Understanding FICO® Scoring

[cassembler]

Been waiting for my last collection to stop reporting, and it finally did today (on EQ, at least).

Score went from 698 to 774!!!!  I was expecting 30 points or so... Huge thanks to these forums for helping me to see the light.

For others to compare, here's my profile:

5 Revolving ($530/1500, 0/750, 0/750, 350/3000, 550/amex)

3 Auto ($14,000, closed, closed)

no mortgage

AAoA 5.3yrs, oldest 23 years, newest 4 mo.

- FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 10 YEARS, NO DEROGATORIES -

Now it's the waiting game for TU and EX...

[marty56]

Nice, very very nice.

[Steelersfan904]

Congrats bro! That is a heck of a nice jump!

[cassembler]

Thanks guys, even the Steelers fan

I wanted to share in order to illustrate that a very old collection can still hurt a lot. I'm curious to see what a 30 or 60 looks like when it falls off a report (I can't test obviously), but this was a $500 collection. The only red mark on the report, and ~75 points is huge. Again, obviously.

[mtrsprt]

How old was the collection, and was there a balance on it still?

[drkaje]

Super sweet!

[cassembler]

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mtrsprt wrote:

How old was the collection, and was there a balance on it still?

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The collection is right arond 7-7.5 years old, as far as DOFD. It did have a balance ($550), and was still open. According to the reports, I expect it to stop reporting on the other two in July - September, becuase that's basically what they say on the reports (judging by DOFD and/or "This item will appear until ___" comments).

Note I could easily pay it off, but it's bogus - it was a verbal contract I had with a landlord who said, "Shure, you can do X, Y, and Z," but then when I left, they charged me for X, Y, and Z. I never fought it (because I was not frequenting these boards then!), and it's obviously past SOL.

[cassembler]

Interestingly, here's what the reports say (pulled in Feb 12 from AnnualCreditReport.com)

EX - "This account is scheduled to continue on record until Jun 2012"

TU - "Estimated month and year that this item will be removed : 08/2012"

EQ - "Date of 1st Delequency: 09/2005"

I was assuming EQ would be the last holdout... So being that it fell off of EQ on 06/01/2012, which is less than seven years, is somewhat head-scratching... Regardless, if EX falls off this month, then we're in good shape for a mortgage... Which is my next question, can the CO re-report if it it's less than seven years, or will the CRA keep it off the report?

[drkaje]

I just had a 60 day late age gracelessly off EQ with no impact, LOL! One more falls off next month and it'll be squeaky clean.

I toyed with the idea of a goodwill letter regarding the last two lates on TU but figured they really were all my fault and probably not impacting the score so close to falling off.

[marty56]

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cassembler wrote:

I was assuming EQ would be the last holdout... So being that it fell off of EQ on 06/01/2012, which is less than seven years, is somewhat head-scratching...

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I have found EQ would dump lates a few months early.  Sadly no love from TU thus my sig.