Charge off versus "included in BK"

[Anonymous]

Hi, I have a CO on a Cap1 CC from 2006 that includes about 14 late payments on it. I paid it in full about a month before I filed BK, I have 6 other accounts that were included in the BK that did have late payments prior to filing,  but now show as "included in BK" and no lates. How would it affect my credit score If I had not paid the Cap1 card off and instead included it in the bankruptcy?

I'm guessing I should have included it because I wouldn't have any lates or CO's and the only negative thing would be the BK.

Anyone have any thoughts? 

[Anonymous]

FICO reads the CO and BK dates not the lates.

[Anonymous]

I see, thanks.

[jackg]

HappyDays,

Am I understanding what you are saying correctly, "FICO reads the CO and BK dates not the lates."? My experience has been that those lates are identified and pointed out as negatives on both the CRA's CR's and the credit reports attached to your FICO scores when you buy them. The reports ID how many lates, how many days and they say that they negatively effect your FICO score. Please explain. Thanks

[Anonymous]

After my BK, one of my creditors was incorrectly reporting my account as CO instead of IIB, so I disputed it. The OC then changed the status to "Included in BK," and purged the payment history, historical delqs, etc... My score jumped by about 50 points!

So, in answer to the original question, your FICO score would be higher if you had included Cap1 in the BK.

It seems like time since BK and time since CO would be the same, so this leads me to suspect that the difference in score is because of the purged data. There must be variables that penalize based on dirty payment history pattern or historical delq's, irrespective of current status (CO/BK).

That's my take, anyway...