Fixing FICO Score advice

[Ryan Schwartz]

Hi All,

So I've always had a pretty solid credit score and thus never had to develop a skill set to improve my fico score other than paying things off and making regular payments.  My wife, however, is a different story.  I bought my first property by qualifying on my own, however now we will need her income to qualify to buy our second property.  Her score won't keep us from getting a loan, but it is significantly under the 740+ benchmark that will get us into the best situation with a lender.  There are several late payments and one item (a tiny medical bill overlooked) that went to collections and was paid immediately when she realized she had not paid it.  These are all 5-6 year old marks on her credit score.  After 7 years I believe they'll fall off, but is there a way to get the lenders/creditors to take them off before hand?  I've heard about good will adjustments.  Does that work?  I'll take any advice anyone has for me.  Thank you in advance!

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Ryan Schwartz:

Hi All,

So I've always had a pretty solid credit score and thus never had to develop a skill set to improve my fico score other than paying things off and making regular payments.  My wife, however, is a different story.  I bought my first property by qualifying on my own, however now we will need her income to qualify to buy our second property.  Her score won't keep us from getting a loan, but it is significantly under the 740+ benchmark that will get us into the best situation with a lender.  There are several late payments and one item (a tiny medical bill overlooked) that went to collections and was paid immediately when she realized she had not paid it.  These are all 5-6 year old marks on her credit score.  After 7 years I believe they'll fall off, but is there a way to get the lenders/creditors to take them off before hand?  I've heard about good will adjustments.  Does that work?  I'll take any advice anyone has for me.  Thank you in advance!

 Time heals all. It sounds like she's doing what she's supposed to be doing at present. Not much other than that you can do but wait.

Note that if she starts disputing everything, lenders will balk. So don't go that route unless you will not be needing a mortgage until AFTER the dispute process is fully 100% resolved... disputes aren't "fire and forget," you have to dispute it AND THEN win the dispute. 

This is the fnma llpa chart, FICO adjustments are on page 2. See where it says that a 660-679 FICO @ 75% LTV is 2.250%? That means 2.25 points paid at closing gets you the same rate as if she had perfect credit, if that is indeed the right score/LTV. If you don't want to pay 2.25 points, you can swap points for rate at approximately a ratio of 0.5 points equals 0.125% to rate.