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Disputes doing more harm than good?!

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LLMT
Regular Contributor

Disputes doing more harm than good?!

We are planning on applying for a mortgage in the next 12-18 months so I have decided to make sure our credit is in the best shape. When we pulled my husband's reports, we found that our mortgage is not reporting correctly. Our old servicer was reporting it as "IN FORECLOSURE, more than 120 days past due, more than four payments late" with a balance of $88,xxx. Our new servicer has it reported as CLOSED account with no payment information or payment history at all and $0 balance. I disputed both of those b/c while the payment was indeed late to the old servicer it was NOT in foreclosure or more than 120 days past due. It wsa definitely 30 days late and it is now reporting as 60 days late which could be accurate since the changeover took place at that time.  So using the Equifax Premier plan, I received an alert that the old servicer was now reporting correctly. No change to the new servicer yet. I was happy so I pulled a new score and it showed as a 20+ pt drop!!!! What in the world? The entry was clearly improved, not made worse. I am so upset with myself now. Obviously, I have no interest in making our credit WORSE. There were absolutely no other changes to the report.

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
LLMT
Regular Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

Any idea why a mortgage reporting as "in foreclosure" would have a higher score than none reporting at all? Anything?

Message 2 of 7
LIGHTNIN
Senior Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

Hi and welcome to the forums,

 

Where did you get your credit scores? and when?

FICO's May 2015 EQ764 ~~Live below your means and always keep an emergency fund -Love Everybody ~ Big Kenny ~ Big and Rich ~~~~~Credit Scoring 101 - Common Abbreviations - Freq Req Threads - Free Credit Reports - What Steps Do I Take?DV? PFD?
Message 3 of 7
LLMT
Regular Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

Thanks so much for the welcome! I got them from the Equifax website as part of their free trial for their monitoring program. The first was from 4/30 and the second was today. It allows you to refresh your score from them unlimited times? It does a side by side comparison of the new report and old one so you can see if anything else changed (which didn't). He doesn't have revolving credit so nothing behind the scenes either? I really hope that I am not going to mess up our chances of getting a mortgage. Smiley Sad
Message 4 of 7
LLMT
Regular Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

I just read in the mortgage section that there can be a drop if you sell your home and the mortgage is reported as closed and the new mortgage hasn't reported yet. I am wondering if that is what caused it. Since he has only installment loans and the mortgage, I wonder if that took him down b/c he only had one installment loan showing as open and all other lines were showing closed? That makes me feel a bit better. I was hoping for an increase, but now I will be happy just to get back to where we were!

Message 5 of 7
LIGHTNIN
Senior Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

Moving your thread to Understanding Credit  FICO Scoring.

 

 

The score you received from EQ is what we call a FAKO (not a real FICO score)Suggest reading  The Son Of Credit Scoring 101.

 

Other members, please chime inSmiley Wink

FICO's May 2015 EQ764 ~~Live below your means and always keep an emergency fund -Love Everybody ~ Big Kenny ~ Big and Rich ~~~~~Credit Scoring 101 - Common Abbreviations - Freq Req Threads - Free Credit Reports - What Steps Do I Take?DV? PFD?
Message 6 of 7
dethkultur
Contributor

Re: Disputes doing more harm than good?!

Once I disputed an old account that was showing in collection ... the creditor said it was confirmed, and went the extra step to drop the shown credit limit to the value of the debt. My score dropped because of that (utilization went up) when nothing else changed. It bothered me until I was able to get it cleared off.

 

But you should also know the MyFICO or EQ score you purchase is only one "real" FICO score out there, and lenders may use one of 46 other "real" ones, all provided by EQ. So the scores you see may have a correlation, but there's a very high chance the score you see is very unreliable. It's about the same as the free services out there. MYyFICO or EQ will make no guarantee that the score they sell you is the one they send to your creditors. There's examples all through this forum.

Message 7 of 7
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