I need to know what are my option of building my credit back up after having a Foreclosure on my credit report. How am I able to recover from that? I know that there are ways of doing it. I just don't know where to start. Where do I start? What are my steps in repairing my credit from this point on?
129595
When was your foreclosure?Yes you can save your credit by acquiring secured credit cards and making good payments on them.If your foreclosure is recent I can reverse it.\n\nMaria\nReal Estate Investors\nHelping Families in need
122328
Kat,\n\nYou leave out some important details.  \n\nI'm going to assume from your comment that you don't have credit right now because you purchase everything in cash, right?  I did that when I was young.  Paid cash for my car and did't have a card.  Had $20,000 in the bank to put down for a mortgage.  They wanted to refuse my loan because I didn't have a credit history!  Lucky for me, they had a loan manager who had sense enough to look beyond a credit report.\n\nWhat about your husband?  Does he have a credit history?  Good or bad credit?  Remember that they will be looking at his score also if you both plan to be on the loan.  If he has good credit you may not even have a problem.\n\nAs the others mentioned, you need to build a credit history.   How long from the time you buy this car on credit, until you start looking for a home?  Credit Guru is correct, it won't help you much to pay it off immediately.\n\nHaving a big down payment for the home may impress the mortgage company into giving you the loan without an impressive credit score.  Worked for me.\n\nIf you really need the car right now, consider paying it off in cash when you buy it. Many car dealers will cut you a very good price if you are paying up front.\n\nBefore you go any futher, go to the link I supplied below. You are trying toimprove your credit score, so you need to understand exactly how they calculate it.  MYFICO is the folks to developed the scoring system, and their site has lots of information on establishing and improving your score.\n\nAfter your have educated yourself you can make better decisions on how you can proceed.\n\nI sure wish I had your problems. Wanna trade?
285400
Talk to a local mortgage broker.  Sit down and go over your credit report.  They will be able to tell you what you can do to get your score up.  Sometimes its better to spend money on your credit instead of the down payment.  Sometimes its the other way around.  Sometimes there's another solution like putting someone else on the application with you.  \n\nIn general you should keep your open credit cards on-time and pay them down to half of their credit limit.  If you have extra cash payoff any collections you have from the last year or two.  \n\nOpen up your yellowpages and look under "mortgages".  Find a local phone number or an adress you're familiar with and go to town.
290182
I think you should go to a credit counselor and then a lawyer.  Both will have ideas on what steps to take to get you out of your current difficulties.  Both initial visits should be free.  An friend of mine chose to quit her chapter 13 because she felt the repayment was too high.  You can at least ask about that or maybe making it a chapter 7 so you don't have to worry about it anymore.  You should be able to keep your house and truck.  Really go and investigate.  It can't get much worse I'm sure and at least you will be moving forward.
430520
Thank you Celeste!\n\nIt amazes me how so many people come here and give out these sites like freecreditreport.com.  These morons simply don't have a clue, or else they get some sort of kickback form sending unsuspecting consumers to these sites.  \n\nhttp://www.annualcreditreport.com is the ONLY site where you can get a free credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies.  Any other site is trying to sell you credit monitoring services or some other nonsense.
2719
Credit is nothing more than an agreement, a promise.  If you failed to pay in the past, and you want to get someone to loan to you again, you have to repay what you borrowed.  If you are going to instead see how little you can pay to eliminate your past debt, your new lender has got to think that you will treat him the same way.\n\nPay your debt...or suffer the consequences.  As you said, you made some bad previous choices.  Either own up to them (and pay) or work through the various options of being a renter until your bankruptcy is discharged, etc.\n\nIt's hard to get a new lender to believe you are credit-worthy (aka, "trustworthy") if your primary goal is to *NOT* pay your debt in full.
300483
Foreclosure means that you have until July 4th to pay off the unpaid balance, plus your current mortgage due, or you lose the house.  Since mortgage payments are so high, few people can manage it.  Your only chance to salvage your credit history and your financial stability is to sell the house quickly, take whatever profit you can and buy a new house for yourself and the kids.  But... you need his consent to sell the house.  If he won't cooperate, you'll need a judgement (a QUICK one) to force the sale.\n\nGood luck!
