topic Re: Estimate of future credit score in Credit Cards

Estimate of future credit score

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 18:17:45 GMT

I am trying to estimate what my credit score will be in one year, provided no additional problems happen to my credit. My current score is 635. I have one credit card open with a low balance and $5000 limit. I have no debt and no current or past loans. I have a closed credit card that was 60 days late seven years ago. I have three collections that were posted on my credit agency report, two in 2011, and one in March 2013. What is an estimate of my credit score in one year?

Re: Estimate of future credit score

John060675 — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 18:53:57 GMT

Sadly, it is impossible to say. I asked a similar question dealing with just an utilization change, and I learned quickly that it was impossible to predict the score change.

I wish I could be of more help.

Re: Estimate of future credit score

NonSufficientFunds — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 18:59:13 GMT

Unfortunately, You will probably be in the same place.

Accounts in collection are very bad things, and they will keep you from making much progress with your score.

Each collection can appear on all three major CRAs concurrently (meaning that you now have NINE derogatories to deal with, before all your reports are "clean"). And this does not even contemplate that some collection agencies give up and sell your delinquent account to another agency (meaning that for some time, a single collection account can appear more than once on the same credit report), making it seem like you have more delinquent accounts than you actually do.

The GOOD NEWS is that you are projecting one-year out, which is plenty of time to get all of those negative marks removed (if you are determined to do so).

You didn't mention the amounts on the accounts in collection status, but if it possible to use a balance transfer check from your good credit card, you might be able to use the cash to pay off your bad accounts.

After the old accounts are satisfied, you can begin the process of asking the collection agencies to stop reporting the accounts as delinquent. Usually, a settlement can be reached, and your collections can be removed.

Since your collection accounts are fairly recent, you don't have too many other options. You will have to deal with the derogatories to the best of your ability, before you can expect any major improvement in your FICO scores.

After those issues are dealt with, and you continue to maintain your existing credit card account in good standing, your scores will improve dramatically. But it may take a good part of a year to get where you want to be.

Stay 100% focused on getting rid of the baddies, before doing anymore damage to your reports with additional inquiries, which you probably already know, aren't going to get you anywhere.

Good Luck !!

Re: Estimate of future credit score

blunderer — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:01:15 GMT

I'm sure most would agree that it would be hard to guesstimate anyone's credit score a year from now even knowing all the variables. However, based on what you stated, assuming you're not planning to add any new credit the only thing that would change for you is that everything would age and while that's a positive, I don't believe that would add very many points in just a year.

Re: Estimate of future credit score

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:05:12 GMT

@NonSufficientFunds wrote:
Unfortunately, You will probably be in the same place.

Accounts in collection are very bad things, and they will keep you from making much progress with your score.

Each collection can appear on all three major CRAs concurrently (meaning that you now have NINE derogatories to deal with, before all your reports are "clean"). And this does not even contemplate that some collection agencies give up and sell your delinquent account to another agency (meaning that for some time, a single collection account can appear more than once on the same credit report), making it seem like you have more delinquent accounts than you actually do.

The GOOD NEWS is that you are projecting one-year out, which is plenty of time to get all of those negative marks removed (if you are determined to do so).

You didn't mention the amounts on the accounts in collection status, but if it possible to use a balance transfer check from your good credit card, you might be able to use the cash to pay off your bad accounts.

After the old accounts are satisfied, you can begin the process of asking the collection agencies to stop reporting the accounts as delinquent. Usually, a settlement can be reached, and your collections can be removed.

Since your collection accounts are fairly recent, you don't have too many other options. You will have to deal with the derogatories to the best of your ability, before you can expect any major improvement in your FICO scores.

After those issues are dealt with, and you continue to maintain your existing credit card account in good standing, your scores will improve dramatically. But it may take a good part of a year to get where you want to be.

Stay 100% focused on getting rid of the baddies, before doing anymore damage to your reports with additional inquiries, which you probably already know, aren't going to get you anywhere.

Good Luck !!

My understanding is that if a CA sells the account, they have to remove it. If there are multiple entries on the report from different CAs for the same delinquency, then they can be removed. The OC, however, can continue to report, but only one CA can. The posters on the RYC forum would be in a better position to address this, but that is my understanding.

Re: Estimate of future credit score

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:21:05 GMT

I've paid off all the accounts. I will work to remove the collections from my report through working with the collection agencies. Thank you for your help.

Re: Estimate of future credit score

NonSufficientFunds — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:35:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My understanding is that if a CA sells the account, they have to remove it. If there are multiple entries on the report from different CAs for the same delinquency, then they can be removed. The OC, however, can continue to report, but only one CA can. The posters on the RYC forum would be in a better position to address this, but that is my understanding.

I am not sure what the law says regarding the removal of duplicate collection accounts, so I can only relate my personal experince.

Some of my old accounts were double-reported (which naturally infuriated me). The accounts can get tossed around like a hot potato, resulting in the collection agency AND the original creditor reporting the same debt, under different account numbers.

I had over a dozen derogatories spread accross all three reports, so I hired an organization called "Lexington Law" to work on my case. I know that there is some animosity regarding LexLaw, but in my case, they were extremely effective at getting my baddies removed.

In less than one year, they had ALL the negatives removed and my credit reports are now spotless. My FICO score also jumped from 560 (last January) to 774 (as of December). It was well-worth the $80 per month.

Of course anyone can tackle the process of cleaning up their own report for free. But for me, it was worth paying the price to someone who would work aggressively on the case and get the job done.

Re: Estimate of future credit score

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:51:29 GMT

Future score is hard to estimate.

If you want to try to tie this down, you might do some Google searches, for example:

site:myfico.com effect score collection age

If you are aiming to get approved for a specific future account, for example a mortgage or CC, then I'd research that specifically, and find out the impact of collections that are a few years old.