Shiny clean reports but "serious deliquency" in my score factors? Where's the deliquency?

[Anonymous]

To the FICO-knowledgable and other credit gurus:

I keep up on my annual free reports, usually rotating them every four months, and since this all started my reports have been accurate and clean.  Squeeky clean.  No late payments... EVER.  No unpaid bills.  No negative history to speak of. (Unless they're not telling me!)  Shiny like a crystal window.  Well, a bird just hit it...

I'm trying to refinance a mortgage and just got my free copy of the scores, pulled by Rels Credit.  The data is as follows:

• Equifax -- Beacon 5.0 score (which I've read is still a FICO score): 640
• Experian -- FICO-II score: 738
• TransUnion -- FICO Classic 98 score: 616

Both EQ and TU listed "39 SERIOUS DELIQUENCY" as the #1 negative score factor, "13 TIME SINCE DELIQUENCY IS TOO RECENT OR UNKNOWN" as a subfactor (either #2 or #3), and other factors with that same nasty word ("34 AMOUNT OWED ON DELINQUENT ACCOUNTS", "02 LEVEL OF DELINQUENCY ON ACCOUNTS").  Their #4 reason was valid, as were Experian's factors, but even so, my head spun.

(This reason #4, also under the Experian score, was because the lower-credit of my two major credit cards is nearly maxxed out, and some other loans are pretty fresh, so they're near they're original values.  I don't deny this.  It's probably the real reason the scores are low.  But still not "delinquent"...)

So I pulled my free Equifax report today -- still clean and accurate. (I was going to do it on Nov. 1 but it was ready.)  I paid $11 for a TransUnion report just to make sure -- nope, everything's fine.  They even agree -- nothing missing, nothing added.

Why would the FICO algorithm(s) say "serious deliquency" when I cannot find evidence of one?

I heard sometimes phone or cable companies can screw with you if you switch, but that was 2.5 years ago -- I would have seen it by now, right?  Is there data the credit reporting agencies are keeping and feeding into the FICO computer that they're not showing me?  Or is the FICO system creating this on its own?  Or is it something that would require a true idiot to cause?

If you have any thoughts on the matter, I would be glad to hear them.  Please save my sanity.

--BigMal27, going manic in Michigan

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

Do you have any charge-offs reporting as paid or unpaid? How about any settled accounts?

Have you ever purchased a FICO report from TU and/or EQ? Those reports will actually have flags next to accounts that are specifically hurting your score.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

I get my TU FICO reports from transunioncs.com and there is no flag next to the offending accounts. I wish there was.

OP - Are there any account listed in the "Adverse Accounts" section of the report?

[Anonymous]

No charge-offs, nothing settled or adverse.  It's just really spooky.

[Anonymous]

Did you ever figure this out because the same thing is happening to us right now, and I have no idea what the deal is or how to fix it!

[AndySoCal]

Call Rels Credit and ask them or your lender a copy of your credit report that was pulled through them..