credit monitoring
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I am paying off some debt this month and will be searching for a house in the next month or two. I am looking to watch my credit very closely as every point I can get counts before applying for a mortgage. I want to make sure my old paid off debt fails off my report right away.
I was thinking about signing up with Equifax for $17.95 a month. I figure it might be easiest to send proof directly to them?
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@IRJ said:
I want to make sure my old paid off debt fails off my report right away.
What makes you think that is going to happen? Generally, the items will be reported as paid but remain on the report for the 7 year "lifespan".
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@Danp said:
@IRJ said:
I want to make sure my old paid off debt fails off my report right away.
What makes you think that is going to happen? Generally, the items will be reported as paid but remain on the report for the 7 year "lifespan".
Well marked as paid is what I mean. I am trying to sqeeze a few more points out of my credit score.
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I am not a financial wizard, nor do I play one on tv, but I think paid debts are actually considered positives on a credit score.
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@IRJ said:
I am paying off some debt this month and will be searching for a house in the next month or two. I am looking to watch my credit very closely as every point I can get counts before applying for a mortgage. I want to make sure my old paid off debt fails off my report right away.
I was thinking about signing up with Equifax for $17.95 a month. I figure it might be easiest to send proof directly to them?
I thought that paying it off made it last longer.
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@IRJ Pay it off a few months before you apply for the loans.
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@brianlittlejohn said:
@IRJ Pay it off a few months before you apply for the loans.
That is what I am trying to do. My lease is up and I am going month to month now which is good, but I'd like to buy in 3 months
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@scottalanmiller said:
I thought that paying it off made it last longer.
No, that's not true. However, in some states, making a payment on an out of statute account can restart the statute of limitations.
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Just get a free copy of your credit report, look for any incorrect info and challenge it. It doesn't cost anything to challenge, so you can even challenge any old debt just to force the debt collector to make sure they have the proper paperwork.
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Perhaps you should look into one of the free services, such as Credit Karma.
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The free ones are normally limited to once per year.
I wasn't on that short of a time table, but I knew I was buying (building actually) a house. I did a credit check when ground was broken - from that day forward I made sure everything was paid ontime (OK I was a bit sloppy before that) closed a few random accounts that I had opened over the years that I hadn't used in years. By the time 9 months rolled around my score had risen enough to put me in the best lending range - my real estate person was actually shocked. She told me that she had never had someone improve their score during the process, but frequently they had made it worse.
At the time, my pre-ground breaking rate was locked at 6.875%, I saved a full point by improving my score.
Of course that's nothing on the 15 yr 2.875% I have today that I refinanced into a few years ago! Cut seven years off my loan, and actually lowered my mortgage payment by $10/month
