Dogslurp

You said "All my credit cards and bills are paid in full. I owe NOTHING to anyone. No inquiries etc." That's your problem. Credit scores are indicative of your ability and WILLINGNESS to pay creditors. If you have not creditors then they can't rate you. The further it gets from the time you have had open credit the lower your score will go.

The credit bureaus only report what is given to them. This means you need to go to the horses mouth to get the lates removed. The credit bureau only reports data, they don't make it up or alter it.

Not sure exactly, but we had a customer recently who had a 30 day late in the last 30 days and it lowered his scores by 80 points. I've been told a 30 day late in the last 30 days can drop your score as much as 100 points. The longer it's been since the late the less impact it has on your score.

A good credit score is not the only criteria for loan approval. You can have a good credit score but still have negative information on the bureau. If you have good credit on everything but credit card history or don't have a verifiable income then you might not get a card. Living in an house vs. apt also increases your odds of loan approval.

Report this to the attorney general of your state. I've found that collection companies use reports as advertising. When a creditor keeps seeing collection accounts from XYZ collection company and they have collection needs they call the company's name they see on the report as they think they must be active in the market.

Statute of limitations is 7 years nationally. Therefore those remarks should come off. What I've found is that usually those types of things are mistakes on the creditor's computer so a phone call to them will quickly get them removed.

Your credit score depends upon the intended usage. Which simply means that a generic credit score will differ than a score for the purpose of buying a car which will vary from the score for buying a home. Lenders use the middle of 3 scores for determining qualifying, underwriting and interest rates.

Your credit HISTORY is reported not just your current accounts. The house payment is a valid part of your HISTORY

Need more info. What's on your credit report? No or minimal credit is ONE thing that keeps your score low.

Your credit cards probably reduced your credit limits. Available credit is one of the things that determines your credit score. Also have you recently closed some cards and only have 1-2 cards? It takes more than 1-2 pieces of open credit to maintain a high credit score. New credit usually takes 6-8 months before you'll get full positive impact.

Yes, you can. USDA, VA, and FHA will give you a loan with scores at 620 and sometimes even lower. Technically Conventional will also give you a loan with your 686 credit score but mortgage insurance won't so you'd need to be putting 20% down or getting a 2nd lien for any amount above 80%

Keep in mind a short sale is still a foreclosure and lenders will be extremely leery of giving you a new mortgage.