mortgage and credit experts: case study/please advise?

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

We moved from TN to AL last August.  
Rented a home in AL, the assumption being it was for a temporary time period.
Sold the home in TN, used all capital gains to pay off ALL debt, except the Student Loan That Will Not Die.
Started looking for homes, double checked Credit Score.  Due to Bankruptcy 3 years ago, score was ~650.

Fast Forward to this past March: We found a home we liked, decided to get "pre-approved" on the mortgage, and got TURNED DOWN!
Although NOTHING had changed, my score had deteriorated over 100 POINTS, to ~550!

So we ordered credit reports from the Big Three, discovered a NUMBER of discrepancies, and set out to correct the issues.
Submitted the mistakes, received confirmation that they were repaired, and then ordered 3 reports from True Credit, to include scores from all 3 reporting agencies.
Back up to the mid 650's as of the end of July.
...Or, so we thought.

So we go to our Credit Union, they pull the Equifax scores, and they're back down a hundred points, and we are DENIED!
AAAAArrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm ready to spit nails.

We come home, promptly call Equifax, and get some little anal weasel named Tristan, who is BEYOND helpless.  "Sir, we are only a repository of the information that YOUR creditors provide us blahblahblah..."  I'd have popped Tristan like a zit if he'd been in my living room right then.  Thankfully, he's in his WeaselCubicle somewhere a long way from me.  Suffice it to say they were ZERO help.  


Instead of doing that, I am appealing to the members of this forum to point me to some Advocacy Agency or someone who can actually get through the BS bureaucracy so we can IDENTIFY the mistakes and REPAIR our credit and get the reporting agencies to PROVIDE the CORRECT information consistently on two consecutive days!

Does anyone have any wisdom or direction on how to straighten this out?

[Brad Johnson]

Hate to tell you this, but Tristan is right. The big three credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) are just holding points for information reported by individual creditors. They have no control over the content of your credit report, they just show what has been reported to them.

Identifying the mistakes is simple. Look at your credit report in the "Derogatory Items" section to see who is giving you bad marks. It will list all derogatory accounts, along with a contact number for that creditor. Then, you get with the creditor to remedy the situation. Always get a copy, faxed or mailed, of the letter of resolution. Most creditors only report monthly, so don't be suprised if it takes as much as 60 days for all the resolved issues to dissappear from your credit report.

Was it the same problem all over again? It might be an issue of the same creditor's automated reporting system no being updated in time to catch the remediation, and the system automatically reported you again. If so, call the offending creditor immediately and let them know, in a firm yet TACTFUL way, that you expect the issue to be resolved immediately. And remember, screaming at them is a waste of time and will make them LESS likely to be sympathetic. Also, if you don't feel that the person on the phone is being as helpful as possible, ask to speak to their supervisor immediately.

Brad

[grampster]

That and the fact that every inquiry for a credit report on you is a negative.  So...anytime anyone checks your credit for a new car, a house loan, insurance, yourself...it all causes your score to deteriorate.  The credit score industry is a scam by financial people in the money and insurance business to be able to squeeze more money out of you when you borrow.  It's a disgrace, but legal thanks to your wonderful elected officials, bought and paid for by every special interest in the world, except those that elect them.

[cfabe]

Grampster, that's actually not true. There are 'hard' inquiries and 'soft' inquiries. The hard inquiry is the full report with all of your information, the soft inquiry has only basic information about your credit. The only person that can ever see the soft inquiries is you, they don't count agianst you. Checking your report does not count agianst you. Typically the only people who will bother to pull a full report on you are lenders for big $ items like houses and cars. Most of your other inquiries, for example cell phone companies, most credit cards, car insurance, etc are soft inquiries. On my report, there are maybe 30 soft inquiries listed and the only hard inquiry was from GMAC when i financed a car.

Fig, I've had to try to fix one minor discrepancy on my reports so I know how infuriating those people can be to deal with. Good luck, sorry I can't offer any more advice for you.

[The Rabbi]

Good advice here.  The "soft" inquiries are those who pull everyone above a 650 credit score for example.  Or everyone with a car loan and score below 600 or somesuch.

Also, with a bankruptcy, check to make sure your creditors are not still reporting the accounts.  Household finance is notorious for this.  I had a case once where the continued to report it delinquent/charged-off for years after the bankruptcy.  Needless to say, they were not helpful when I called them and asked about it and pointed out their error.
You can look for a no credit score loan or sometimes ask for an underwriting exception based on whacked-out credit score.  I believe FNMA will do that.

[cfabe]

Oh as far as how to "fix" your credit, obviously correct any wrong information on the report. Then, just contine with good credit habits, and the score will imrpove with time. Don't open any new accounts or close any old accounts. Don't have any lender pull your report agian until you have your scores back in order. Make all payments on time and work to pay off balances. Concentrate on keeping balances on revolving credit accounts ( credit and charge cards) as low as possible.

There's a ton of information on the web on credit scores. Read up. Make sure you understand all the things that are looked at when calculating the scores.

[Sindawe]

Scour your report VERY closely for any erroneous entries.  Just one can stop a loan going though.  About 11 years ago, I applied for financing on a new motorcycle, which was turned down.  When I inquired as to why, there was a bad debt of about $50k on my credit report, listed under my first and last name.  The dept turned out to by my father's (deceased) and got on my report since we share the same first and last name.  IDing the SS got the issue resolved.

[Matthew Carberry]

30% or so of your credit score is based on payment history, 30, 60 and 90 day lates, defaults etc.

35% is ratio of balances to accounts.  If you have maxed installment or revolving it looks bad, having them open isn't as big a deal as only carrying low balances.

The rest is a mix of having enough credit lines open and, to an extent, the types.

Don't close the paid off accounts, new accounts are a warning sign to creditors.

Finally, if you can document you notified a creditor reporting you in error according to THEIR rules, and they don't fix it in, I believe 30 days, there is a fining procedure by the .gov that pays the penalty to YOU.

Time is the only cure for credit.

Credit is now looked at less black and white but more layered risk.  It is not (supposed) to be so common that odd scattered lates and such cank a loan.  It's the whole picture.