"level of delinquencies" shown as a risk score factor - but i don't see any

[Anonymous]

Yes it was a mortgage lender who pulled the reports.

The short history we can do nothing about - thankfully he is meeting the requirements of some lenders for number and age of trade lines. 

EX doesn't seem to be reporting on his AU account. He has no negatives on his own accounts. 

I read about the goodwill route yesterday on another thread on this site and am sending out a letter to my creditor today. the delinquency is a 30 day late from june 2008. if they are kind and take this off what kind of boost in his score could we expect? he is at 692 - honestly we just want to get him above 700 since that would put him in a more favorable mortgage rate category. i am also considering the fact that the inquiries we are amassing now while we rate shop will have an impact and will offset slightly any positives that may come of getting the delinquency removed. 

the previous inquiries are starting to fall off - it took us over 18 months to find a property and during that time we had to refresh our approvals every once in a while. one inquiry just fell off in september and we saw a 7 point increase. the next is scheduled to fall off in november. and the third will stay on until june 2011.

[haulingthescoreup]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Yes it was a mortgage lender who pulled the reports.

The short history we can do nothing about - thankfully he is meeting the requirements of some lenders for number and age of trade lines. 

EX doesn't seem to be reporting on his AU account. He has no negatives on his own accounts. 

I read about the goodwill route yesterday on another thread on this site and am sending out a letter to my creditor today. the delinquency is a 30 day late from june 2008. if they are kind and take this off what kind of boost in his score could we expect? he is at 692 - honestly we just want to get him above 700 since that would put him in a more favorable mortgage rate category. i am also considering the fact that the inquiries we are amassing now while we rate shop will have an impact and will offset slightly any positives that may come of getting the delinquency removed. 

the previous inquiries are starting to fall off - it took us over 18 months to find a property and during that time we had to refresh our approvals every once in a while. one inquiry just fell off in september and we saw a 7 point increase. the next is scheduled to fall off in november. and the third will stay on until june 2011.

---

OK, the fact that his EX FICO is 60 points higher without the AU card(s) --I've lost track, are there one or two? --tells me that maybe it's hurting more than helping after all.

You might seriously consider taking him off, letting his reports update without the AU cards, and seeing what happens with EQ and TU.

If his reports are pretty much identical, other than the AU account(s) not being on EX, and EX is 60 points higher, that tells me that it's the negative on the AU...

...but that doesn't make sense. One 30-day late from June 2008 shouldn't be worth 60 points. There's not other negatives anywhere??

How old is/are the AU account(s), and what is his AAoA (average age of accounts)? If the AU accounts are younger than his AAoA, they're not helping him at all.

[Anonymous]

thanks so much for continuing to give me feedback here! i really appreciate it.

he has only 1 AU account, opened in my name in january 2008. i have other, much older accounts with no negative activity but they are dept store charge accounts and i haven't used them in years. i'm not sure with such low activity that it would have an affect on his score if i added him to one of those. 

his other accounts were opened 5/2009 and 7/2009.

about a year ago, we stupidly closed an account of his that was opened on 12/2007.

this is the bottom line - we are approved for a loan with his 692 score. realistically, getting to 700 might save us .25% on our mortgage rate - i can handle it if we never get there. on the other hand, i would have a nervous breakdown if instead of improving his score by removing him as an AU we ended up lowering it below the 680 mark. (the score range for our mortgage rate is 680-699). 

is my best bet just to write a great letter and hope my request for goodwill has an impact?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

he has only 1 AU account, opened in my name in january 2008. i have other, much older accounts with no negative activity but they are dept store charge accounts and i haven't used them in years. i'm not sure with such low activity that it would have an affect on his score if i added him to one of those. 

---

Adding him as an AU on older accounts with no negative activity is a smart move.  As long as they are still open, they'll do fine.  Low activity doesn't impact your score or his.  What you're looking for here is age.  If you post what those cards are, folks will be able to let you know if they report AU's to the CRA's (not all do).

[haulingthescoreup]

Yes, but I would also put him on one or more of those old department store cards PDQ, if you can find one that will report AU's. Start another thread here with the names of cards that you're considering and ask if anyone knows for sure if these report AU's. It's not how busy they are or their CL's, it's that age. A couple of those, if they're really that old, might do the trick.

Test whether the department store accounts are open by going online to their store sites and pretend to order something. On the payment screen, enter your account number. If it accepts it, the accounts should still be open. Many store card accounts stay open nearly forever.

The 2007 closed account is still counted in his AAoA, so that's not a problem. AAoA includes all accounts of all types (other than any listed under collections or public records), whether open or closed. Closed accounts usually stay on reports for 10 years before falling off. Some stay longer, some depart much sooner.

How to calculate AAoA (thank goodness, he has a very thin file! )

12/2007 --34 months

01/2008 --33 months

05/2009 --29 months

07/2009 --27 months

(34 + 33 + 29 + 27) / 4 = 123 / 4 = 30.75 months = 2 years, 6 months and change, which rounds down to 2 years. To calculate the impact of any additional accounts, just figure out how old they are in months, add them to the existing 123 months, divide by 4+ however many additional accounts you add, and there's the new AAoA.

Also, and this might be huge, if the accounts are old enough, it could really help with his oldest account number. Right now, he's at 2 years oldest (the closed account is 2 years 10 months) and AAoA of 2 years. It might really help the score to get an account that is 9 or 10 years old on there, if you have one, but even 5 or 6 might help as well. Plus, of course, the AAoA would increase.

edit to add: btw, that closed account will hit 3 years in December. There might be some score improvement then, just from having the oldest account go over 2 years old.

[Anonymous]

the card i would add him to is a barney's charge card. it is my oldest open card and has no negatives. i opened it in 2001 and i last used it in december 2008. 

does this card report AUs?

my concern is for the short term - is there any potential negative short term impact to adding him as AU? there is no inquiry involved, right?

[haulingthescoreup]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

the card i would add him to is a barney's charge card. it is my oldest open card and has no negatives. i opened it in 2001 and i last used it in december 2008. 

does this card report AUs?

my concern is for the short term - is there any potential negative short term impact to adding him as AU? there is no inquiry involved, right?

---

No inquiry, and no "new account" ding, as the account itself is old. It's as if it had been there all along.