@Peter1142 wrote:
Never listen to generic improve your credit advise... it's always a crapshoot.
I lowered my debt from about 60% Util to 20% Util a few months ago and nothing happened. Then, 30 days after a mortgage inquiry, it "kicks in" and the score wound up even lower!
FICO scoring makes it unappealing to pay a collection. It makes no sense and they should fix this. The date of payment should only help and never hurt your score.
I have a recently paid collection which is pretty old and will fall off next year but isn't listed as a recent factor. I think what happened in my case is what is supposed to happen, My factors even list that as an oddly good factor "The public record and/or collection on your credit report happened a long time ago." It being paid recently did NOT lower my score AND it looked really good in underwriting since it was already paid and I have no delinquent debts. This is 100% how it's supposed to be. The collection damage is done. My mid is around 690's now and I used to be 620's.
The other measures I took to raise my score was lower my util and only had one card reporting a balance which was in the 3% range of it's own credit limit. (Overall util reports as 1%) I also did the email thing with higher ups to a few companies and got a couple of bad accounts removed.
About the collection, however, I never paid this collection. As apparently it's tied to a medical bill I paid. The rinky dink collection agency has their thumb up their butts and still cannot provide me a shred of proof that my medical bill has anything to do with their account. Since it's so old AND I'm focused on the house finishing build next month, I'm just going to let them think they won for a couple months then after closing they're getting put in the hot water boiling pot that they need to be in.
If the closed 6000/7000 card is a chargeoff that some money was paid off on, but not the whole thing and hadn't updated in quite a while, then a payment could have triggered an update with a new C/O reporting for a more current date. This will 100% lower the score since FICO sees it as a recent late. (I'm just speculating as I have no information as to the nature of the account reporting)
Starting Score: 675
