Equifax AND Experian: tax lien removal, score changes, notes

[Revelate]

Edit: Just got the Experian dispute results back - DELETED!

Winning!

Data is as good as I can get, had score confirmation that both FICO 8 and FICO 5 hadn't changed from the first datapoint as of end of last month July so this is probably very solid.  Experian data likewise, FICO 8 hadn't moved at all as of yesterday from a balance change update vs. when I did the full pull back in June preparing for this happy day haha.

The tax lien was the last bit of serious dirtiness on my report, so I'm now in a clean bucket.  Interestingly the reason codes between FICO 8 and FICO 5 are identical now on EQ, which is really strange as only FICO 9 is now complaining about installment utilization even though we know absolutely that it counts on clean FICO 8 files.  Ergo it's not in my top 4, if I didn't have the CFA though maybe it'd be on there.

Also CFA's, Equifax complaining on FICO 5 and FICO 8; but NOT on FICO 9.  Experian has the CFA tag also on FICO 2 and FICO 9 industry option, so presumably it is on all models algorithms and industry options in FICO 98, 04, 8, 9.

1 scoreable inquiry.

AAOA 42 months, aka 3.5 years.

Consumer Finance Account on file

AOYA, which is now listed as a problem in reason codes, 7 months ago so apparently no six months seasoning boundary.

Installment utilization 90%, is still listed on FICO 9 as a problem but not anywhere else.

Oh yeah, EQ and EX FICO 9 Classic: "Because your score is high, negative score factors present with your score are less relevant and therefore not provided."

Ah hell, I'm kinda too giddy to type, if you have questions, feel free to ask, the win:

EQ Score	6/25/17	8/5/17	Change
FICO 8	735	795	60
FICO 8 AU	739	809	70
FICO 8 BC	749	819	70
FICO 5	698	771	73
FICO 5 AU	685	780	95
FICO 5 BC	715	784	69
FICO 9	790	819	29
FICO 9 AU	786	831	45
FICO 9 BC	788	830	42

 Experian:

EX Score	6/25/17	8/14/17	Change	Notes
FICO 8	739	786	47
FICO 8 AU	753	784	31
FICO 8 BC	757	815	58
FICO 3	693	728	35
FICO 2	712	758	46	CFA
FICO 2 AU	686	767	81
FICO 2 BC	712	760	48
FICO 9	775	808	33
FICO 9 AU	777	807	30
FICO 9 BC	776	815	39	CFA

[pizza1]

Rev, that is SOOOOO awesome!!! Congrats to you on the removal!! You really had a major score change as well. WOW!! Im so excited for you

[Revelate]

---

@pizza1 wrote:
Rev, that is SOOOOO awesome!!! Congrats to you on the removal!! You really had a major score change as well. WOW!! Im so excited for you

---

Grin I am still smiling about it a day later, wow was this a long time in coming.

[pizza1]

---

@Revelate wrote:

---

@pizza1 wrote:
Rev, that is SOOOOO awesome!!! Congrats to you on the removal!! You really had a major score change as well. WOW!! Im so excited for you

---

Grin I am still smiling about it a day later, wow was this a long time in coming.

---

You HAVE been waiting  a long time!! What...6 yrs?? Did you just like sit back in your chair, and sigh a big relief?   LOL  Not that your tax lien showing stopped you from getting great approvals with majors lenders either though, lol..  Great data points as well, thank you for sharing

[Anonymous]

Can you give as some details on the liens? Paid and released or open? State or Federal? Name, address, full SSI with DOB or something else?

Did you have to dispute them and if so how?

Thanks and congratualtions.

[jamie123]

Woah DUDE!!!! Congrats!!! That took a long time. I feel for ya!

Hey buddy, I was in the same boat. My EX has been clean for years but TU and EQ had 2 State tax liens until they fell off TU about 2 months ago just leaving them on EQ.

I've been patiently waiting for August 1st to roll around to see if they would fall off EQ because of the new regs and then I was going to fight EQ with disputes if they didn't. August 1st rolls around and according to MyFICO they were still there because they were listed as the first score reasons. Checked MyFICO everyday and the results were the same even though I had credit updates that should have triggered new score reasons if they did fall off.

Yesterday I said to myself, "Well, we are just going to have to dispute these. I'm going to pull all my reports from annualcreditreport.com so that I'll have a good lay of the land so to speak."

And lo and behold the State tax liens were gone from all reports! I was doing the happy dance! Well...The happy dance was still in effect even though I found out that EQ has my mortgage listed twice so it shows me owing double my mortgage balance. (Hmmm..No wonder my EQ score was so difficult to move!) But really, the double mortgage listing should be an easy fix.

Nothing in my adult life has proved as difficult, time consuming and frustrating as working to get these State tax liens removed. I even hired a tax attorney and even he was frustrated with the problems. (I later learned that even though he practices in the State of Ohio that he has stopped taking cases like mine. He said it has just become too cumbersome a process without a guaranteed outcome.) These liens first appeared on my reports in 2006 and made getting credit in the years after that very difficult.

MyFICO still shows as my first reason code today: Public Records or Collection on Your Reports (I have neither anymore.)

Anyway...

Congrats again!!! You have been one of the best and well respected leaders on these forums. I learned a lot from your posts and am really glad everything has finally worked out for you.

