct Loans tradelines that I got deleted in the last week because Direct Loans is no more and wont respond to dispute. The US Department of Education has the loans now and they are in rehabilitation. I have one payment left. As part of the rehab they are deleting negative tradelines and adding one positive current line.

 

Sovereign is a charge off and due off my report in July of 2015. I haven't got sued for that one yet.

 

I have tried calling the OC for T Mobile and ATT to handle these old debts but they keep standing their ground saying the debt was sold. For EOS-CCA and Midland.

 

As for the medical bills. I will make a separate post in the medical boards for people to help me with.

[Second Chances]

For the judgment, you can go to the courthouse and get copies of all the documents, including the complaint and the judgment itself, so at least you will know what you are dealing with. Were you served?

[seattle]

I would start with the collections that are non government to build some confidence and get educated on this forms on the Debt Validation and State Laws on Collections. Depending on what state you live in they may be noncollectable..

 

Once you have weighed/educated yourself on the potential risk then go for the gusto on those. That's what I did here many moons ago I shall say.

 

Once I had my confidence up due to education I would look into the collection issues; I have never had a judgement so I'm not familiar with the process.

 

Student Loans; you have to call the department of education and people and see what you can do to work that out. If they are old reporting and you paid off. I would still call them to find out all the info I can get. Remember to write down the info they give you on Your Note Pad PC or Pen and Paper. Then adjust your approach accordingly. It takes time and action; but the sooner you start the sooner it will clear up...

 

Take notes like names and time and suggestions from the folks on the other line; it helps with the thought process to formulate your solutions.

[tammylj]

First thing is to get in touch with the county clerks office in the county where the judgment was filed and get a copy of it. Look for any discrepancies. Look at WhyChats site. He has info for removing inaccurate judgments.

 

With a judgment, they can garnish wages and you do not want that. Judgments can also be renewed, so don't count on it just going away with time. I personally would tackle that one first before they decide to garnish your wages. And you will never get a mortgage with an unpaid judgment because a lien can be added to your house.

 

So if it is legit and a default judgment had been filed, your best course of action may be to try to get it vacated. If you were never served, that would be a good way to get it vacated. And if you can't get it vacated, then pay it. You may be able to negotiate a lower payment as most of it is likely interest. A satisfied judgment won't mean automatic denial of a mortgage the way an unsatisfied one will. And if it is satisfied, it should fall off your report in 7 years, so in Jan 2017 it would be gone.

 

Hiring a lawyer might be a good idea for the judgment. And not one of those credit repair firms, but a lawyer that specializes in consumer debt. From my experience, many have a set rate. Mine was $1200 and is letting me make payments of $100 a month. My judgment is also not my debt and I was never served, so we will be filing a countersuit so I can try to get my money back.

 

Good luck! You can do this. I started with a score of 485 a few years ago. I wasn't diligent with credit repair throughout, but I was able to get a lot taken off in the beginning.

Edited August 7, 2014 by tammylj

[cremdelacrem]

Thank you all for the suggestions.

 

As for the two accts with EOS-CCA and Midland. Do you guys suggest me going to the OC to pay the balance and disputing the CRAs on a basis of "the OC was already paid so the debt is invalid at the CA"

If I pay the OC will they tell the CA to report it as PIF or settled?

 

If I can not get the OC to accept payment. Shall I start with the DV and then a PFD? I heard Midland and EOS-CCA are two of the hardest to get PFDs for.

[cpugeek]

Thank you, I appreciate your response.

 

The Nelnet ones are from 2004 and have been transferred along the lines and were picked up by Direct Loans in 2009/2010. Now I had 3 Direct Loans tradelines that I got deleted in the last week because Direct Loans is no more and wont respond to dispute. The US Department of Education has the loans now and they are in rehabilitation. I have one payment left. As part of the rehab they are deleting negative tradelines and adding one positive current line.

 

 

 

Doe! Never knew direct loans wasnt know more. I just disputed it last month i never made any late payments but it got deleted anyways... You should have any problem buying a house. Im in progress well my wife buying a house with a 580 score but it is a rural loan 100% finanacing.. FHA with $100 down payment only requires around 610 I think

 

My score jumped from 480 to 575 with 2 months and that is without any credit cards or accounts which Im now in the processs of getting. My score jumped off disputes and corrections. I got 10 things deleted at once in 1 month with transunion. Most of the stuff was old past its time, others were not reporting correctly etc

 

Hang in there but your credit isnt bad at all. usually the banks will let youhave $1000 or less in collections all depends

 

You can get a house by the end of year easily. Get a real estate agent now.

Edited September 4, 2014 by cpugeek

[cremdelacrem]

OK here is a quick update.

I am in my last month of Rehab for the student loans. I managed to slay the beast called Midland and file a CFPB complaint against them and T-Mobile using the FTC ruling on cramming charges as my basis. They caved and deleted tradelines.

 

As for the 2 EOS-CCA Accounts. I have sent multiple PFDs to email contacts there and have had no luck. Luckily one of them is going to drop off in 2015 and the other one I will just keep bothering them until they accept my offer.

 

The medical collections have already offered to delete over the phone if I pay in full.

 

Now the bad. A National Grid collection has happened and is reporting on my report. I moved recently and the final bill never got sent to my new address in time. So now that is due to fall off in 2022 at this rate which I cant have. Nobody is particularly helpful in helping me resolve this there as well and they told me they will not delete.

[chugs102]

Request debt validation with EOS.

 

I helped a family member and was successful with EOS. Granted, it wasn't his debt