Old Closed Accounts

[Anonymous]

I have 2 old credit cards on my account that have been closed, but show in good standing.  One is from 1997 with Mervyns and the other is from 1998 from Best Buy.  I got the Mervyns card from some work pants, paid the balance, and never touched it again.  It has been closed, and I don't think there are any Mervyns left.  I got the Best Buy card back in 1999 when I worked there.  I actually never paid the balance on this card, but it always shows under my positive accounts.  Would it be wise to have these removed?  MyFICO does not consider these accounts on my credit age and I am not sure if they are actuall helping or hurting me since they are closed accounts.  The details of the accounts are below. (they are only reported on my Experian report and Experian is my highest score).

Mervyns	Experian
Date Opened	May-98
Account Number	#######
Account Status	Account/paid satisfactory
Ownership	individual
monthly Payment
Balance Amount
Balance Date	10/23/2008
High Balance	$40.00
Comment	Closed
Best Buy	Experian
Date Opened	Sep-99
Account Number	#######
Account Status	Credit line closed/reason unknown or by consumer request/there may be balance due
Ownership	Individual
monthly Payment
Balance Amount	0
Balance Date	9/30/2002
High Balance	1195
Comment	Closed - Account Closed at Credit Grantor's Request

Right now I have one credit card with a limit of $600 and a balance of $3 (never missed a payment), a car loan (never missed a payment) and a student loan (missed payment last July when the account was sold to a different lender and I did not get a notice till it was too late).  I just got done paying off my most recent collections and only have one left that will fall off in March 2012.  Would it be wise to open a secured CC to add another positive tradeline?  I am tryingto bring my scroes up to 640+

These scores do not include the two collections I did a PFD today on (got letter of removal and everything).  They should be removed and reporting by the end of June.

Experian - FICO 635 - FAKO (chase Ientity Protection) 629

Equifax - FICO 589 - FAKO (chase Ientity Protection) 583

Transunion - FICO 605 - FAKO (chase Ientity Protection) 643

If anyone else has any sugestions for way to get my score up I would be all ears. (I have tried to remove the lates from my student loan but they will not budge and are ignoring me now)

[guiness56]

Those closed accounts are definitely helping your score.  They are in good standing.

Closed accounts in good standing report for up to 10 years and help your AAoA.

Getting another CC could probably help out.

Have you asked the CA if they would remove the paid collection?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 Would it be wise to have these removed?  MyFICO does not consider these accounts on my credit age and I am not sure if they are actuall helping or hurting me since they are closed accounts. 

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You betcha that FICO factors these into your account history if reporting! Removing them would mean loosing a 13 + 12 year credit history. I bet if removed, your FICO score would drop considerably if your AAoA is under 12-13 years and/or if one of these are your oldest reporting TLs (revolving or overall).

Why do you want to hit 640? Mortgage? If so, how soon? If inside of a year, then I wouldn't recommend applying for anything else. If beyond a year, then I think it'll be OK. BTW, you can hit into the high 700s with what you have now, minus any baddies.

You mentioned you paid off on some collections. Are those still reporting?

ETA....SLOW TYPER DISORDER STRIKES AGAIN.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice on the older accounts.  That is what I thought, but I think I have been getting some bad advice from a "Credit Repair" person my realator suggested.  That is like the 4 th bad or incorrect thing she has said.

llecs - I am looking to an FHA home loan, and I thought I would be ready for it this month, but I missed the mark by about 25 points on my middle score.  Yeasterday I paid my two most recent collections (PFD with signed letter) and they will be off my report by the end of next month, leaving me with no collections on 2 of my reports and 2 that are lingering on my Transunion.  I am hoping to get 30-40 points in the next 4-6 months.  Not only are my collections getting removed, but I got a 30-day late removed.  I have a revolving account (no lates $3 balance) a car loan (no lates) and a student loan (ugggg).  I was always good on my student loan till it was sold to ACS last July.  This was the same month I moved for work and did not get the peperwork of the loan exchange.  I missed a payment in July and paid in full in August, but ACS will not remove the lates, and they tagged me with 2 60 Day lates.  If understand it correctly a year after the lates report they should count less to my total score.  I have tried everything with ACS even emailing the CEO, but all my emails and letters are ignored now and I was told to stop contacting them about the matter.  The problem with my credit report is there is not a lot to work with and the tradelines I do have are all in good standing.  It is a mystery as to why my scores are as low as they are.

MyFico Scores
TransUnion
631     3/5/2011
618     2/8/2011
562     1/17/2011
Equifax
573     3/5/2011
526     1/17/2011

Lender Pulls
Tansunion
605    5/6/2011 <- middle
613    3/9/2011 <- middle
Equifax
589    5/6/2011
573    3/9/2011
Experian
635    5/6/2011
637    3/9/2011

[llecs]

Keep trying on the GW, though I'd avoid the folks at the top. If I didn't receive a restraining order to stop GWing, then I haven't sent enough GWs (halfway joking of course).

Definitely avoid the advice of that person. Early in my repair journey, someone told me to dispute everything and that it would be better to start with a clean report. All the good stuff was removed and all the bad stuff stayed. If I could meet that person in a dark alley....

If you are going back to the same lender, know that this lender is probalby using a TU04 FICO score vs. the TU98 used on here. You pulled on 3/5 and your lender pulled 3/9 w/ an 18 point disconnect. Assuming nothing happened in those 4 days, you'd have to eyeball and inflate your TU FICO to reach a goal of 20 points higher than the target you set for yourself now to account for that score difference.

[Anonymous]

I agree with what you areI used two different ones, but the scores I got were close ebough to make me think they used the same formula.  I did find that the scores here on myFICO arne't any better than FAKO scores, so I have signed up with ChaseIdentityProtections and I get to pull my report once a month and they offer FAKO scroes, all for $11 a month.  The scores I get are just as inaccurate as myFICO, but it gives me an idea if the score goes up or down month to month and based on what repair I have done.

I am avoiding any further communication from the so called Credit Repair.  I am going to call the CRAs this afternoon to try and get the word dispute removed from some tradelines that have been verified, and I need to dispute 2 tradelines I was able to get removed from 2 of the 3 CRAs.  If I have any luck all 3 of my reports will be pretty much the same as far as positive tradelines.  The only difference will be with the collections.  2 of my reports will have 0 and my transunion will have 2 (they are not on the other reports for some reason).  Since I only need a middle score I am hoping I can get the other 2 scores up to provide a higher middle score and not worry about what is on the Transunion report.

[guiness56]

myFICO scores are not inaccurate.  They are true FICO scores, maybe a different version than the lender is using but, true FICO none the less.

If your FAKO score goes up, it does not mean your FICO will follow.  There is no correlation between the two scores.

[Anonymous]

I realize that, but for my purposes myFICO and the FAKO scores help me one in the same.  They are both different than what lenders pull for a home mortgage.  I know there is no corralation between any of the scores, but they are the only things I have access to without getting an inquery on my report.