Scores stuck any advice?

[wildstang]

So I just had 5 CA's deleted from my report and no score change. What the heck? I also had a repo changed to "paid/never late" with a gw and got like 5 pts. It sucks that u make a mistake and they hammer you with like a 50 pt decrease but they never give it back. I am also waiting for my new secured USAA card to report since i have no open CC. My scores are stuck!! any advice?

[RobertEG]

Hi, wildstang.

Just a brief overview of FICO scoring.  Your first major derog, be it a 60/90 day late payment on the OC account, a charge-off, a collection, or a public record, drives you immediately into a higher scoring risk category.  Lots of points lost.  Any second or third major derog posted also has significant effect, but obtaining deletion of later major derogs wont recoup for you the points you lost as long as other major derogs still appear. 

So, deleltion of old CAs is good, but the important question is what other derogs remain?

Advice for improvement requries posting of a summary of all derogs reported in your CR.

If you say that you have no current revolving lines of credit reporting (i.e., credit cards), that will drastically affect your scoring in the category of evaluating your current usage of revolving credit.  You can rarely build a strong credit score without the existence of revolving lines of credit.

Once the new secured USAA card arrives and is posted to your CR, make sure you keep its % util as low as possible, or the benefits it affords can turn into a high % util nightmare.

[Anonymous]

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@wildstang wrote:

So I just had 5 CA's deleted from my report and no score change. What the heck? I also had a repo changed to "paid/never late" with a gw and got like 5 pts. It sucks that u make a mistake and they hammer you with like a 50 pt decrease but they never give it back. I am also waiting for my new secured USAA card to report since i have no open CC. My scores are stuck!! any advice?

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This jumped out at me.  What do you have currently open and reporting positively for you.  What's closed and still reporting positive for you? Lack of past negatives does not necessarilly determine that you are an improved risk if the scoring cannot determine whether you been responsible with your credit lately.  You need to have revolving accounts ... not a whole bunch but atleast some 2-3 ideally but at the very minimum one.  They are unsecured/ riskiest best therefore they swing your fico score the most whether handled responsibly or irresponsibly.  Without them it's hard to determine what kind of risk you are.

Think of it this way how you use your revolving factors into your payment history and your revolving utilization which is a combined 65% of your score.  Currently You may not be getting any credit towards your amounts owed 30% because you have no cc's open right now.  Payment history is seperate thing depending on what's still there.

You may have some positive and/or negative TL's still there that you didn't get deleted.

But before you take those words to heart you could answer the following:

What do you have currently reporting and how many CAs/co's do you still have reporting? For example if you had 20 co/ca's per say reporting than getting rid of five may not do any damage.  Just an example i don't know your situation.  Only you do right now.

Where did you get your scores? where they from Myfico.com?  Unless it's from Equifax.com and it says fico, or transunioncs than your dealing with scores that don't matter.

[wildstang]

Ok so here is what I have on my EQ Fico from EQ website. I was successfull with many PFD's and had 1 PR vacated. Im stuck at 544

1 Inq

14 Closed installment loans- All paid never late

1 Closed Les Schwab revolving-Paid Never late

1 paid CO from cap 1 DOFD- 5/2005

1 Closed CO from weisfield CL 2300-owe 800 PFD denied DOFD 9/2004

1 Closed CC with ASPEN CL 300 owe 315.

The ASPEN CC has two accts listed on my report like a duplicate, EQ wont delete the duplicate.

1 CA DOFD 6/2006-waiting on response for PFD

I am waiting for my new USAA Secured CC to Report

I have no open accts showing on EQ, I will post what I have on TU next. What should i do next? what are the prorities?

[Anonymous]

The Aspen account has that been charged off?

Is wiesfield and Aspen still reporting monthly??

RIght now the 30% revolving utilization is being Killed by these two accounts.  It sounds as if wiesfield is still reporting a balance and has not sold this account to a CA.  IF wiesfield is reporting every month to hell with a pfd If you are certain that the dofd is 9/2004 to hell with a pfd.  ride it out til next year, one more year left.  I would PIF that one.  800 is far from a boat load of money and it's killing your revolving utilization ... not becuase it's alot but there is/was no available credit open to offset this balance.

Same with Aspen from the sound of things one or two of these is updating which can keep your scores stagnant.  Your definately not being scored as a person with a six year old chargoff that has been left alone for a few years reporting wise.  Rather your being scored as someone with a CO with dofd six years ago that's still open and which has been updated on the clock.  Those scores usually suggest recent negative and the negative in your case can be the updates, making an old mistake look new because you haven't settled up with the OC. 

