Credit score dropped?

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have been reading the boards for a while now and trying to figure a few things out on my own..

I think I need a little help understanding whats going on..

I ran my Fico score on Jan 19th and my score was 617, I really wanted to get over the 620 hump to see if I could qualify for a lower interest rate on my car loan. So I paid off a small balance I had on a Target card. And some inquiries fell off my credit report. Also, I made some bigger payments on a Visa I have in hopes of gaining a few extra points. Well, to my dismay, my score went DOWN!

A little background, I have had my car loan since 1/11, financed through Chase 15.99%... *cringe* All payments made on time.

I have a BofA visa, credit limit is $5200, its sitting at about $4700 now. Never been late, its about 7 years old.

Target $0 Balance - No late payments

I have two bad accounts, one is Best Buy and one is a Dell, each about $1800. Its odd though, Best Buy shows up twice, one has a zero balance and the other has a balance of $1800. Now the Dell is showing as a $0 balance. It showed a balance in January. I think both of the dates of last delinquency are around 7/2009.

I have one collection from Comcast, its for $600. I have a balance of $111 that is the actual bill and the rest is for unreturned equipment. I went through a bad break up and the ex decided he needed the HD DVR. I actually just got it back from him last week (finally) but the delinquency is about 2 years old. Do you think they would take that portion of the balance off if I returned it and agreed to pay the $111? Would I take this up with Comcast or the Collection Agency?

To my knowledge, nothing negative was changed on my credit report, Not sure why I had the drop!

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help!

PS Hopefully I posted this in the right section.

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome to the forums!  How much did your score go down?

As for the Comcast equipment, I have read about people returning that much later, so I would definitely contact Comcast about it as quickly as possible.  When you do, I would ask them if they still own the debt, or if they sold it to the CA, in addition to seeing if they will take the equipment back.  Definitely give them a sob story about how your ex took it and you couldn't get it back until now.  If they still own the debt, see if they might pull it back from the CA in exchange for you paying it.

As for your score, the best thing you can do to get it up is pay down your CC.  Your BoA card is almost maxed out and that is killing your score.  If you can get that down below 30%, you should see a very nice score increase.  Ideally, get it down between 1-9% for the best score possible, but obviously that is a lot of money and may take you time.  However, it is probably the best thing you can do for your score right now, short of getting rid of the collection accounts via GW or PFD.

[atarvuzdar]

The score you checked that went down--was it a FICO score from this website, or from another site? If it was from another place then chances are it is not your real score.

Is the Dell account closed? Did it previously show a credit limit along with the balance due? If so, it was probably being factored into your utilization at that point and now that it is $0 it is no longer factored into your utilization. Your BoA card's utilization is REALLY high, so if the Dell account was formerly being factored into your utilization but is not anymore then that could explain the drop.

Consider calling Best Buy to explain that they're reporting twice on your report--if you are paying or plan on paying them back for any money owed.

If you plan on trying to work with Comcast to pay off what is owed then I don't think it would hurt to return the equipment. I had the same situation (minus the bad break-up) with TimeWarner and they allowed the return of the equipment and removed that portion from my balance. I contacted TimeWarner directly when.

Good luck!