Auto Title Loan - my story of reaching rock bottom...

[Anonymous]

At the height of my financial irresponsiblity I took out a title loan on a 11 year old vehicle.  If I rememeber correctly I needed the cash to pay for a trip to visit family.  I really don't know what I was thinking.  It's really pathetic that with my income at the time that was the best way for me to come up with the money.  Move forward 8 or 9 months, I have a couple 30 day lates.  Then one morning I was about 42 days late, I go out to leave for work and my SUV is gone.  Repoed for being 42 days late.....  Anyways, I bring the loan current the next week.  On my CR my payment history is showing as RPO x 2 months on one and no payment x 2 months on the other (luckily they stopped reporting to EQ the TL was deleted at my request).  The comments also say that it is a redeemed repo.  It's now been 18 months and there have been no late payments.   How much is the redeemed repo comment hurting my score at this point?

[Jamex]

Hey there -

Unfortunately, the answer is that it's still hurting you pretty badly. Anything beyond a 60-day late (90, 120, CO/RPO/CA etc) will hurt you to some extent for the full 7 years of reporting. In my case my auto repo was noted as a CO rather than as an RPO, and I noticed that it finally started hurting a little less once it hit the 4 year mark. (And now that my credit's improved tremendously, they're taking one last shot at me and have started reporting it fresh each month, which is hurting a lot more).

So, I'd say you can expect it to keep some downward pressure for the full 7 years, and you might notice a bit of improvement at 4/5/6 years.

If you've kept it in good standing since redeeming the repo, you might try sending monthly GW letters to see if they'd be willing to remove the RPO notation and help you bounce back faster.

[gdale6]

A redeemed repo is the equivalent of a paid CO. If its updating monthly its keeping your FIco depressed.