credit score fixers

[montster]

my wife and i are trying to get pre-approved for a mortgage. because she is the primary income earner, prospective lenders are using her credit score. here's the problem: she switched jobs last year, and when she left she didn't realize there was still a balance on her corporate AmEx card. for whatever reason, she failed to get the mail correspondence telling her of the outstanding balance. nevertheless, it led to AmEx reporting the balance (about $100) to collections, and having the item placed on her credit report. compounding the issue was that when someone finally reached her about the money she owed, she paid it right away, without asking if it was on her credit report and making them take it off before she paid the balance. but what's done is done.

 

my question: the mortgage broker we're dealing with is going to arrange a call for me to talk to her credit fixers tomorrow to get their advice. i asked her what these guys typically charge to fix your score, and she said it could cost up to $1000, but most reputable ones offer money-back guarantees. without revealing her score here, this AmEx thing is affecting it enough that it's definitely a concern. i'm wondering if anyone here has used such a service, and if we'd be paying them to do something we could do ourselves. (for what it's worth, the broker said her husband tried and tried to get something off his report and ended up using one of these companies successfully, but i don't know if she's just blowing smoke up my ass.)

[proninja]

my wife and i are trying to get pre-approved for a mortgage. because she is the primary income earner, prospective lenders are using her credit score. here's the problem: she switched jobs last year, and when she left she didn't realize there was still a balance on her corporate AmEx card. for whatever reason, she failed to get the mail correspondence telling her of the outstanding balance. nevertheless, it led to AmEx reporting the balance (about $100) to collections, and having the item placed on her credit report. compounding the issue was that when someone finally reached her about the money she owed, she paid it right away, without asking if it was on her credit report and making them take it off before she paid the balance. but what's done is done.

 

my question: the mortgage broker we're dealing with is going to arrange a call for me to talk to her credit fixers tomorrow to get their advice. i asked her what these guys typically charge to fix your score, and she said it could cost up to $1000, but most reputable ones offer money-back guarantees. without revealing her score here, this AmEx thing is affecting it enough that it's definitely a concern. i'm wondering if anyone here has used such a service, and if we'd be paying them to do something we could do ourselves. (for what it's worth, the broker said her husband tried and tried to get something off his report and ended up using one of these companies successfully, but i don't know if she's just blowing smoke up my ass.)

Here's what they do. They challenge every negative item on your report - which you can do on your own, it's a matter of actually doing it. I'm a mortgage broker, have a decent amount of folks in credit repair. I've never had anyone who says they're going to do it on their own actually follow through and do it. With one item, though, it wouldn't be as hard.

 

I know a guy who charges $80 to get started and $40 a month. That's a discounted rate he charges my clients, and he's done a good job for me.

[Atlanta Cracker]

I would think that if that is the only item on the credit report you could just explain it to the mortgage company and they would proceed with the loan? At least that's the way it should work in a normal mortgage environment.

[TimC]

because she is the primary income earner

 

Screw your credit -- answer me this. Where and how do I get me one of these?

[Avernus]

get your 3-in-1 credit report from whatever company (I have used the equifax and transunion websites to do this) and do the online dispute and think of any reason you can without lying IE: too old to be on file, was unemployed etc.....

 

I had about 7 delinquencies 6 months ago and I now have 2 which are almost gone...

 

disputing them can go a long ways and I never had to make 1 phone call...

[Ramhock]

What is her score?

 

Our credit repair, used to rescore for a better product, is $395 at most. $1,000 seems excessive.

[polksalet]

Look for a bank that does manual underwriting.

[Missoula Griz]

Rapid Re-Score is what your looking for. I have used it with my clients over the years.

 

Here is a LINK for the company we use.

 

The cost is way less then 1K. I have had them done for a couple hundred.

 

Mortgage interest rates are really becoming fico dependent. Mortgage insurance companies are changing their rate

 

structure beginning August 1, 2008, once again.

 

If your scores are currently above 680, dont fret. But under that, I would at least make a call to a rapid rescore company.

 

Good luck.

[cre8tiff]

Screw your credit -- answer me this. Where and how do I get me one of these?

 

You should invade North America and take her from him.