567865
I am a loan originator and deal with people who have bad credit on a daily basis.  I would suggest getting a copy of your credit report.  Then making sure that there are no duplicates or closed accounts affecting your score.  If there are you can call those places that have been dawdling in taking them off your credit report.  Pay things on time and try to get rid of as much revolving debt as possible.  If your credit is bad now you may need to wait a couple months until you can correct all of the above problems and bring your credit score up to where it should be.  I hope I helped to answer your question if you have any more concerning your credit scores feel free to contact me through my yahoo email.  P.S.  A credit repair company can raise your scores but you most likely won't see the results until the process is over, they can really affect your score negatively while the repair process is taking place.  Just put yourself in the lenders position. Would you lend money to someone going through a "credit repair"?  I suggest trying to do it on your own first.
502863
I am ever so slowly working on repairing mine. I went from having bad credit to no credit and now I have recieved offers from about 4 different places (two of which are department stores, the other two are regular credit cards), so I am just at the bottom, but I am going the right way! (My bad credit was caused by my getting married too young and having an ex who got me to sign checks that we knew would bounce...I'm just damn lucky I didn't end up in jail!) But I don't know how good your credit score has to be to get one of those home loans. I'm not to that point yet. My personal near future worry is paying off student loans since I will be finishing up a masters degree, so I won't be able to think about a house for a while yet. But it sounds like you (and me) are going the right direction! Good Luck!
106419
It sounds like you are behind but not at the foreclosure stage(over 90 days past due)\n\nFirst off, your mortgage company does not want to go to foreclosure. See if you can negotiate something, i.e. interest only, debt extension or restructure.\n\nDepending on the rest of your credit, your income and the equity in your home you might be able to find a lender or investor who would be willing to help you save your home or buy it immediately and walk away with some cash.\n\nNot ideal but when you get behind on a mortgage it is tough.
517923
If you have a mortgage on the mobile home, it will show up as a foreclosure on your credit report. It will make it hard for you to get any kind of credit or refinance your home.\n\nWhy don't you try renting the mobile home out or doing a lease purchase or land contract on it? If you do a land contract, you are basically doing a private mortgage. You draw up a contract, giving the renter a year to get their own financing. In the mean time they are paying rent and covering your mortgage payment.
642986
As a former financial counselor I was suprised by the answers you are getting in regards to your question. $20,000 in high interest credit card debt is quite a burden, but the advice of taking out a line of equity against your house is the last thing you would want to do. Right now your credit cards are unsecured loans. In other words you don't have any property attached to the loans. If you default on your credit cards, they begin collection processes by selling the accounts to various collection agencies, in the hopes of trying to recover at least some of the debt. By getting a line of equity against your house, *POOF* you just got a nice big secured loan against your house. A secured loan means that now if you default they can attach a lien to your property or even worse foreclose on your property if the loan is large enough. This is the last thing you want to do.\n\nMortgages are usually the part of the monthly bills that takes the biggest chunk, so you are definitely ahead of the game by having your home fully paid for. You get a thumbs up for that! So that should free up a large portion of your income to go towards other bills beyond necessities. I would recommend calling a credit counselor at a non-profit credit counseling company in order to improve your situation. In fact a year or so back, when you heard all that news about the changing rules of Bankruptcy filings, one of the big changes was that individuals were to try to appease their debts through debt consolidation counseling before they were allowed to file, so even if you do file for bankruptcy, you may have to get financial counseling anyways! I also have a confession to make....I am currently on the program myself, and it has helped me tremendously. Here's the basics on how these programs work:\n1) You have lots of high interest debt. Perhaps you fell behind on some credit cards or private loans, and the late fees and high interest rates are making it very difficult for you to make any progress. With my case, I was always on time, but I wanted to make a change in my life and rid myself of my high interest debt.\n2) you call a credit couneling company. I can't speak for all companies, but at the one I worked for we were trained to counsel the clients. To show care and compassion because they were in some difficult situations. This is sometimes all someone needs. Someone to just listen to, but if the counselor finds that a debt consolidation WILL help, then they will walk you step by step through the program.