topic Re: Question about "unrated" status in Bankruptcy

Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:55:45 GMT

Hi - I just pulled my first credit report (TU) since discharging in December, and I have a question.

There are a few credit cards that had been paid off well prior to bk (with no lates, ever), and they are showing as being "unrated". I wouldn't have thought anything about it, except that it's showing as a red flag in the negative indicator column.

Any thoughts about whether this is correctly reported or how to change the rating if not?

Thanks!

Re: Question about "unrated" status

chasmith — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:15:30 GMT

Were the cards closed (by you or by the lender) before you filed? Even though they had a zero balance, the lender might have been included in your matrix, or if the lender learned of your filing they may have included you, and could then report IIB, 0 balance and unrated.

I was successful (because I had the CR from before filing) getting GEMB to return a couple of accounts to "paid as agreed, closed by credit grantor" after they tried to IIB them. But it was clear that if they had been open with zero balance when I filed, or if I couldn't prove they were closed and reported as such prior to BK filing, GEMB wouldn't have budged. (I had included one GEMB account in the BK).

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:09:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi - I just pulled my first credit report (TU) since discharging in December, and I have a question.

There are a few credit cards that had been paid off well prior to bk (with no lates, ever), and they are showing as being "unrated". I wouldn't have thought anything about it, except that it's showing as a red flag in the negative indicator column.

Any thoughts about whether this is correctly reported or how to change the rating if not?

Eventhough it was paid, prior to your filing for bankruptcy, were there any lates (30 days or more) associated with this account? More than likely, that's why the account is flagged. "Unrated" has absolutely no impact on your scores. One of my oldest tradelines is "unrated" (not flagged as a derog), and I've never had a bankruptcy. The age and positive payment history contribute positively. I assume it's "unrated" because it was an old Marshall Field's card that was loooooong dormant when Macy's purchased Marshall Fields. I think the account may have even been closed (due to non-use) by that time. It got updated to "unrated" sometime during the sale.

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:15:56 GMT

The cards were open when I filed but had no balance, had never been late (in 20 years), and hadn't been used in over a year. They were closed because of the bk. There were other cards I had that were in the same circumstances that only say "closed by grantor" and "paid as agreed".

I'm concerned because these cards are listed as negative by TU. Is this status something that can be changed? If so, do I just dispute it with TU, or do I try to contact the lender? It doesn't seem fair that I'm getting dinged for cards that I worked hard to pay off so they wouldn't be included in the bk.

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:50:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The cards were open when I filed but had no balance, had never been late (in 20 years), and hadn't been used in over a year. They were closed because of the bk. There were other cards I had that were in the same circumstances that only say "closed by grantor" and "paid as agreed".

I'm concerned because these cards are listed as negative by TU. Is this status something that can be changed? If so, do I just dispute it with TU, or do I try to contact the lender? It doesn't seem fair that I'm getting dinged for cards that I worked hard to pay off so they wouldn't be included in the bk.

Can you copy & paste the tradeline, minus any personally identifying information (e.g. account number) as it appears on your TU report?

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:01:23 GMT

Okay...it took me a minute to get it formatted correctly, but here it is...

I copied and pasted the "Credit at a Glance" and the information for one of the accounts that I'm talking about (Macy's). It is included as one of the 11 accounts with negative indicators that is hurting my FICO score (according to THEM). I also copied and pasted another account that has the exact same circumstances as the Macy's (JC Penney), but is reporting as "Paid as Agreed" and is not listed as one of the 11 derogatory accounts.

Credit At-A-Glance

Total past due: Credit history: Accounts with negative indicators:
No accounts past due 19 Years 11 (there's a red flag here)

MacYs Department Stores Feb, 2011

Status as of Feb, 2011
Date opened Aug, 2000
Date of last activity Oct, 2007
Date closed Sep, 2010
Loan type Charge Account
Account Type Revolving Account
Account holder Individual Account
Industry Department / Variety and Other Retail

Descriptions
Included in bankruptcy

Contact Information
Po Box 8218
Mason, OH 45040
(800) 243-6552

Balance Current Status
$0 Unrated

Seven year payment history 30 days late 0 times
60 days late 0 times
90+ days late 0 times

Worst Delinquency

None Reported

--------end of Macy's

--------beginning of JC Penney's

Gemb/Jc Penney Feb, 2011

Status as of Feb, 2011
Date opened Sep, 1995
Date closed Aug, 2010
Loan type Charge Account
Largest past balance $271
Account Type Revolving Account
Account holder Individual Account
Industry Department / Variety and Other Retail

Descriptions:
Closed

Contact Information
Po Box 981402
El Paso, TX 79998
(800) 542-0800

Balance Current Status
$0 Paid or paying as agreed

Seven year payment history 30 days late 0 times
60 days late 0 times
90+ days late 0 times

Recent payment history
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1
2009 2010 2011

Worst Delinquency

None Reported

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:18:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Okay...it took me a minute to get it formatted correctly, but here it is...

