16pt Equifax drop in 5 days!!

[Anonymous]

I am in process of trying to get approved for a mortgage...well I pulled my scores and reports on June 21 ...then today I received the following Scorewatch Alert saying that on June 26 my score dropped 16 pts!!

Your FICO® score went down on a day when there were no credit alerts on your Equifax Credit Report™. This can happen if:

• There was a change on your credit report that lowered your score but did not trigger an alert. For example, the balance on an account might have increased enough to lower your score, but not enough to trigger a balance increase alert.
• You moved from one category of credit users to another as time passed. For example, you may have transitioned from the category "consumers with a new credit history" to the category "consumers with a two- to five-year credit history". As a result, your credit report is evaluated differently, causing a slight change in your score. The good news is that moving between categories like this usually offers you the potential to reach a higher FICO® score in the future.

I swear it is like 1 step forward, 2 steps back and I don't even understand what is pushing me back! I just paid for reports and scores, I am not trying to have to pay for another report so soon but I might have to in order to see what the difference is in 5 days! I am about to give the heck up I am so frustrated! Does anybody understand this mess?

Ok just had to get that vent out. LOL Thanks for listening....I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming! LOL

[JoeBJay20]

Well it's not uncommon to have score fluctuations like that when you're in the rebuilding process.  But think in your mind what could have possibly changed on your report.  Did you have an increase in CC balances?  Have you tried to backdoor your EQ report? 

[Anonymous]

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@JoeBJay20 wrote:
Well it's not uncommon to have score fluctuations like that when you're in the rebuilding process.  But think in your mind what could have possibly changed on your report.  Did you have an increase in CC balances?  Have you tried to backdoor your EQ report? 

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No - I have not used my credit cards since I started this process in March..just been paying down the balances....just checked to make sure none of them was not suddenly showing a charge or had lowered my  limits...nope!

So I will try to backdoor the credit report to see if something fell off though my last dispute results came back in last week so I was not expecting anything else to change until I did my next round! will let you know what I find.

Thanks!

~CC

Message Edited by diva1971 on 06-29-2009 01:10 PM

[Anonymous]

Ok just went and looked on Equifax and found the only difference was that a Verizon chargeoff was finally was taken off. It was not my only collection left (I havd 2 paid medical ones that I am going to next round of HIPPA process with) so I did not expect to be rebucketed. Weird. So then I came back to MyFico and went ahead and paid for a score and report just to double check and get this they are now saying that my score is UP 58 pts today(June 29) from that ScoreWatch Alert dated June 26!

Should I be concerned that this is just a temporary increase? Did I get an initial drop when the collection was removed an dhappened to be when the Scorewatch triggered (though it did not report any cahnges to my report) then and now a rebucket and increase without the charge off? I mean it is 3 days different.

I am cautious about getting excited over this yet . Because if it is real then I qualify for my mortgage with good room to spare (all of my other factors (DTI, reserves, time at job, etc) were all well over the minimum marks) just my midscore was the issue and as I was not sure what my new Equifax score was so wanted both TU and Equifax to be over 620...TU is my cleanest report and by far my highest score.

[JoeBJay20]

You wouldn't have been rebucketed if you still have collections remaining on your reports.  As I said before, when you're in repair it's not common for your score to fluctuate up and down.  The chargeoff coming off wouldn't cause a dip then an increase days later, when something comes off your reports, it is as though it was never there, FICO has no memory.  Is it possible that that another negative account had a recent update?  If I had to guess, I would say that some change happened to your report last week causing the score to drop, then the Verizon chargeoff came off after that and gave you the increase. 

How recently did you pay those collections?

Message Edited by JoeBJay20 on 06-29-2009 12:41 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

OP, I'd print out your reports and compare them line-by-line with a yellow highlighter. I'm concerned that you might have a split file. Make sure that every account that was on the original report is on the -16 report and also on the +58 report.

That's one heck of a jump for a charge-off leaving while there are still collections reporting!

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
OP, I'd print out your reports and compare them line-by-line with a yellow highlighter. I'm concerned that you might have a split file. Make sure that every account that was on the original report is on the -16 report and also on the +58 report.

That's one heck of a jump for a charge-off leaving while there are still collections reporting!

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Problem is that the -16 indication was a scorewatch alert dated June 26 which they just sent me the e-mail for today June 29. So I do not have the actual associated credit report.

In lieu of that I went and compared the report I had from June 21 to one I pulled today after I received that alert and everything else matches ( all accounts, balances etc) the only difference is the Verizon charge off is now gone but the Verizon account (which I have been fighting for awhile) had been reported as a charge off then they reported it 6 times as 120 days late...so with it being removed it took 6 counts of serious derog off my credit.....would that be enough to account for the 58 pt jump? I have no clue what caused the 16 point drop last week though.

I just do not want to go to loan officer this week and find out that Verizon is back on there or that today's score is a mistake!

[Anonymous]

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@JoeBJay20 wrote:

You wouldn't have been rebucketed if you still have collections remaining on your reports.  As I said before, when you're in repair it's not common for your score to fluctuate up and down.  The chargeoff coming off wouldn't cause a dip then an increase days later, when something comes off your reports, it is as though it was never there, FICO has no memory.  Is it possible that that another negative account had a recent update?  If I had to guess, I would say that some change happened to your report last week causing the score to drop, then the Verizon chargeoff came off after that and gave you the increase. 

How recently did you pay those collections?

Message Edited by JoeBJay20 on 06-29-2009 12:41 PM

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Those collections were paid back in 2004 by my lawyer as part of car accident insurance settlement. I checked the DOLA on today's report for them and they are the same as they were on my previous report