\n3) Okay so you qualify now what? You enroll your high interest debt into the program and the company will begin contacting your creditors to negotiate lower interest rates on most of your accounts. This is a tremendous help because interest consumes most of your monthly payment anyways. Another important thing that you have to remember is that the creditors also CLOSE your accounts. This is to further help you along in paying off your debts.\n4) You stay in contact with your consolidation company and creditors. But you only make ONE payment to the consolidation company, who in turn forward it to your creditors. \n5) Sit back and watch your debt slowly disappear!\n\nIn my opinion, bankruptcy IS a last resort. Depending on the type of bankruptcy you may be forced into a restructured repayment plan regardless. My advice is to just call a counselor and see what they can do to help. \n\nSo if you are interested in the company I worked for, it is http://www.incharge.org . If you are interested in the company I have an account with, it is http://www.careonecredit.org/ . Both of these companies are registered with the BBB and have outstanding reputations. The good part is they are also non-profit. They do ask for a monthly donation with your payment, which goes to paying for the counselor's salaries, but you can always decline it if you are really in a bind. I pay it greatfully because they have helped me so much. Anyways, good luck with your rese
578193
I am a mortgage loan officer, and work with credit issues everyday. As to what you are referring, I have heard of this but never done it. Would be curiuos to see if you as the consumer can get all three bureaus to report the same information. \n\nThe reporting is done from the creditor's side. They report to whomever they choose.. typically depends on your local region. For example, smaller based creditors in the SouthEast will typically report to Equifax. Larger national companies may report to all three. How they would gather the information is more my question.\n\nNow, in regards to how to improve your scores, I believe you are getting some mixed advice. You must understand how the scores are built before you can determine what will impact good or bad.\n\nMajority (but not all) of your credit score will be based on the past 24 months. So in other words, if your credit history over the past 2 years is mostly bad, your score will reflect that. Old credit may hinder scores slightly, but will not comprise the majority of your score.\n\nOld negative items may not have a major impact on scores, but can prevent you from getting over the 700 score mark and maybe even hinder you with certain lenders.\n\nMy suggestion to anyone trying to improve credit is this: Get on time with ALL current open credit, add good POSITIVE credit to help push scores up, and depending on your purchasing goals you will work on your old negative items now or later. For example, looking to buy a car or home within 90 days... leave the old stuff alone. Looking 1-2 years down the road, pay it off.  Why?\n\nPaying off old negative items will update the item to something within the past 24 months (Date of last activity) and will be factored more highly in your scores. So paying it off now will bring your scores down! (Yes, that does sound contrary, but it is what happens.) If you want to buy something sooner than later, do what you can now to boost your scores (i.e. Good credit) and then attack the old stuff after you buy what you needed.\n\nIf you attack it now with a long term goal in mind, your scores may suffer in the short term, but with the added positive credit and paying off of old credit, you will have sweet scores in the long term.\n\nSee the information below on where to find the good positive trades and how to work them to your benefit.\n\nGood luck!
656565
Call a local mortgage broker (check your local yellow pages) and ask for a consultation, they are usually free or may charge a small fee (< $25)  for pulling your credit report..  Do not call a bank.  Mortgage brokers have many more programs available than banks and are more experienced in dealing with folks with troubled credit.  Anyway, they can pull up your credit and see how it looks.  It may not be as bad as you think.  If it is, there are programs such as FHA that are not credit score driven.  It always helps to have money saved up for a down payment, and while 100% loans can be obtained, you will most likely need a minimum of 3% down.  If you do not have the 3%, it can be in the form of a gift from family or friends.  There are 3rd party non-profit companies that you can get the donwpayment from, although FHA has been looking down on them lately.  Mainly b/c the 3% gets financed back into the loan....sort of...but I can't say that...LOL\n\nA good mortgage broker will have all of this information.  He/she should also be able to direct you on what to do if your credit needs a little repair.  If you are not ready to buy now, they can coach on what to do to be ready in 6 months or so.  Good luck with your dream of owning a home.
