Scorewatch score drop. Help.

[Anonymous]

Hi.  I'm new to the board.

I've been very enthused recently about rebuilding my credit. Was surprised when my score came up EQ657 (not great, but I expected worse).  A week later I'm up to EQ659! Yay.  But today, scorewatch sent me an alert that i've decreased 27 points due to a missed payment on a Citibank student loan account that had been showing "refinanced".  It is now showing "closed/paid in full".  I'm so confused.  Where did this score drop come from?  I checked my scorewatch power report and it is posting a missed payment in the past month.  This is not so.  I am current with my student loan. The particular student loan account that I was alerted too is also showing fine, (no late payment flag or anything).  I know for a fact I have not had a late payment. Should I contact Equifax? Is this a myFICO snag??? Who would you contact first?

Message Edited by growingwings on 07-05-2009 07:57 PM

[llecs]

Couple of things to do...

1) pull your EQ report directly from EQ. Look for any changes in accounts to support that.

2) Look at the dates. If you have any CAs or COs that updated last month, even if paid, FICO will often read that as a recent late. Look for any baddie with an updated date from May or June.

[Anonymous]

I do see 2 CA from over 5 years ago that show a "Status as of June, 2009"....

is this relevant? but myfico doesn't mention these two accounts in the scorewatch  alert report.  they only mention the student loan.  

would myfico give me a more detailed account of why i dropped so much if i gave them a call?

[llecs]

---

growingwings wrote:

I do see 2 CA from over 5 years ago that show a "Status as of June, 2009"....

is this relevant? but myfico doesn't mention these two accounts in the scorewatch  alert report.  they only mention the student loan.  

would myfico give me a more detailed account of why i dropped so much if i gave them a call?

---

That's likely the culprit. There's some debate in here, but, IMO, a change in the DOLA or reporting date from an older date to a recent date can drop your score. It has happened to many of us.

SW alerts don't give the full picture. It doesn't always tell you what happened to result in the change. For example, I received a SW for a 20 pt increase due to a new inquiry. The new inquiry didn't increase my score, but rather a baddie falling off that SW didn't pick up on.

You could call them. Some CSRs are right on point with their advice. Others seem clueless.

[Anonymous]

Just for future reference.

I called myfico. The CSR was very nice. It turns out the scorewatch alert had nothing to do with my student loan. There was a change in description from Refinance to Close Account/Paid Account, but that wasn't the reason for my 27 point score drop.  

It turns out an old collection from over 6 years now, reported a missed payment for June 2009.  (That's what I get for calling asset acceptance to ask them what the account referred to...big mistake there I guess. ) I guess now they are trying to report that I consented to paying, which I never did.  I just needed clarification of the account as I did not know what it referred to exactly. Now, I'm writing Equifax to see what they can do for me.  I'm scared of contacting Asset now!     

[palmbeachwife]

Asset has been the cause of my score drop, too. They have deleted an account and then reinserted it to make it look like a new collection reporting to harm my score. I have only known of a couple people who say they got a PFD out of them. I DON'T TRUST THEM!

It seems like I had trouble with  them every since I reported them to the BBB. Now they update every couple weeks with more bogus fees and I assume they'll keep deleting and reinserting the account to get my attention. Oh well, I'm ignoring them until they fall off next spring.