I think a score of 640 with a minimum of a 20% down payment would qualify you for a conventional/conforming loan. Read somewhere some lenders might consider a score of 600 with an even bigger down payment. But don't quote me on that. Quick fixes to the FICO score isn't the wisest of ideas - it takes a bit of time. Things fade from the report over time, but paying off a collection won't remove it from the report for seven years. Best path to take is pay bills on time. Use a credit card wisely keeping any balance low. Don't shuffle credit cards around shopping for a lower interest rate. Don't close out unused credit cards and don't open up any new ones. PS, the highest FICO score is 850 - there is another calculator (VantageScore??) which goes up to 990, I think... but a whopping big looking score on Vantage isn't any better a rating to a lender than what you'd see with the commonly used FICO scoring.

I totally agree about the moral component, and am very disappointed that my son is in this position. I have to tell you though that back in 2006 my son tried to deal with Discover card by offering to pay them at least the original balance of $1200, but they would not discuss anything with him until he was behind on his payments by several months. He then spent a year in school in Germany (he has been putting himself through school since he was 24 and finally graduates this year). I think that during that year they closed his account and sold their interest to the collection agency. I did raise my kids to be honest and to honor their commitments. I wouldn't even let them eat grapes in the grocery store that we hadn't paid for yet when they were young, or pay a child's ticket price at the theater after they had turned 12 (or whatever the adult age was) even when they looked younger. Unfortunately my son made a few bad decisions and the fees and penalties on this account more than doubled his original charges. I was really just curious on what would be better for his credit score, because I know that sometimes people end up being penalized when they are trying to do the right thing.

Hi breenthumb, Rumour has it that there are other insurance companies. Granted, there are fewer than there used to be, as they, like most corporations, hate competition on their own level and will go to great lengths to get rid of competitors. Some time ago I had a personal tax-deferred retirement account with a stockbrokerage, which had incurred no administration cost for years, as it had been grandfathered that way when that company took over another company. When I came to the age where I had to reverse it from an account into which I paid in, into one into which I could no longer pay in, but must withdraw a certain percentage annually, which increases from about 7% at age 71 to 20% at age 90 and beyond, a problem arose. They said that there would be an annual administration fee, and my claim that it was a continuation/reversal of a fee-free account that I'd had with them for years fell on quite deaf ears. So ... I did some checking with some other agencies, and came back to report that, since such and such a company and so and so company would agree to carry my account without an administration fee, I was considereing transferring my account ... they seemed to have a change of heart, for it appeared that they, too, could carry that account without an admin. fee. Which they've done for about 10 years, now: nice to have a little skill and effort save one well over $1,000., on occasion, right? I didn't feel it necessary to include in my report the fact that I would be somewhat less inclined to use the other companies than the one that I had been with for years ... as Grandma used to say, "One should tell the truth ... but there's no reason that one should blab and tell all that one knows". So ... ... if you don't, or haven't owed money for several recent years in several locations/circumstances ... ... they figure that your trustworthiness is suspect, do they? As I've lived in over 20 locations in my 79 years (as I discovered when they asked over on KT in how many places one had lived), I've never owned a home ... ... so never had a mortgage. As I live fairly frugally, I've had few loans. Which situation is aided by the fact that I tend to buy old cars and drive them into the ground, which usually takes 5 - 7 years ... which enables me to buy them for cash (having added a bit to emergency funds from time to time, and drawing on it to make those smallish purchases). When I have substantial debt and must pay quite a lot of interest every month, it seems to me that, since much of our debt is usually non-deductible, if I have to pay $100. monthly in interest, and make $10.00 per hour, after-tax income ... that means that I work 10 hours/month for someone else, the holder of my loan(s). I'd rather wait until I can afford to pay cash ... and pay myself, instead. Learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... that pays well ... and I hope that you're developing increasing shrewdness at managiong your income and assets effectively: to benefit you rather than the other guys (with the exception of worthy charities). Hope you're part way into a happy weekend. One nice thing about retirement is ... that every day is weekend. A nice benefit of learning skillful management of money may well be/quite likely will be ... early retirement (at your choice, not because your company downsizes when you're about 50 ... leaving you out in the cold). ole joyful P.S. I could qualify, as I've had a Line of Credit, usually unused, for about 10 years, and have had a credit (actually "debt") card for several years, which I use infrequently. I recently took on another, which offered 1.9% on transferred balances for most of this year, figuring that I'd buy some stock using the original card, then transfer the balance, as the bank, which had usually charged me bank prime on my loans (fully secured), they recently said that prime was 3.5% ... but they needed a 1.5% surcharge, to total 5%. Now, however, they say that the interest on my Line of Credit will be 2.25% ... so I'll take that, instead of jockeying on credit cards - not a good idea to shift from one horse to another while crossing a stream, I figure. Most cards charge full rate (often 18% on mainline cards: 28% or so on store-issued cards) from the date of the advance until it is paid in full, and I'd not be sure how long it would take to transfer to the second card. o j

I actually did this. I had about 6k in credit card debt, store charges with 22.9%+ interest rates. I decided to pay those off with my student loan refunds. I calcuated that I would save more than $1,500 a year in interest, plus I have about an extra $300 a month- which now goes to student loans. However, I have close to 85k in student loan debt. I got my BS- International Affairs and Psychology and MA- Teaching and Technology back to back. So I had no time to pay down my student loans. Here is a simple way to cut cost of internet and cable. Call and cancel your service and cite some other company can give you a better deal if you start up with them. They won't want to lose your business. I was paying 150 a month for basic cable and high speed internet (need that for work), but after I got it down to 50 a month for the next six months. Here is a link that might be useful: Article on How to Save