24130
Credit Scores are very important as we all know.  Sometimes there are things on crdit reports that should not be there.\nYou state that you have already tried letters and are looking for something other than the credit repair companies, which often times are scams.\n\nRebuilding takes time: http://www.moremerchant.com\n\nThere are many tips on the above site that can help you out.  Many of the links deal with credit scores as well as rebuilding which it says takes time.\n\nTake a look.
488669
We are in a buyer's market for now.  Foreclosures are up and will continue upward for at least another year.  This is due to the large amount of speculation and creative financing.  The creative financing people once thought was a great idea is now biting them in the behind.  If you are a buyer, you are in the drivers seat.  Look at the houses for sale and carefully analyze recent sales.  If the properties are in danger of foreclosure (you can find out by checking with the county court house public records) or has been on the market a long time, you can get lucky by making a low ball offer. \n\nDetermine the fair value based on recent sales and offer 20% less to the homeowner that needs to get out.  Now is the time for buyers to wheel and deal.
460526
I have always had good credit, but together me and my husband spent 18 months cleaning up his credit from a 540 score to well over 700 (which is great btw). This was about 4-5 years ago. I only say that to let you know I know what I am talking about. For starters the actual mathematical formula used to determine your credit score is a secret. Which sucks. However, there are guidelines that are very helpful such as :\n•Payment history (35%) – the most important category. Have you made all payments on time and for how long. How many unpaid debts you have that have resulted in alternative action (e.g. bankruptcy, tax liens, collection lawsuits, etc). \n•Amounts owed (30%) – how many lines of credit you have and how much you owe compared with how much you can borrow. \n•Length of credit history (15%) – how long you have had your accounts. \n•New credit (10%) – how many new lines of credit you have. \n•Types of credits used (10%) – do you have a balance of revolving (credit cards) and installment (loans) credit lines. \n\nIf I were do this is what I would do. Get rid of the store cards (close them). Closing them doesn't hurt your credit....what hurts you credit it the fact that you are lowering your overall amount of credit extended to you, and if your balances equal more than 30% of total credit available, you get a ding. But as soon as your balances fall below 30% you get a jump in your score. So KEEP your card for 6500, and keep your balance under 30%, or get it there asap. Then never use more than 30% of your total limit on the card. Personally, I would keep the card, pay it off, and never use it again ata all but keep it open. You want to keep it open because the lenghth of time of open revolving accounts(credit cards) is a plus to your credit score. I have this one credit card that I have had since college. they keep raising the limit hoping I'll go nuts. The limit is now 11 grand. My balanace is ZERO. There fore, i have 11k of credit extended to me, but a zero balance (like i said under 30% is good), and I've had this credit card for about 8 years, so that looks "responsible" on the fico score, and is a plus to your score.\n\nIt's tricky to get used to how it all works, but I spent the time doing it and we went from BARELY being able to buy a house 4 years ago and filling out mountains of paperwork, to have great credit and filling out a one page document, and handing over a down payment to buy our second house.\n\nAnyway, store credit cards are trash! They ALWAYS have high interest rates, and they are only good for the stores they are listed for. You aren't going to be having any clothing emergencies, and if your closet burned down (literally), and you did have a clothing emergency then you could reasonably use your visa.\n\nHaving said all this, can I make a suggestion?\n\nTotal Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Go to the bookstore and buy it. You will thank yourself.\n\n\n***********OH YEAH! Don't ask to have you credit limit lowered on the visa (like some others have said on here)! That in itself won't lower your credit rating, but you will have less credit to use to stay under the 30%, and anytime you go over 30% that DOES give you a ding! Remember, credit limit hikes are good for you IF you stay under 30% and don't lose your mind and go nuts a Macy's!