daisymay Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 I've been trying to help mom try to clean up her credit report and deal with her credit situation. She had good credit until around 2002 but due to age I think she just started forgetting things, got things mixed up, got behind and couldn't catch up. Now she has only 1 open CC which is in good standing, all other TLs are closed (she had about 10 good TLs, about 10 bad TLs). She has numerous CO's, some of which were sold to JDB CA's. Several of them have passed California's 4 year SOL, making it illegal for them to pursue legal collection actions at this point. Most of her derogatory TL's will drop off the CR in 2008 or 2009. One JDB CA got a default judgment against her last year because she didn't understand the process and what she was supposed to do; this judgment has been settled but it will show as a paid judgment on her CR for another 9 years. Her sole source of income is exempt (SSI and private pension) and amounts to about $23,000 year. Aside from her basic living expenses, she only has the 1 CC payment so she has funds left over each month to save. Her only real asset is her home, which is paid off. This home needs some repairs (replace roof).I've tried to help clear up things on her credit report, got a few things removed. I've held out for 2 or 3 collection accounts to run the SOL (a couple ran SOL in the last couple of months, another will run after October). After that, there will be 1 that won't be SOL until mid-2007. My questions are:Will mom be able to get an equity loan to put a new roof on her house and do a few other repairs while there are active collection accounts and unpaid CO's on her credit file? Will the prospective lender require the collection accounts and CO's to be paid off? If so, have we wasted time waiting for the SOL to run on some of these? Given her credit history at this point in time, would it be worth adding her as an authorized user on 1 or 2 of my credit cards (my credit score is 730+)? Would there be risks to me for doing this? I would not actually let her use my cards, don't even let my hubby use them! She hasn't had lates on her TLs since 2003 because most of her TLs were closed by then. She's been current all along with her 1 CC. Her current financial obligations are set up through automatic payments with her bank, and she's doing good now. It's just the old stuff we're having to deal with. Please help with your advice and insight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa0825 Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 Do you know what her scores are? I got a home equity loan last year to pay off some debts and do some repairs. My scores at that time (before I started working on it) were 570-576. This old, run down house (which I inherited), was about $15K from being paid off, and the appraisal came in at 65K. With a decent chunk of equity, you can most likely find someone to finance you, since it is a secured debt. If you look up the poster by the name of firstsource, I hear he has helped a lot of people here with mortgages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisymay Posted September 29, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2006 Last I checked (about 3-4 months ago), per my recollection Experian had her score at 628. Since then, the judgment had posted and then posted as a paid judgment. I don't know how badly that would affect her prior score. Thanks for your feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstsource Posted September 30, 2006 Report Share Posted September 30, 2006 She may qualify for a HELOAN (fixed rate 2nd) Mostly depends on how much of the value of her home the combination of the 1st and 2nd will be. If under 80% probably can work.Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisymay Posted October 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Thanks for responding. Mom's home is paid off, but as I mentioned does need a new roof and some other repairs. She has plenty of equity in the home, but I didn't know if that mattered when considering her bad credit history, unpaid collections and CO's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstsource Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Yes, the percentage of the value of the home that is borrowed is important. The lower the total value that is being borrowed the better the chance of getting a lender to take the loan and the better the rate & etc.Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisymay Posted October 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 The default judgment was settled and there are no unpaid liens filed against her. Do the lenders require the unpaid collections and CO's to be paid as part of the loan agreement? What should we expect in this regard? (SOL for collections has run on all but 2 of these.) Thanks, again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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