Can Someone Explain this to me?

[alleycat1975]

From Scorewatch's credit summary:

Open Accounts	Total Number	Balance	Available	Credit Limit	Debt to Credit Ratio	Monthly Payment Amount	Accounts with a Balance
Mortgage	0	$0	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0	0
Installment	4	$17,319	N/A	$19,597	88%	$389	4
Revolving	1	$4,432	$421	$4,853	91%	$75	1
Other	0	$0	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0	0
Total	5	$21,751	$421	$24,450	89%	$464	5

Available credit does not include accounts without a credit limit, such as mortgage or installment accounts.

Credit Limit includes the high balance for accounts without a credit limit, such as mortgage or installment account.

Monthly Payment Amount includes the amount owed per month on all accounts due on a monthly basis.

A few questions..

Does this chart only represent "open" accounts?

If not,  where does your average collection fall in this list?  Revolving or Installment since evidently thats all I have balances in?

Of the "Installment Accounts"  one of them is a secured loan that i can actually close out at any time, one is a small $1000 loan and the rest i can assume is my student loan..  

And the 1 revolving account is this stupid vacation network thingy i joined with a friend. 

Do these ratios look like they are going to hurt more than help?  Should i close out the 2 loans to get $6K off of that balance and only leave the student loan?  or am I just freaking out at this graph for no reason lol..

Thanks   April

[guiness56]

Your utilization is broken into 2 parts, revolving, which is 35% of your score and installment which is 10%.

This particular summary is only listing open accounts.  Keep in mind that any OC account that is a collection or CO with the OC, with a balance, counts against your utilization.

There are individual utilization and overall utilization.  Your overall revolving is 91% (according to this chart) which is hurting your score.  It should be much lower.

Collections should show up under collections and should not count in your utilization.  They are not always listed like that however.

[alleycat1975]

Thank you for that info.  I guess one last question:   A mortgage person I've been working with told me to, once i get what i can paid off and removed,  open 2 secured Credit card accounts and keep very low utilization on them (she said 500 each card using no more than $250 each and paying off each month)..    Should i proceed on this type of thing or work on getting this Revolving use paid down?   Its only 1 account--this stupid Global Vacation network thing the I am joint with a friend on.   Once I get all of my collection accounts paid for (looks like by the end of October) I can dedicate those funds to pay that down. 

Otherwise the Installment accounts aren't hurting too bad then too right?

Thanks again.  April

[Anonymous]

It's a good idea to know the date of reporting to really play the utilization game.  Without knowing that it's possible to get stuck with a high balance irregardless of whether u paid it off or not.  For instance that 250 is 50% and that hardly counts as good utilization you wouldn't want to have that balance when they report your monthly balance.  You can ask a CSR of the company and check your reports to see when they actually reported.  This way even if you charge 250 or greater you know by what time you have to pay it down.

Oh yeah and don't revolve balances ccc's make enuf money off a merchant fees to pay more than you have to to use their plastic.

SInce your still not paid off yet on the collections you should entertain the idea of Paying for a delete.  See what happens chances may not be great since you started paying them down already but if there is enuf money left it's really worth taking a shot.

[guiness56]

First repair then rebuild.  Since your revolving is so high now, your lender is trying to make your available credit higher so the utilization will come down. 

Right now I would concentrate on getting what you have paid down.  Once it starts to lower your score will go up.

And work on getting the collections paid and deleted. 

[alleycat1975]

Thanks.. 

The game plan from the lender was this..  PFD or pay off even if i couldn't get deleted everything that I have on my report by the end of December.  They were then going to check my scores.  Then she said to get those 2 secured CC's and then with luck by the end of 2011 I would be ready to start house shopping. 

The Revolving item is just 1 item,  that stupid Global Vacation Network that i'm in with a friend on.   I can over the course of 2011 just pay that sucker off using the amount of money I'm alreay putting out to pay off whats there.  It would only take about 6 months.  i'll probably be writing a ton of GW letters to those that don't delete mean while just for giggles.

Thanks!

[guiness56]

Paying a collection will help you get a loan but it will not help your score.  They are scored the same as an unpaid one,  Work on a PFD.  Who is the CA?

[alleycat1975]

Well, I have Unique, who is collecting for library fines that will delete after a year once paid and since i'm doing this over a years span thats ok with me..    IC Systems i have listed 2x but i'm going to email them once paid -like a lot of folks have here rather than PFD because that seems to be what gets the results.   A compnay called EOS CCA (Collection company of america) collecting for an SBC bill, i just put a DV letter out to last week.  A place called Financial Assistance out of Washington denied my PFD.  American Credit and collections agreed to delete once i paid in full which just happened last week, and there is an American Collection Systems that agreed to delete. I also have PFD's to a check cashing place (Buckeye Lending) and haven't heard back from them, and Certegy is the same way PFD and nothing..  sadly enough theres a bunch of accounts here but the balances are stupid low..    I was just stupid lol.

Basically the only Collections that i can't seem to get rid of that i paid off in 2008 are Verizon Wireless, UCB (just sent another GW to their CEO they have 2 accounts) and Hamilton Accounts Services.    They are all paid but won't delete.

And the CC companies I have settlement agreements with that I've also PFD but they won't agree:  Jefferson, First Premier, Contiental Finance, and HSBC was already settled via LVNV and reported as such.

Thats about the jist of it.

My good accounts are the student loan, my secured savings builder loan with cl of 5K  (i can close at any time since its a secured loan but i wanted the good marks)   and another small loan for 1000 that will be paid in about 10 months.    I recently closed and paid off a car loan..   so.. there are SOME good items there. 

Thanks

[guiness56]

I know that Verizon can be a PITB to get rid of.  I have been reading numerous threads where the poster got a GW delete. 

You can try PlanetFeedBack.  I have seen that work for some, not for others.  It won't hurt to try.

[alleycat1975]

eh i did planet feedback.  They came back with the "if there is no error we can't delete it"    and it's been paid already.   Honestly, of the mess I posted below that is still listed, I've had an additional 12 or so accounts already deleted just by doing DV's, some being duplicates for 1 account, and a couple just didn't respond.  One-- Credit Protection, that I hadn't messed with yet until last month and sent them PFD and they called me and said the OC recalled and closed the debt..  So they just deleted it.  The debt wasn't sold either.   It was another stupid small amount ($88)   but still..  that was kind of a neat thing to happen.