Please help me understand my credit report.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My fiance and I are looking to apply for usda mortgage loan but are waiting untill we know our scores are over 620.we plan to fix anything we can on our reports but we don't have very much knowledge about this and want to make sure we make the right desicions. For anyone interested My credit karma is 607 and my equifax from annualcreditreport is 601. Her creditkarma is 553 but her equifax from dcu is 625.

1.Whats the difference between collection accounts and negative accounts?

I ask this because my Fiance and I both pulled our credit report and She has two accounts that went into collection but they are both only listed under negative accounts. One was paid and one was just very recently paid so nothing was reflected on that account yet.

2. Does the current status matter?

On the collection account we paid a year ago, it says "Paid Collection" in the COMMENTS but current status is just blank, doesn't say anything. Will this affect her score? and the type of account says Open. The one we recently paid is also blank and says open but  Activity Description says closed.

3. What is better for her score? PFD? or getting the status changed to paid balance?

4. She has a Capital one card she hasn't used in over 3 years so it's had a 0 balance that whole time. If she starts to use this staying under 20% utilization , Would that be better for her score than not using it at all?

5.On my report I have one charge off from early 2013( literally couldn't make the last payment due to being laid off) that went to a collection agency that I paid but my credit report still says charge off account and status is charge off. I'm guessing this is killing my score, Should this have been updated to paid?

6. I have a closed credit card that status says pays as agreed but it is listed under negative items.comment says "Account closed by credit grantor" I do have ONE 30 day late reported in 2011. What is better for my score?

try to get that one 30 day late payment removed?(is this possible?) 

Get the whole account deleted?

Leave it alone?

7. Last one I promise

I have a verizon account that went to a collection agency. I paid, but we settled for a lower balance. In the comments it says" Account paid for less than full balance,Paid collection" Is this hurting my score versus it saying paid in full?

[MaryJane197]

You first need to get your true credit scores. Scores offered at credit karma and websites like that aren't real scores. Look up the difference on the board. Myfico sells the true scores.

The only way it will effect the score is if its deleted so PFD is a good option. Just having it show paid won't bring up your score, even tho it will look good upon a manual review.


Credit cards are the fastest way to bring up scores. If she has a credit card I would advise using it. You can have her add you as a authorized user. Depending in the card this will bring your score up as well. I would keep utilization 10% to 30% .

If I'm wrong someone will come along and correct me. I don't have answers for some of your questions. This is just what I've learnt in my rebuilding experience.

[MaryJane197]

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/What-is-a-FAKO-score/m-p/2051375/highligh...

[Anonymous]

I know the credit karma if a fako score but I'm guessing dcu and my score from annual credit report are pretty accurate. I'm just waiting for the right time to order all of our scores and reports. Thanks for the reply. Would still love answers to some of these questions

[BluePoodle]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi,

Any help would be greatly appreciated. My fiance and I are looking to apply for usda mortgage loan but are waiting untill we know our scores are over 620.we plan to fix anything we can on our reports but we don't have very much knowledge about this and want to make sure we make the right desicions. For anyone interested My credit karma is 607 and my equifax from annualcreditreport is 601. Her creditkarma is 553 but her equifax from dcu is 625.

1.Whats the difference between collection accounts and negative accounts?

I ask this because my Fiance and I both pulled our credit report and She has two accounts that went into collection but they are both only listed under negative accounts. One was paid and one was just very recently paid so nothing was reflected on that account yet.

2. Does the current status matter?

On the collection account we paid a year ago, it says "Paid Collection" in the COMMENTS but current status is just blank, doesn't say anything. Will this affect her score? and the type of account says Open. The one we recently paid is also blank and says open but  Activity Description says closed. This will effect negatively on scores because it is a collection. Open/unpaid collections are probably worse that paid/closed collections.  I would write goodwill letters requesting deletion from your CR.

3. What is better for her score? PFD? or getting the status changed to paid balance? PFD's are better on negative accounts.

4. She has a Capital one card she hasn't used in over 3 years so it's had a 0 balance that whole time. If she starts to use this staying under 20% utilization , Would that be better for her score than not using it at all? Begin using it. Pay it is full before statement cut date. It would be worth while to request a credit limit increase too. You will probably be denied to begin with, but once you have used it and paid it in full after a few months to a year you should get an increase.

5.On my report I have one charge off from early 2013( literally couldn't make the last payment due to being laid off) that went to a collection agency that I paid but my credit report still says charge off account and status is charge off. I'm guessing this is killing my score, Should this have been updated to paid? Charge offs I do not believe are listed as paid, I believe because you are not paying the full amount. I could be wrong though.

6. I have a closed credit card that status says pays as agreed but it is listed under negative items.comment says "Account closed by credit grantor" I do have ONE 30 day late reported in 2011. What is better for my score? Accounts closed by grantor are viewed negatively because assumably it is because you were delinquent on the account, went over your limit or whatever.  

try to get that one 30 day late payment removed?(is this possible?) Yes, it is possible. It may take many goodwill letters but it can be done.

Get the whole account deleted? Same as above, it can be done.

Leave it alone?

7. Last one I promise

I have a verizon account that went to a collection agency. I paid, but we settled for a lower balance. In the comments it says" Account paid for less than full balance,Paid collection" Is this hurting my score versus it saying paid in full? Yes, same as one of the others you mentioned above.

Basically, you need to start a goodwill letter campaign with these places and be patient. Removeal won't happen over night. You can search for GW letters here on this forum and look at the results of others who had accounts at the same business you are dealing with.

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