Disputed Charge off and my score dropped 57 points!!!???

[Snorred]

Had a car loan with GM Financial back from 2008 that was repo'ed in 2009.  Was showing on CR as bad debt/collection, so I disputed it as obsolete hoping to remove it about 3 months early.  I just got a Score Watch update reflecting a 57 point drop from 663 to 607?? WHY?  The account had a excessive history of lates.  Did I incorrectly assume that attempting to remove this bad account from my report would make it better?

[Anonymous]

Older the CO/Collection, less impact it has on FICO scores. However, when a dispute is initiated and the debt is validated, the last update date is changed to when the debt was validated making it look much newer to FICO scoring model. This is why your score dropped.

Personally, I don't think a dispute should ever be initiated when a debt/account is valid, unless it is not being reported accurately. In your specific case, you should have called CRAs and requested an early exclusion, which is not a dispute and will not initiate a debt validation/account information verification process.

Since the damage has already been done, there is no harm in making the phone calls and asking the CRAs for an early exclusion. TU and EX are known to do it; EQ not so much, but you may get lucky with EQ too. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

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@Snorred wrote:

Had a car loan with GM Financial back from 2008 that was repo'ed in 2009.  Was showing on CR as bad debt/collection, so I disputed it as obsolete hoping to remove it about 3 months early.  I just got a Score Watch update reflecting a 57 point drop from 663 to 607?? WHY?  The account had a excessive history of lates.  Did I incorrectly assume that attempting to remove this bad account from my report would make it better?

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I did the same thing with my old COs and it dropped my score from 652 to 618.  Super frustrating.  This is one aspect of FICO scoring that needs to change

[Anonymous]

I've got some dispute comments keeping me down as well. I guess they want to punish anyone that calls attention to incorrect reporting.  BLEH.

[Anonymous]

SORRY TO HEAR THAT

[Anonymous]

Sure would be nice if they would put out a ":rule book" as it seems that the 3 bureaus arbitrarily comply to their own little rule book and change them at whim.  Additionally it makes no sense to me that as a consumer asking for my FICO/credit score I would be given 1 different score from each bureau yet the lenders each are using a different FICO version ultimately adding up to about 24 possibilities, none of which a consumer would even be aware of without joining (and paying) this particular site.  Where is their accountability for "truth in lending" if the lenders aren't providing consumers the full detail.  Also, while lenders are able to report their information on cconsumers it seems to me that consumers ought to have rights to report against the lenders that continuously delay reporting or are just plain "nasty" to deal with.  Everything I've researched falls in favor of the creditor and nothing in favor of the consumer.

[Anonymous]

It's because fico scores were never intended to be a consumer product. It's only because of past legislation that scores and reports are made available to the public.

[Anonymous]

It's a good thing that it was opened up. The system still needs a lot more fixes, but at least we have SOME avenues for correcting bad information.