OK, so here is a story you won't likely read too many times. To make a long story as short as possible, in 2009 I went to an overstocked dealer to get a great deal on a leftover brand new 2008 ATV. I had the cash in my pocket for the purchase at the time. As we were negotiating the deal they brought up that the manufacturer had a 0% credit offer. My credit was superb so I thought why not try for the free financing and put a little new activity on my credit report as it had been a long time.
Well low and behold I was not approved for the 0% and told the reason was I no longer had enough credit reporting as much of my history had been paid off over 7 years. They offered me 7.9% unsecured though, so it must not have been that bad. I just paid cash and took it home.
Some time passes by and one day I get a letter in the mail from the manufacturer. I open it only to find it is an open account on this purchase with a payment due. I of course go batty and start making calls. Turns out the factory financing is HSBC backed and the dealer is going belly up. Dealer denies all activity and HSBC swears it is processed. So here I am stuck even though I have a clean bill of sale in my safe. So I turn to an attorney for advice. We look at it all and he advises that I would honestly be better off to just make the payments on the small loan as it will cost me more to file against both parties to figure out who is the crook, and that there was no guarantee of victory. I get a few more second opinions which are the same. So thinking my credit could use the activity I went ahead and started paying it, and indeed was benefiting from it, which I know for a fact because a credit monitoring service was tacked on as well and HSBC would not cancel.
All is fine and I am paying along for I don't know, a little over 2 years until the place I was working at the time folded up also. They try their best to avoid paying unemployment and meanwhile I can't find a job period. I end up going 4 months with zero income. That put me through my savings in a hurry. I started prioritizing and let a credit card payment go 28 days past due before paying, which they reported 30 days on (and later corrected). Well surprise surprise I get a statement from HSBC and they have tripled my interest and tripled my payment on the ATV although I have never paid them a DAY late.
I am broke and infuriated by just everything so I say F-U!!! And that is that. My unemployment starts coming in shortly after so I tell myself to try to negotiate but it is no use. So finally I go 30 days and say screw it period because things are too tight to pay that kind of payment and keep my other bills in check.
Soon they start threatening to repo the ATV and I start threatening with my paperwork myself. They send a repo guy out for it although I have my paperwork, and despite the fact it is an unsecured credit card. I meet the guy at my house with my paperwork who finds himself shocked and perplexed by the truth. He apologizes and says he will have a rep out which also comes and looks at the paperwork... and basically it all just goes away.
No biggie until all this time later I check my credit and find it and some other bogus stuff on it like a perfectly paid account that was paid off in 1997 showing up on my report as a zero balance charge off. So I start attacking one thing at a time and have the comical mistake removed only to find that actually HURT my score? What the heck?
So now, as easy as it would be to just dispute this crap from HSBC and get it off, I am afraid it will hurt me more?
Can someone offer some advice here?
Help me understand why that had a negative effect?
I only have a home loan down near paid off, a car loan 1 year old that is down to $12,000, a small personal loan paid down to $3,000 and about $1,800 on a credit card I have had 4-5 years. Do I have so little credit that removal of the bad is going to hurt me even more? -OR- did the old mistake from 97 only hurt because it had age and was $0 balance vs the limit?
I am unsure rather to try to fight this off my report or not. So I have been scared to react.
We were hoping to shop for a bigger house this spring 
Personally I would have negative information removed. The fact that a negative item is there automatically puts you in a lower score bucket especially if you have one or two. Once all negative items are gone then your maximum score possible increases because your file is placed into a bucket that allows it to climb all the way to the top. It is normal to be stuck in the high 600s with one or two negatives but once these are gone you start hitting high 700s and 800s depending on length of credit history and number of inquiries.
FICO 9: 
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
@Hoss_Delgado wrote:Hummm... did not know there were buckets. Glad I am here.
Any explaination why the removal of the accidental $0 charge off account closed in 1997 caused a drop?
Also, you said inquiries... which reminds me, I have some of those I did not authorize on all of my reports. One has 9 inquiries. I only did ONE almost a year ago. I went to the dealer with a figure and where to send the numbers for the financing. ONE. Now some of them are consistent with them trying to "shop it" anyways despite that as they are the same day. But some of them are at other times. So I have to dispute that as well. So I am wondering how correcting that from 9 to 1 will effect things and when the 1 will not count against me any longer as well.
That seems pretty easy to explain.. you lost that history without moving into a better bucket. For example my experian report had both a collection and a judgment as well as a 90 day late payment. I just KNEW that my score would jump with the removal of the judgment and the 90 day late payment. But to my knowledge my experian report is about the same... my mortgage gal in July told me that removing the judgment would only give me a 3 point increase.... not enough to bump me to 720... I didn't believe her but now I do... I'm still in the bad bucket because the collection is still reporting. The only way for me to get to the mid 750s is to break out of that bad bucket is to get that last negative item removed. Everyones experience is different... but the bucket thing is real!
FICO 9:
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
When you say "other times" are you talking about roughly within the same week? If not in the same week then this is.consistent with fraudulent activity associated with the ATV fiasco. My opinion is that you could likely have some inquiries removed but generally speaking inquiries stop hurting you after 1 year so there is no need to stress. You do need to scan your credit report (the one from the credit bureau; not the one from here) and look for any addresses that are not yours that you never lived at.
Start with pulling your FREE Credit Report's from annualcreditreport.com. They tend to have more info on them than ones from a 3rd party. The Credit Reports from annualcreditreport.com, come directly from each of the CRA's. You can pull 1 Free Credit Report from TU, EQ and EX every 12 months.
Save your money and Don't Buy the Scores, they are what we call FAKO's.
If you see address you don't recognize; include this with the police report and also contact the bureaus and place a fraud alert on your account so that a would be theif cannot continue to harm your credit reputation by taking out anymore loans in your name. If it was a finance guy then he likely still works in some type of finance role and you could still be at risk.
FICO 9:
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