I joined MyFICO on 3/22/2012 to specifically find out how to have these tax liens removed. I thought it would probably take a while, maybe two years tops. Here it is 5 1/2 years later and they only fell off because they changed the laws or they would still be on my reports.

[Thomas_Thumb]

---

@Revelate wrote:

Winning!

Data is as good as I can get, had score confirmation that both FICO 8 and FICO 5 hadn't changed from the first datapoint as of end of last month July so this is probably very solid.

The tax lien was the last bit of serious dirtiness on my report, so I'm now in a clean bucket.  Interestingly the reason codes between FICO 8 and FICO 5 are identical now, which is really strange as only FICO 9 is now complaining about installment utilization even though we know absolutely that it counts on clean FICO 8 files.  Ergo it's not in my top 4, if I didn't have the CFA though maybe it'd be on there.

Also CFA's, both FICO 5 and FICO 8; but NOT on FICO 9.  

Ah hell, I'm kinda too giddy to type, if you have questions, feel free to ask, the win:

EQ Score	6/25/17	8/5/17	Change
FICO 8	735	795	60
FICO 8 AU	739	809	70
FICO 8 BC	749	819	70
FICO 5	698	771	73
FICO 5 AU	685	780	95
FICO 5 BC	715	784	69
FICO 9	790	819	29
FICO 9 AU	786	831	45
FICO 9 BC	788	830	42

---

Nice increases!

So do you think your FIco 8s are lower than Fico 9s due primarily to the CFAs? SJ has higher Fico 9s as well but no CFA. My Fico 9 enhanced scores almost always lag Fico 8 enhanced by a significant margin. Never figured out exactly why - but I do know some Fico 9 enhanced scores top out under 900.

[NRB525]

That's awesome! Congrats on the completion of a long journey. 

[Revelate]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Can you give as some details on the liens? Paid and released or open? State or Federal? Name, address, full SSI with DOB or something else?

Did you have to dispute them and if so how?

Thanks and congratualtions.

---

This was a Cali state tax lien, released, long since paid not that it matters heh.  I'm not entirely sure what LN was giving Equifax, I know TU had the wrong court docket number entirely and EQ has apparently two different docket ID's in their databases (I get a difference reference number on CK than I do on EQ directly, things that make you go hmmmm).  

I didn't go through the effort of pulling both records from the court, I was sort of ambivalent since it was coming off this year anyway and I had zero intention of applying for anything this year... my apologies it doesn't make it a fantastic path to resolution in terms of helping anyone else.

[Revelate]

---

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

---

@Revelate wrote:

Winning!

Data is as good as I can get, had score confirmation that both FICO 8 and FICO 5 hadn't changed from the first datapoint as of end of last month July so this is probably very solid.

The tax lien was the last bit of serious dirtiness on my report, so I'm now in a clean bucket.  Interestingly the reason codes between FICO 8 and FICO 5 are identical now, which is really strange as only FICO 9 is now complaining about installment utilization even though we know absolutely that it counts on clean FICO 8 files.  Ergo it's not in my top 4, if I didn't have the CFA though maybe it'd be on there.

Also CFA's, both FICO 5 and FICO 8; but NOT on FICO 9.  

Ah hell, I'm kinda too giddy to type, if you have questions, feel free to ask, the win:

EQ Score	6/25/17	8/5/17	Change
FICO 8	735	795	60
FICO 8 AU	739	809	70
FICO 8 BC	749	819	70
FICO 5	698	771	73
FICO 5 AU	685	780	95
FICO 5 BC	715	784	69
FICO 9	790	819	29
FICO 9 AU	786	831	45
FICO 9 BC	788	830	42

---

Nice increases!

So do you think your FIco 8s are lower than Fico 9s due primarily to the CFAs? SJ has higher Fico 9s as well but no CFA. My Fico 9 enhanced scores almost always lag Fico 8 enhanced by a significant margin. Never figured out exactly why - but I do know some Fico 9 enhanced scores top out under 900.

---

I think that may be part of it; CFA's may be anachronisms given the vastly increased numbers on people's reports (nearly 29 Billion dollars lent through Lending Club, that's got to be hundreds of thousands of consumer files alone) and in theory the more there are the less predictive they would be as a negative indicator?  It's a thought, score reason codes aren't the end all and be all but we know installment utilization is a thing (hell it factored on my dirty reports on FICO 8 even) but it's not there on my clean report for FICO 8 which suggests different scorecards assign different relative weights to things.  

It will be interesting to see if my EX distribution is similar; my FICO 9's though have always been pretty darned good so I had thought they were weighing recent information much more heavily than old information... that could be the case here too even, that CFA had an open date of 12/2011 and I paid it 7 months later.  Unfortunately we didn't have access to FICO 9 when I got that new Federal tax lien dropped on my account: I could clearly see that FICO 8 weighed recent data more heavily than FICO 5, but I don't know if FICO 9 furthered that trend.

Hard to say, datapoints around FICO 9 are so rare and the reason codes are pretty generic for clean files on my industry options.... and I'm more than a little disappointed that I don't get reason codes on FICO 9 Classic, ah well one less reason to pull the reports from here I guess.

Tangent, but have you seen a cutoff for industry option reason codes like we see in the base FICO 8 / FICO 9 for people with high scores?