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Welcome to the forums!
I'd suggest reading the following:
Common Abbreviations
Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.
What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.
and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.
CreditXpert scores are accurate for CreditXpert scores. Challenge is that no lenders (that I know of) use them. Lenders predominately use FICO scores. In comparison to a FICO, your CreditXpert FAKO score could easily be higher or lower, even well into the double digits.
The services (we call them CMSs for credit monitoring services) you are using isn't that bad. I personally have subscribed to the same service through Wells Fargo, IIRC. However, I ignore the scores. I use the service to monitor my report content instead.
Unfortunately, there is no service anywhere that allows you to get all 3 FICO scores together, except from a lender. Experian blocked consumer access to your FICO score a couple of years ago so it is difficult to gain access to that FICO. The only place you can get your other two FICO scores together is myFICO.com.
Who is reporting the apartment fee? A CA? If so, ignore the open date. That's the date they took over collection and that date will not re-age the debt to make it report any longer than what it is now. The 7-yr clock starts at the DOFD of the debt. If you get your EQ report from EQ (and a couple of other places), you'll see the DOFD. If you pull your full reports from the CRAs (or from annualcreditreport.com), you will usually see a drop off date.
I'd be afraid to mess with a $7k debt too. I'd look up your state's SOL and see if SOL expired.
I can't speak for CreditXpert scoring since it is totally different than FICO, but I will also say the same that paying off COs or CAs won't help your FICO. You'd want those items deleted (usually).
Send DV letters to Credit Systems and EOS-CCA. If they verify and you agree, then mail PFDs. If they agree in writing to the terms of the PFD, then pay it and they'll delete.
@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you! At least wtih the CreditXpert scores I know approximately what a ballpark number my score is. If it's going up, its going up!
The apartment fee is a CA and the SOL is way over. From the open dates I see, they were opened December 2004 so I'm praying that from December-March sometime it'lll be off. Empasize on the praying1
I mailed PFD letters to Credit Systems and EOS-CCA because I already knew about the debts and know exactly what they're for and the amounts so I skipped the DV. Credit Systems replied back saying somethign along the lines of "This does not solve the issue, please pay via phone, online or mail for the amount, by law we have to inform you that a negative on your report yada yada yada" but the letter said nothing about deleting it? What should I do after this? No reply from EOS-CCA yet, I mailed the PFD letter on August 1st.
I have used CreditExpert.com for a long time because it is from EX and they update quickly. However, the score is very misleading. I would agree that IN GENERAL your Plus Score and FICO move in the same direction but I suggest you don't make much more assumption than that. My Plus Score has moved up 73 points while my FICO moved down 7, then up 3. Currently EX Plus 767 with my EQ FICO at 701. The only differences in the info on the two reports is that EX shows 27 accounts vs. EQ 25 accounts with two closed 10 year accounts still hanging on EX.
I'm assuming you just pulled both FICO scores from myFICO.
The EQ FICO should match exactly what a mortgage app would get you as that version (EQ FICO Beacon 5.0) is ubiquitous in the mortgage industry. You called it EF in your post.
The TU FICO will match some mortgage apps. More of them are using a newer version that isn't available anywhere at this point AFAIK. The score you pulled helps, but not as much as if you could get the TU Classic FICO '04 version.
What is most important at this point is figuring out if there is any info from one CRA that is wrong and if the three have similar information.
@Anonymous wrote:
I still have a lot to learn! Everything matches up and the three negatives I have were negatives I already knew about and am trying to work on.
Did the TU FICO match?
Don't assume your Fako score is a good estimate of anything. CreditKarma was off by 100 points for my husband, and that was LOWER than his actual scores were.