sears

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info! Could you elaborate on "clean reports"? I am relatively new to this. A year ago my Fico score was 520. I read the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and have been following the advice. My score is now 699. I have an HSBC Orchard Bank card, MANY student loans (over 80K, but I pay them regularly), and a small car loan through my credit union. There are some very old things on my credit report, like from when I was a teenager (I'm 32 now). I don't understand why they are still there, but they are. Does that mean my report isn't 'clean' enough to qualify?

Thank you very much! I really appreciate all the help!

[haulingthescoreup]

If you have negative factors reporting from 15 or so years ago, something sounds wrong.

What exactly is still showing?

Ideally, anything past reporting age should be ignored, but these in-store apps are processed by computer (thus the immediate response), and so they might cause a problem.

The SL's and car loans shouldn't be a problem, especially as they show a trend of responsible credit usage. If you have big balances on the SL's, that might hold down the initial CL on the credit card, but it shouldn't keep you from getting the Citi version.

[Anonymous]

There is a gas utility bill on there and a store charge card (Pennney's), both from before I was 20. Is there anything I can do about it? I believe they are 'write-offs', as in I never paid them.

[haulingthescoreup]

These should have stopped reporting 7 - 71/2 years after you first went delinquent.

Check out this thread: Credit Reporting Time Periods.

It's OK if the accounts themselves still report, but the negatives should be gone, if over 7.5 years.

Are you able to copy/ paste what shows on your reports? You can use Photobucket or a similar site. Just be sure to white out the names, account numbers and other personal ID.

I'm not terribly surprised that a utility negative would still be reporting, but I am a bit surprised about the Penney's CO.

[Anonymous]

How can you tell the difference between 'still reporting' and 'negatives'?

[haulingthescoreup]

If the account is just showing up, as in JCPenney, opened 1993, closed 2001, that's fine. In fact, that's great, because it's showing length of credit history, and that helps you.

But if it shows that there are any negatives on there (late payments, the charge-off, etc), and they occurred before 2002, the negatives themselves are past the reporting date and should no longer be reporting.

Ideally, accounts with negatives will stop reporting the negatives after 7 years (or whatever date applies), while the account itself continues to report, now clean, for 10 years after closing.

Be sure to check out that link I posted. You might also want to read these, if you haven't already: Understanding Your FICO ® Score and Credit Scoring 101 (at least the first post.) These will give you the background knowledge you need to understand what you read here on the forums, because the world of consumer credit is horribly confusing when you first wade in.

The pdf file (the first link in the paragraph above) can be printed out, and you can scribble away on it as you pick up tidbits here.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the good info! I am checking it out. 

I am looking at my report and it says, for the utility bill, opened 6/94 (I was 17), current status: bad debt/ collection, past due amount $408. Curiously, it says 'date of last activity' 12/06. This account was only open for a year. I haven't even lived in the county this company serves in 12 years. Is there anything I can do about this?

The Penney's account I mentioned is gone, I didn't even notice in this most recent report that it vanished.

I have one account 120+ past due from 6/06.

I have one account from 5/03 with a balance of $9 listed as 'bad debt/ collection'.

Are these things that will keep me from being  approved for the Sears card? As I said, if it looks like I won't be approved, I won't apply.