Hi Newbie with some questions on TU and general advice for my situation

[KnewBee]

Hello! Been lurking here for over an hour a day for the past 3 weeks. very confused on Transunion. In 3 weeks have bumped my EQ score from 614 to 624. Bumped my Ex Plus FAKO score 5 points to 568. Today just checked my transunion here and it fell in 3 weeks from  526 to 519. Trying to figure out why it is so low compared to the others. All the information is about the same on all 3 reports. Just to give some background, Had a ton of large chargeoffs, collections, foreclosure 3 to 5 years ago. Since then reestablished 3 secured cards, 1 unsecured all low limits, all about 3 years perfect payment history. Have 10 year long student loans with perfect payment hIstory I am still paying on. The issue I'm having now is although I have my finances very much in order currently, great job with high income, paid off car, no baddies less than 3 years old, plenty of savings etc., but my reports look so bad with all the old collections, etc. having trouble even renting a decent apartment! Some places refuse me even if I offer to pay the lease in full upfront for 6 months! Trying to get this all cleaned up so I don't have issues living where I want. Don't even really want to mess with credit anymore other than for living arrangements, want to be cash basis so I don't repeat my past mistakes and keep my low limit secured cards just to build scores for future mortgages, hotels, rental cars, etc. Most of my old debt is unpaid and currently outside of SOL but around 40k so it scares people that look at my report which is understandable. Wondering if anyone knows why transunion would be so much lower than EQ with about the same info?  Wonder why EQ score on here is so much better than the other 2? What steps would people recommend to try to get all my scores in the 600s ASAP and make the reports look better for apartments, future mortgage (only future credit I really want) etc. 

Thanks for reading my long post and any advice is appreciated!

[jamie123]

Welcome to the forum!

Well....Just what is your definition of "a ton of charge offs"?

When is the DOFD (Date of First Deliquency) for your forclosure?

To have good credit scores you MUST use your credit cards gently each month and pay them in full without carrying a balance month to month. If you just put your credit cards in your sock drawer and don't use them you will not build good credit scores. High FICO scores are acheived by demonstrating the ability to manage credit wisely.

[KnewBee]

Thank you for the response Jamie! Ton of Charge offs, had about 10 for around $40,000 to $50,000 In 2008. DOFD on the mortgage was 3/2008 but the bank did not finalize the foreclosure until 12/2009 which was actually when they Foreclosed. Understand about using the credit to rebuild. Am regularly using and paying my 4 cards with small limits. ($200-$500). I meant, just had no desire to get several large limit cards like I had in the past and blow it. Want to only use large credit in the future for a home purchase when I am able to qualify again, which may be some time. In the meantime, trying to see my best course of actions, with all these large charge offs and collections, that are about 5 years old now. The reports look terrible with these charge offs and collections, but they are older and mostly outside of SOL, have had no new bad activity in over 3 years. Not sure of my best course of action. 

[jamie123]

Well, you really only have 2 directions to choose from.

1. Let everything age off and make sure you stay clean from here on out. Your forclosure will age off 7.5 years after DOFD so that would be 9/2015. Same thing goes for the credit card charge offs. They will probably age off in 2015.

2. Spend a lot of time and money doing PFDs and GWs. Your scores really won't start heading north until you only have about 3 baddies left on your reports. That could be a while and a lot of money later.

Another couple of suggestions and thoughts:

You might want to consider locking your credit reports. Your charge offs represent some serious money and I can't beleive you haven't been sued yet. Collection agencies will soft pull reports that have charge offs to decide if they might want to purchase your debts from your lender. Locking your accounts might stop them from doing this.

Save some money in case you do get sued. Make sure you stop that process as soon as you can if it should happen. Money seems to make these things go away quietly.

You scores won't rise much until you only have maybe 3 or 4 baddies remaining on your reports. Keep up the good credit behavior with your credit cards so once the baddies age off your scores should rocket into the 700s.

[KnewBee]

Thanks, that is good advice. Those were the two general thoughts I had but wasn't sure if my thinking was correct and I appreciate the second perspective.  The unfortunate thing is now that my situation is much improved, I really wouldn't mind trying to settle some of these larger things and pay off some of the smaller ones. I do feel bad about it and obligated from a moral standpoint. From a pure business standpoint it makes no sense. I have already taken the credit hit and suffered the consequences and after almost 5 years only have about 2 years left before they come off. Also the time trying to settle or pay these (not even to mention the money) would be extreme. Wish creditors made it easier to align the moral standpoint with the business / practical standpoint. 

I was a little surprised I didn't get sued either and SOL 4 years here, just recently ran out. Have a ton of creditor,attorney, and collection agency soft pulls and hard pulls on my reports. I think one reason they didn't sue is since I had so much debt and negs on the reports maybe figured I was a dry well. Also, and I didn't plan this, but I work out of home and always used a UPS Store postal box as my mailing address since my job frequently ships me expensive items that I am not always home to get right away. When I foreclosed I moved into a friends home and rented from him. Kept the UPS store as my mailing address, all utility bills etc. not under my name. I might have been too hard to find to sue, although again that was unplanned. 

Thanks again for your response, I am vowing to managing my credit responsibly from here on out and generally not buy things I can't afford to pay cash for. 

[Shogun]

Even though they may fall off your CRs, the debt will still exist.  You might want to try to pay some of these, PFDs would be great.  Not to say I'd pay the whole amount for it, the CAs didn't.  But maybe offer 20% or so to get rid of it.  Just remember to never acknowledge that it is your debt and never make an offer to make payments to bring it back to current.  Good Luck!

[KnewBee]

Thanks Shogun! I almost forgot about my original question. On here myfico TU is currently 519. My EQ on here is currently 624. When I compared the info on the reports line by line it is roughly the same. I read the posts about scores and formulas being different by bureau  just wondering if such a large difference is normal? Where I live you can rent many decent apartments for 600 or better, but 519 is untouchable unless you want to get knifed right outside your door. 624 is almost back to the land of the living and 519 is still 6 feet under. Is this just how it is bureau to bureau or is such a large difference with the same information fairly common?

Thanks again

[Shogun]

Well let's get this cleaned up so you don't get knifed!!!   There are different scoring models for the different models.  But, question is, where did you get those scores?  Are they FICOS or FAKOS?  This can be a big difference.  Next thing is, we're not going to worry about scores for a bit, let's just clean up your report, the scores will reflect on what we can clean up.

[KnewBee]

Thanks. I like the idea of cleaning it up and not worrying about the scores so much right now. TU and EQ are both Ficos that I ordered right here on this site yesterday. Looking at it again I may have found the problem. Although all the TL information is similar TU in the score simulator is saying I'm behind on payments right now. EQ is saying I'm current on  payments right  now. Depends on the definition of current. My reestablished secured cards are all current for the last 3 years. All my old collections and JDB accounts from 4 years ago are deliquent. im guessing EQ considers the old stuff not currently deliquent and TU considers the old stuff currently deliquent.  

So that my head doesn't start spinning ill take your advice and not worry about it for now until I start cleaning stuff up.  Thanks again