Score going down!?!!!

[Anonymous]

I started monitoring my credit 4 years ago. In that time I have opened no new accounts and have paid all of my accounts on time.

This year I finally reached that golden land of zero credit card debt. The only loans I have on my name right now are Student Loans.

Soooo, in my mind I am thinking, wow I am doing great... I got rid of all of my credit card and loan debt and I haven't missed a payment in 5 to 6 years.

But when I check my credit history every 6 months, this is what I see:

2004: 638
2005: 712 (woohoo!)
2006: 680 (doh?)
2007: 673 (what the hell?)

I did make the mistake in 2005/2006 of canceling a lot of the old credit cards that I had that caused me a lot of the problems I found myself in during my college years. I of course later learned that this is bad to do... however some of them did have annual fees and I didn't want to pay them.

My last delinquent payment was in 2001.

What gives? Soooo frustrated.

[Anonymous]

Are the open cards being used every now and then?

How old is your oldest account?

What is the avg age of accounts?

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for the reply! Here are the answers to your questions.

1. The OPEN cards are NOT being used. In fact, I'm really not 100% sure what these open cards are since it has been so long since I've used one.

When I check on my "open accounts" in my report I see 6. 4 of which are my student loan. 1 is a CC that is really my parents and I am an authorized user. 1 is a CC from chase that was opened 4 years ago and says it has a $0 credit limit.

2. The oldest OPEN account is my student loan, from 1991

3. The age of the 6 OPEN accounts are: 1991, 92, 92, 93, 94, 2004


Additional Info:

My last late payment was in July of 2001 on a CC that was later closed.

Mortgage: 0, $0
Installment: 13, $7,507
Revolving: 10, $0
Other: 0, $0
Total Accounts: 23, $7,507

Number of Open Accounts: 6
Number of Closed Accounts: 17
Total Accounts in Good Standing: 16
Accounts Currently Past Due: 0
Negative Account History: 0
Inquiries in Last 12 Months: 0

[Anonymous]

Wow, I guess I've worked myself into one hell of a pickle here.

I just applied for an AmEx Blue and was turned down.

This is crazy. 34 year old with 100k job, no CC debt, only student loans that will be paid off in a year, and no bad account history.... and yet my credit score sucks and I cant get approved for new credit.

Any ideas?

[MidnightVoice]

Do any of the open credit card accounts actually work?  Paying for a tank of gas with each one will find out!  And using them sometimes might help

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.

Well, the card that is still active and in my name is a Capital One card. The reason it is reporting as $0 credit limit is because they do not report credit limits.

No idea if that hurts or helps.

The limit on it is $2,000 and has never been used. I asked for a credit increase and was denied.

Man, this is absolutely ridiculous. I am furious at this whole BS system

[Anonymous]

Ok I received an email from AmEx about my rejection. Here is what they say.

***********
The factors provided by the consumer reporting agency that affected our decision are:

Unsatisfied account 90+ days past due with a balance of $200+ greater than 1 year
***********

They used Experian. So I went ahead and took a look at my credit report from Experian and there is nothing, not a single thing about late payments on any of the accounts being reported to them.

My last late payment of 90+ days, found on my Equifax report, was back in July of 2001.

What on earth is going on? Anyone have any ideas?

What does Greater than 1 year mean? Does that mean I have something outstanding for over a year and haven't been paying it?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Mortgage: 0, $0
Installment: 13, $7,507
Revolving: 10, $0
Other: 0, $0
Total Accounts: 23, $7,507

Number of Open Accounts: 6
Number of Closed Accounts: 17
Total Accounts in Good Standing: 16
Accounts Currently Past Due: 0
Negative Account History: 0
Inquiries in Last 12 Months: 0

---

This information you posted shows 7 negative accounts. Even if you can't see the negative in the 24 month history, it is still there for 7 years. Please check if this information is correct.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 08-21-2007 04:51 PM

[Anonymous]

Hmm, that is interesting.

The "Negative Account History" shows 0 (zero) and the description for that line reads: "Negative accounts are accounts that have in the past had late payments. These late payments could have been years ago but are recorded for up to 7 years"

Despite that line reporting 0 (zero) I have in fact had late payments within 7 years. July 2001 to be exact.

Could that be what is being caught even though the Equifax report and the Experian are not making a note of them in the "Negative Account History" line?

I suppose that would explain some things... but dang, still... getting shot down for a credit card because of a few late payments 6 years ago?


Any suggestions about what I should do to slowly built this back up? I was under the impression I was doing everything right by becoming debt free and living within my means for over half a decade. Silly me.

[Anonymous]

You could apply with lenders that pull from the other 2 that might be clean. Otherwise your profile looks very nice! If EX and EQ are not reporting these lates, perhaps it is only TU.

I am not quite sure about this, but your score might indicate a negative too I assume from Equifax. I don't know enough about history, but I am thinking under 700 with no revolving debt is lower than it should be. But it could also be dormant cards, and other stuff too. So not sure. But just from your score it could indicate negatives.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 08-21-2007 05:28 PM