Mortgages, credit ratings, and a rant

I know the Lounge is filled with much more serious stuff these past couple days, and I should be thankful for what I have, a nice apartment, job, and family, but I want to just be pissy right now.

I've vented about money problems many many times before. Things are always tight, but they are slowly getting a little better. With the birth of Little Robot, we have decided we want to get out of our apartment and find a home of our own. Well, no, that won't happen.

Credit rating is in the toilet, and that is being nice. The Ex-Mrs Giant Robot left me with a crapload of credit card debt that took years to pay off. That looks horrible, but now I only have one small line of credit that gets used, not too much, and paid down regularly, you know trying to get my credit score back up some. I basically have no debt except for a couple hundred dollars.

We do not have a lot of money to put down right now, and to save up to get 10% down will take a while. Between daycare and getting paid crap, it just takes its toll on finances.

We are going to work with a mortgage company in town to help us out however they can, and their first plan is to talk with someone they recommended to repair my credit. I appreciate their efforts and understand where they are coming from, but I want to bang my head on the wall. Repair my credit? How the hell is that going to happen? I have seen my credit report and there is nothing incorrect in there, although some things need to be updated. I have one open credit card that is used responsibly and paid on time. No one else will give me credit. I feel like since I have screwed up my credit rating, I am not stuck in a catch-22 that no one will give me credit, well except for this one place that has my credit line, and I need credit lines to get good credit.

I have a lot to be thankful for, and I know dwelling is not good for the soul. But fuck me how many times must I pay for making this huge mistake with credit? Can this mythical entity please stop punishing me now. It's so discouraging and I feel like there is nothing I can do to make this better.

Don't some of those credit repair places scam people?

And yes, there ought to be a course in high school that teaches people about the grip that the financial system has on every person's life via the credit system. If you use the system, you are at their mercy. If you opt out of the system by paying cash, you are inconvenienced in many small ways. You used to be able to make a hotel reservation or buy an airline ticket without credit. You could buy a car with cash, rent an apartment solely on references, and even buy a house just by paying the down payment and signing a contract. You could phone a department store, place an order without a credit card, the the merchandise would be delivered to you the same day and you got a bill at the end of the month. Your kid could go to the grocer for bread and milk and the grocer ran a tab.

No more.

The mortgage company that is referring me is fairly well known in the community so I am hoping that will encourage them to keep things on the up and up. Right now I am just going to listen to what they have to say.

If you do not have a credit card you can do less and less these days. And as I said I screwed up bad, and have made everything right to the best of my ability, so how long do I pay for my mistakes?

I used to work for a credit card company so I'm real familiar with them, and many (I'd even say most) use questionable methods at best or are outright scam outfits at worst.

Your situation sucks and I'm really sorry about it but honestly, only time can truly repair a bad credit rating. Get yourself a secure credit card through a local credit union. This is a type of card where you put up a certain amount up front in cash as collateral, and that is your credit limit. The interest will be high as fuck, so use it to buy small things you were going to get anyway (or charge a couple of bills on it), then pay it off immediately. It will take time, but it'll build your FICO back up. If you do this, be sure to go through a local credit union though because there are a lot of scams and hidden fees that can be associated with secured cards.

There really is no quick fix to repairing bad credit and anyone who promises you that is trying to sell you something. This may sound overly cynical, but I question the tactics of a mortgage company recommending someone like that--they might be getting kickbacks. I'm not trying to call your company slimy, just that I've seen way, way too many shenanigans like that in my career with credit.

Like I said above the mortgage company is well known in town so I was hoping their reputation would lend them to want to keep things on the up and up.

I do have one credit card, and honestly I do not even know how I was approved for it. It gets used judiciously and paid on time. That's all I can see to do.

But thanks. I will be more watchful when I deal with these people.

I'm not a counselor or anything, just somebody that deals with this stuff a lot for a living. :)

Though maybe I should start a free credit counseling service for DUers. :)

Clearing the old debts is good for improving your rating as is demonstrating good history with the one card that you have now.

If by "updates" you mean things like inactive or closed accounts still appearing as open, you should correct that. It should improve your score

This link has general guidelines on how to improve your credit score.
http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/ImproveYourScore.aspx

On that same site there are forums for discussing credit scores and you may pick up some pointers there.

The FICO site is helpful. If you don't know your credit score you might want to look into it (score is different than overall credit report). You can get your credit report for free (fed. govmt site has info), but have to pay for a credit score.

The MYFICO site has a calculator that will estimate your credit score. You can use that as a guideline to see what might be affecting your credit (e.g., run through it a couple of times with slightly different answers and see what happens). Take the numbers with a grain of salt though. I was depressed about my score estimate from there because I'm stretching to buy a house, but it turned out my scores were about 50 points higher than the MYFICO was estimating.

Does your state/county/town have any homeownership programs for 1st-time buyers, lower income? State of NY does, which almost makes up for the high taxes here. My county and one of the local cities do too, though when I got a raise last year I ended up just over the income limits for those. USDA has a program too if you're looking in rural areas.

Credit unions may be another place to look. My local one has a matching down payment savings plan. I'm not using it because the housing market is tight here and I don't want to wait as long as the program takes to be able to buy a house.

Good luck.

Than I really care to. I will look at those sites you both suggested later, at work now and just too frustrated and depressed to deal with it.

I know my score and it is sad.

All the programs around here to help us working poor out when buying a home are designed for PEOPLE WHO ARE ABLE TO QUALIFY FOR A MORTGAGE. Just shouting out of frustration.

I can't see anything I can do differently to affect my credit score right now. I am doing it all. Have been for a while now. I have one account, the only one I can get, gets paid on time, used marginally. It looks like I just have to wait for all the derogatory stuff to start magically falling off my report. I have no idea what some credit repair guy is going to do for me, unless he can magically make time go faster.

Again thank you so much for trying to help. I know I will keep trying. It is just hard to see that today.

I heard two different and very new commericals for credit consolidation - with threats of new laws coming doubling everyones' payments

Talk about the sign of things to come.

Here are a couple of resources that I found most helpful:

www.creditinfocenter.com

The people on the forums are very kind and helpful, as most have been where you are now. And they don't charge a thing to help you. Learn as much as you can, and fix your own credit for FREE. Also, check out the Mortgage forum. There is a man named Charles who posts as firstsource, who helped me get a mortgage with my blemished credit, which I've now mostly fixed.

Also, check out: www.creditboards.com

Again, much help available.

Good Luck! :pals:

And to everyone else trying to help as well.

I will look through the sites you listed when I am out of work, just too tired to focus on them right now.

I was turned down again by another mortgage company today, and I am too disgusted, angry, and depressed to deal with more right now.

they drop your credit score a bit. I think the exception is mortgage shopping within a 2 week period or something. So see if you can bring in existing reports and have them give you a rough qualification first (maybe you're already doing that).

Looking at your own credit report isn't supposed to show up on your report, but one I did (TransUnion I think) - looked like a 3rd party but I knew from the date it was me.

Oh, and you're not alone by far if that's any comfort. There are several radio shows about credit issues out there where people call in all the time.

I'm searching in a tight market with high property taxes. Rent is also high here - I'm paying as much in rent on a small apt. as I will on a 2-3 BR house. I can qualify for the basic payments but property taxes and closing costs and down payment are a pain to have up front. Most of the houses I've seen are far away and/or have serious problems. Today I finally found a house in pretty decent shape for which I was qualified (only because it's a foreclosure) but 2 offers came in while I was looking at it. Sigh. Silly me being at my job most of the day.