Equifax score

[Anonymous]

Good morning!

Understanding and dealing with FICO scoring and all the credit agencies has got to be the most frustrating experience ever!

I've been diligently working on paying off debt in order to raise my score to buy a house.  It went from 535 to 646 in just two months, however its gone downhill from there.  One creditor reported a balance of $3400 one day (accurate for the previous month), then reported it as $600 (accurate for the current month since I paid it down), and then reposted it back as $3400 two days later.  My score went from 646 to 653 to 654 and then back to 646.

It gets worse....I then disputed  the amount and my score instantly droped to 628.

How can this happen?

I spoke with CSC, they said they don't calculate scores and referred me to equifax.  I spoke with equifax and they said CSC checking my report to complete the dispute would cause a drop.  Really??? a credit reporting agencing looking at my credit drops my score by 20 f@#%$%^ing points?  Equifax then said they don't calculate scores, the credit card companies do.

Who can I talk I talk to.  I feel like I'm a hampster on a treadmill.

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

Congrats on the increases (and booos on the decreases).

Unfortunately, when you dispute a CC, the balance and the CL are both removed from FICO scoring and that alone can drop your FICO scores if the utilization of that card(s) helped. Once the dispute clears (30-45 days tops from the dispute), the score will go back up to where it was before assuming that this was the only reason for the drop. I'd suggest not disputing the balance. Pull your reports frequently and get a feel of how that CC reports. Some can be a bit quirky. Eventually you'll see the pattern and learn how to time paying off CCs in relation to their reporting. If things are still bad at mortgage time, you can always do a rapid rescore with your lender and that's a dispute, but only takes a day and would get the balance as of that day to report.

In general, CCCs will report the balance you had as of the statement date and will report that balance within a few days following the statement date.