With itemized deductions the IRS starts accepting them Feb. 14th. 8 to 15 day wait for your dough. As for credit, from somebody that has been credit challenged, by Colorado law you get 1 free credit report by each company (Transunion, Equifax, TRW) per year. You can request it on their sites. If you want to see it now it will cost you a little bit, but it is free if you can wait for snail mail. If you are truly credit challenged and are trying to get a home try a broker that works with CHFA. Sometimes they will work with you to fix your credit. With us they rolled all our outstanding debit into the mortgage (medical related) as a condition of the loan. It was called a hardship loan and we needed to prove our hardship and what got us to that point. We had to go through budgeting classes and work with a debit counselor, but it was better than a foreclosure. Our mortgage banker was Mandy Roderick and she saved our lives. She used to work for First Horizon but has moved from them now. If I can find her latest Xmas card I will post for you where she works now.