620 Fico Score. Questions
Hi folks. I just pulled my equifax report off of myfico and it shows my credit score at 620.
Those of you that do home loans, like new purchases, etc. How sucky is this score in actuality. In about a year I plan to try and get a house maybe. Also, what interest rate range am I looking at probably. Likely the loan will be for 50 to 85K.
I am going to probably build this score up a little bit sometime soon because I got an old judgement that I have paid off and just never had it removed. Gonna start the process of getting it satisfied in the courthouse and getting it removed off my credit report next week likely. Also a couple of thing on my report (one collection thats very small and legit that I am going to pay off and another that I believe is a reaged account, but cant verify it...gonna dispute it off anyway)
I aint no banker, but that score doesn't sound too bad to me. Z
Wow...that was quick. You should have seen my score 2 years ago...somewhere around 540 I think. Anyway, any and all comments welcome. Thanks Z, appreciate it.
I am a mortgage broker.
Your score is ok. 620 is the cut off point for most conventional lenders, you will be able to get a good rate.
Regarding your collections and other derogatory account stuff. If the acounts are more than three years old and less than $1,000 I would not pay them off. These issues will stay on your account from the date of "last activity". This means that you will have these issues on your credit report for the next seven years, even though you paid them off.
Something to think about..
Phil
The judgement is already paid off...paid that off a couple of years ago so that I could get approved for a nice apt complex. It is the only one. The only collection that I have currently on my report that is legit is only like 30 bucks.
Well, I'm glad someone who really is a banker answered your post. It just seems to me that there are so many programs out there now, there should be something for you. Also, if I remember correctly, you said that 620 was your lowest score. The lender I usually work with always takes the middle score. That might be 10 or 15 points (?), so you might be in better shape than you think. Shop around. Z
I only pulled my Equifax report since that is the major one use for most anything I have ever applied for. So right now its the only score I know...however if past history is any indication, its going to probably be the lowest score because they list more than anything....at least for me. Anyway, it will probably be about the middle of next year before I start looking into a home loan so I have a little bit to improve my score.
Also, what should I be looking at as far as a down payment?
Again, I am no pro, and in fact don't know where my next meal is going to come from. (Hi mom, uh, what's up?) But, the last home I purchased was financed at 103% of its selling price, so I really didn't put anything down. And that was with tight-wad Wells Fargo. Don't know what the credit qualifications are, and mine's pretty good. Truth is, though, they were very helpful. Z
I agree with Zach, thats a very good score. I mean not enough to be elected president, but good enough. Should with proper presentation get lowest interest available, you might get dinged for a point or even one and half. Of course if you can show you are only borrowing about 50% to appraised value, they might cut the points and send a van each month for the check.
Fight all items that are critical of your credit. Who knows some creditor may get lazy and not respond so off it comes.
A client of mine an ex agent, need I say more, anyhow Freddy Motormouth decides to buy this rundown imitation Spanish wannabe house in Beverly Hills. It is suffering from a bad case of dryrot I mean bad. So bad the termites declared it Out Of Bounds. Seems the prior tenant had a party prior to vacating. One guest drove thru the garage back wall and into the swiming pool. Seeing as how this was a rented car, they just left it in the pool.
The bottom of the water heater is laying on the floor full burner plate, total rust out
The galvanized water lines when turned on discharge a sludgy mix of rust and thick gooey trying to be water. But he got a deal. Cause he bought it at the list price minus all of the requirements to make it habitable. $900,000 minus $400000 in repairs so his true price is $500,000.
The appraiser who probably took all of his courses on line and suffers from a major vision problem gives him a figure of full appraisal value $920,000. The Seller still recovering from the car ride into the pool will take back a note for 20% of the purchase price and guess what in exchange for Freddy Motormouth churning for his next picture will discount it after sale to zero..
His new loan is $720,000 that gives him about $220,000 to fix up. The Deal records. I get the yacht to sell for my commission. We set a crew of local Latinos good and bad mixed to work. We find on site all the copper pipe we will ever need, seems they ordered the material and never did anything. The car is out of the pool, the pool is drained and patched out and Freddy Mothermouth moves in. Cash out of pocket www.Nada.My Spanish speaking crews cut out all the dryrot, replaster where necessary and do as fine a job as any high priced crew in town. Very impressive..
The moral of this story, if you have bad taste in houses, choice of friends, cant drive for sour apples, but all the timing and good luck in the world, then this is your town. Freddy Motormouth who talks out of the side of his mouth, has everything monogramed including his shorts. Wears square tip loafers with tassles, just made himself over $300,000 just by being alive. The only self help page he ever read in his life was a Bus Pass. Go figure.
Reflectively Lucius
Trust me, I dispute all that I can. (How do you think I got a 520 or maybe lower score up by 100 points...) My fav was one collection place that I called from the info on my report and they were like "We cant take any payments. We returned the account to the client" I was like...when did this happen. They told me the date and everything.....so my next call was to equifax and they were like "THEY TOLD YOU THE TRUTH??"
I had 2 or 3 very small collections and the co's told me that if the account has a zero balance they dont even bother to return the dispute form.....so naturally I paid and disputed and poof. Not typical I am sure but that is just a couple examples.
The judgement on my credit report just wont die.....the court is very diligent in reporting. So I am going to have to go through the proceedure to get the records expunged. Wont be hard, cause I have proof its paid...just got to take the time. The county it is in has a long drawed out procedure to get records expunged. Of course in 2 years it dies...but I wont probably wait 2 years to get a house.
Dispute every negative tradeline, but learn the appropriate techniques first ... look at www.creditnet.com, www.creditboards.com, www.creditinfocenter.com before you start, especially their "sticky" threads (which is where all the info they want to "stick around" can be found).
As for the judgment, hopefully you've moved around a bit. If so, dispute all but your last 2 years of residence addresses off your reports before you do anything else, then when you dispute "not mine" for the judgment, attribution will be more difficult and it's more likely to come off. Also, a company called "Dolan Information" collects the public record info for the Credit Reporting Agencies. There are issues with respect to whether this complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but apparently nobody has really tested them in court yet. Some folks to successfully pressure Dolan to stop reporting a judgment.
In general, if your first point of dispute with a tradeline is "not mine", you can later go back and dispute date of last activity (alleging the debt has been "reaged" to keep it on your report), high balance (alleging debt was never that much), etc. to try to get it off your report. If you start with anything other than "not mine", you're admitting it's yours. Whatever you dispute, subsequent disputes on different grounds should not be done until about 60 days have passed since your last dispute.
Yup, I do those little tricks. I have disputed off probably over 7K in debt off my credit report that way. Did the same with the judgement. Trust me, this courthouse is very thourough in that matter. The not mine one worked with a lot of the old debt that I had when I was a college student. Had to be a little more persistent with Discover. An old phone bill was the one I talked about in the earlier post.
There is a new item on my account that I am pretty certain is a reaged account. It says I opened an account in 1998 and owe $448. Im pretty certain that account is from 93 to 95. Either way, I will dispute it off.