@Anonymous wrote:Hi,
Last week I noticed three accounts on my Equifax credit report had an incorrect balance reported. I called to file a dispute on Thursday, and almost immediately, my Equifax credit report had a notation "Consumer Disputes - Reinvestigation in Process" added to those three accounts disputed. When I called, the rep advised me that while those accounts are undergoing investigation, their balances will not be factored in during the calculation of my credit score or utilization ratio, and that this happens immediately.
I have a monitoring service with Equifax directly and also on MyFICO. I refreshed my report with both services earlier today, and the "total revolving account balance" and utilization ratio still remain the same as before I filed those disputes. The credit scores are also the same, so I am assuming that those accounts were not correctly excluded from the equations. Sure enough, after adding the individual account balances one by one, the balances of those three accounts were also included. On a related note, though, the Equifax report obtained from MyFICO also have that notation "Consumer Disputes - Reinvestigation in Process" shown for those three accounts. Not sure if the notation does anything other than for informational purposes.
Two questions-
a) Even though if I'm only disputing the balance and not the entire tradeline itself, those balances should be subtracted from my utilization ratio and total revolving account balance, right? In other words, the balances of those three accounts would not be counted when computing my utilization ratio and total revolving account balance, correct?
b) If a) is correct- what might be the reason my utilization ratio and total revolving account balance still haven't been updated? Equifax rep said instantaneous, is that not the case? Since the notation "Consumer Disputes - Reinvestigation in Process" was already added to all three accounts, I thought all needed changes or updates would've already happened?
Thanks in advance for any help.
The presentation from myFICO won't subtract a balance from it's aggregate numbers just because it's under dispute. Keep in mind all of that presentation isn't a reflection of what's happening score wise.
The score not changing, that's referencable, but it depends what else is in your profile, and it also depends on the disputes which are weird animals: it would be better to say disputes can discount the tradeline from scoring, but it doesn't always.