I would just pay those both down irregardless, however you never mentioned whether the Aspen was charged off and what the dofd was if it wasn't PIF the both of them the other account is a no brainer.

Then keep low utility on the usaa ss card.  Get some time in between the last time reported. In a year or so you'll be golden but I think this course would atleast get you to well past your goal within 6 months.

[llecs]

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@wildstang wrote:

Ok so here is what I have on my EQ Fico from EQ website. I was successfull with many PFD's and had 1 PR vacated. Im stuck at 544

1 Inq

14 Closed installment loans- All paid never late

1 Closed Les Schwab revolving-Paid Never late

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You can't do anything about these and aren't hurting anyway.

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@wildstang wrote:

1 Closed CO from weisfield CL 2300-owe 800 PFD denied DOFD 9/2004

1 Closed CC with ASPEN CL 300 owe 315.

The ASPEN CC has two accts listed on my report like a duplicate, EQ wont delete the duplicate.?

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You have two CCs as part of your mix of credit. Despite being closed, and reporting as a baddie, both the Aspen and the Weisfield are factored into your mix of credit because they carry a balance. For Wesifield, since they denied the PFD, pay them down to $100 or so. Because that TL is reporting a balance, and a CL, it is factored into your util. Once you PIF, it gets removed from utilization.

For Aspen, because it is OTL, it is taking a real toll on your scores. Over the limit CCs ding your FICO by quite a bit. I'd pay them down to $50 or so. The OTL alone is probably dragging one or both scores by 10-20 points.

If you pay down both cards, $100 for Weisfield and $50 for Aspen, your overall util will drop from 38% to 6% and I predict, on this alone assuming you do nothing else, your FICO scores (from myFICO) would spike to right at the 600s. It'll be close. Now since Aspen reports double on EQ, and that's actually better for you per the mix, then you might see a slightly higher gain on EQ if you pay it down to the above.

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@wildstang wrote:

1 paid CO from cap 1 DOFD- 5/2005

1 CA DOFD 6/2006-waiting on response for PFD

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CapOne - while GW chances are slim, keep sending GWs until they remove the lates and the CO reference. Be persistent.

Keep with the PFDs. Never give up.

The only way your score will improve with the above is if they are deleted.

ETA.....cursed by slow typing skills.

[wildstang]

Thanks for the advice, Im going to pay those ASAP. The ASPEN card is not a charge off but it is closed. how much will my new secured CC help me?

[Anonymous]

You have the right idea  with the pfd's.  PFD is the best way to go ... effort should be put in those and you have had success thus far.  Speaking from the point of your score you hit a road block.  I assume you started pfd this creditor the same time you did the others and they refused to play ball.  I agree with LLecs said it's definately the ideal thing to do but in your case if you want to see your score improve it would help by not having a derog reported every month looking as if it's brand new.

Per say the paid co will not do anything score wise than an unpaid co and you will still be in a dirty bucket and it will still be on your CR (for one more year ... not to bad a sentence).  However the difference sometimes if you have a creditor that reports monthly on the dot than biting the bullet, settling for the dirty bucket well will be alot better than waiting a pfd that never happens and not seeing your score increase.  Some situations are different.

Yes some lenders particular ccc's will pass on ya with two CO's for unsecured debt but others won't.  Ya might not be a prime target for the prime market but ya still will be able to build some history.  It may give you peace of mind because your score will stabilize in the sense that it wont be kept dragging down and you will then be able to see improvement in the meantime on the way to the year mark instead of running around with 500 scores which can be depleting.

As far as the secured cc, if you still can i would put whatever leftover money ya have (discretionary ofcourse) to raising the limit.

[wildstang]

My next question is, the ASPEN acct. It was originally charged off but i spoke with them and agreed to making a large payment to keep it in a non-charge off status so they reversed the co. I still have lates in the history account. On my EQ there are two accts listed like a duplicate but there are 2 different account numbers. Should I get one removed? it has lates on it.

[Anonymous]

If you are already working with Aspen directly and have had good responce than forget EQ altogether.  See if you can get them to remove lates if you pay in full or keep paying.  They already removed the CO report so they are willing to work with you.  Ask about the two accounts reporting/ one account.  If they are willing to remove lates it's possible you can get good duplicate TL'S.

At the very least work with them on the lates and ask Aspen about the reporting.  EQ is just gonna give you the stone face.