I copied and pasted the "Credit at a Glance" and the information for one of the accounts that I'm talking about (Macy's). It is included as one of the 11 accounts with negative indicators that is hurting my FICO score (according to THEM). I also copied and pasted another account that has the exact same circumstances as the Macy's (JC Penney), but is reporting as "Paid as Agreed" and is not listed as one of the 11 derogatory accounts.
Credit At-A-Glance
Total past due: Credit history: Accounts with negative indicators:
No accounts past due 19 Years 11 (there's a red flag here)

MacYs Department Stores Feb, 2011
Status as of Feb, 2011
Date opened Aug, 2000
Date of last activity Oct, 2007
Date closed Sep, 2010
Loan type Charge Account
Account Type Revolving Account
Account holder Individual Account
Industry Department / Variety and Other Retail

Descriptions
Included in bankruptcy

Balance Current Status
$0 Unrated

Seven year payment history 30 days late 0 times
60 days late 0 times
90+ days late 0 times

Worst Delinquency
None Reported

--------end of Macy's

It's the IIB (included in bankrpuptcy) that's causing it to be flagged as a negative, and impacting your score. If you paid the account in full, prior to filing for bankruptcy and there was no debt at all from Macy's to be discharged, I'd suggest a goodwill campaign to have the IIB status removed.

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:17:40 GMT

Thank you so much. Erm...what' a goodwill campaign? Are there threads I can search to answer this question?

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:32:26 GMT

Hi again...I have an update and a new question pertaining to this problem.

I disputed the rating with TU, explaining that the account was not included in the bk and that it had never been late and was paid in full prior to filing, and they "resolved" the dispute by changing my status from "unrated" to "payment after charge off/collection".

This is totally untrue. Do I have any recourse now that I have already filed a dispute and the results came back incorrect? How can Macy's blatantly report a lie like that when the issue is being specifically disputed?

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:01:53 GMT

It can be so frustrating, but I had a few accounts that had to be disputed because the first dispute came back with incorrect info.

It's hard to file an additional dispute online, because sometimes the system won't let you.

Just write a dispute letter and pop it in the mail.

Dear xxx,

On my report dated 1/2/2009 the following accounts are reporting incorrectly:

1) Account ABC # 12341234,

reports as "whatever it is reporting as"

and should report as "whatever the correct reporting should be - as in paid on time, never late"

Thank you,

beamMEup

address

social security number:

You may have to do this one or even two times. It's kinda like trying to get any number of other things in life to report correctly. But it's worth the effort to get the reporting correctly.

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:16:30 GMT

I just called Macy's. They told me that they CAN'T report as paid as agreed because they closed the account as a result of the bankruptcy. Even though it was not PART of the bk. A very condescending supervisor told me that it was not being reported as a collection account by them, and that I had to take it up with TU. I told him I had already done that and that I had just received the confirmation from TU that it was a collection. He basically told me too bad, it's TU's fault.

So I call TU. They told me that it's no longer reporting as a collection, but that the lender changed it back to "unrated" (probably while I was on the phone with them) . It IS however still being counted as a negative item on my report because it shows as included in the bankruptcy. TU told me they would conduct another investigation, but if that's the way Macy's chooses to report it, then that's just too bad because that's Macy's procedure. (And, after all, I did file a bankruptcy, so everything is going to be negative anyway - - these were the TU reps words!

I was told that if I was unhappy with that I could contact the Better Business Bureau. Is that my only recourse?

Re: Question about "unrated" status

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:13:36 GMT

Hi Redzer,

To tell you the truth, this question came to my mind when I read your earlier post, but I didn't - and still don't - know the answer.

Perhaps the answer is this:

All accounts you listed on your BK - and I believe you have to list ALL of your creditors when filing BK, whether you had a balance with them or not - are properly noted as IIB.

If you close the account before filing, then the account will not be IIB, and would just report closed.

I don't have any personal experience with this, because I closed accounts that had zero balances before filing. Perhaps someone more expert in this can give you additional feedback.

That being said, I haven't had significant issues with my IIB accounts. And I had one account that bounced back and forth between IIB and "paid as agreed." I didn't notice any significant score changes when it bounced from one side to the other.

It may be that you've gotten yours CR pretty cleaned up and can now concentrate on the rebuilding aspect.