topic Re: Credit score 700 with collections in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:01:42 GMT

I wanted to see if anyone on this board has paid collections and still have a credit score of 700. I have 3 paid collections for medical form about 1 year ago. I am only using 20% of my credit. I have had a credit history for over 15 years. My mortgage and car payment has been on time. Only a couple of 30-day lates from 6 months ago.

Is it still possible to get into the 700 club with collections or once you have a collection, you will always be in the low 600 club?

Thanks.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

smallfry — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:03:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I wanted to see if anyone on this board has paid collections and still have a credit score of 700. I have 3 paid collections for medical form about 1 year ago. I am only using 20% of my credit. I have had a credit history for over 15 years. My mortgage and car payment has been on time. Only a couple of 30-day lates from 6 months ago.
Is it still possible to get into the 700 club with collections or once you have a collection, you will always be in the low 600 club?
Thanks.

I have 2 public records. Scores are 706-717-731. Watch your scores go up after the baddies age and you get the utilization under 10%. You are in good shape.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:05:32 GMT

nileshraj wrote:

I wanted to see if anyone on this board has paid collections and still have a credit score of 700. I have 3 paid collections for medical form about 1 year ago. I am only using 20% of my credit. I have had a credit history for over 15 years. My mortgage and car payment has been on time. Only a couple of 30-day lates from 6 months ago.

Is it still possible to get into the 700 club with collections or once you have a collection, you will always be in the low 600 club?

Thanks.

First, keep in mind that paid vs. unpaid makes no difference as far as FICO is concerned. The only thing that matters to FICO regarding collections is how recent they are and how many you have. The older they get, the less they hurt.

I had one collection that was 6.5 years old and had low 700s on EX. TU was stuck at 696 until it dropped, though, and then it went to 744 overnight.

Message Edited by cheddar on 06-09-2008 02:05 PM

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:15:56 GMT

Does it make a "Big" difference between a 10% utilization versus 20%? I saw a significant score increase when I saw it drop from 90% to 50%. It was about a 50 point jump. But just wondering if there is a big difference once you get it down to about 20% and if going to 10 makes that big of a difference.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

MidnightVoice — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:31:00 GMT

Score can be over 700 with one paid collection - 2 of my three were

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

marty56 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:52:49 GMT

Big difference between 9% and 10%. 11 points on TU 16 points on Ex

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

haulingthescoreup — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:01:36 GMT

@marty56 wrote:

Big difference between 9% and 10%. 11 points on TU 16 points on Ex

Good illustration of why we keep harping on "under 10%, not at 10%." Lots of people miss the distinction.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:46:45 GMT

I'll even go as far and say that you might get a nice bump if you get it under 5%. It's worth a noticeable amount of points for me at least.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:10:32 GMT

I wasn't so lucky. this is from a thread that I started yesterday: I’ve recently had 2 major collection accounts removed from my credit report. I have all of my alerts checked, but I haven’t received any alerts showing an increase in my score. I checked with the 3 credit bureaus individually and they show that the removals did take place and my score has increased. I ordered today’s score through MyFico and it did show that the collections were removed, but my score hasn’t changed. This is a little disheartening because if this is the means to where the majority of creditors base their decisions, they’re not getting an accurate up to date score. For instance, the score that was given to me directly from Experian and TransUnion is now approx 30 points higher than what’s being shown in MyFico. Does anyone know why that is? Please Help! I'm trying to do get a refinance, and the lender told me that my score had to be at least 680 to qualify. Well my middle score is 649 and my high score is 673. I thought with the collection removals, it would surely take me closer to my goal. Those removals didn't increase my score not even (1) point.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:59:27 GMT

The1 - I don't know why you arent gaining points for getting them removed. Do you have other accounts in bad standing?

What I can tell you is that the reason your scores are higher when you pull from the bureaus is because they are FAKO scores, not FICO scores. FAKO scores are not the product most lenders use. About 90% of major lenders use FICO and thus those scores are bunk.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:38 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@marty56 wrote:
Big difference between 9% and 10%. 11 points on TU 16 points on Ex

Good illustration of why we keep harping on "under 10%, not at 10%." Lots of people miss the distinction.

And my understanding is they round up, so 8.99% is something to aim for. Or 3.99%

Message Edited by debtisgood on 06-09-2008 05:00 PM

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Junejer — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:11:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
@marty56 wrote:
Big difference between 9% and 10%. 11 points on TU 16 points on Ex

Good illustration of why we keep harping on "under 10%, not at 10%." Lots of people miss the distinction.
And my understanding is they round up, so 8.99% is something to aim for. Or 3.99%

Message Edited by debtisgood on 06-09-2008 05:00 PM

Yes, they round up...to the nearest 1%.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:48:51 GMT

My scores were higher (719, if I recall) before I got a timeshare loan. I did not realize it did not count as a mortgage loan. Also they made an error in the loan which I am corrrecting.

Evan after all that my scores, with 2 (paid) collection accounts in 2004 (water bill and cell phone bill), and with one credit card with a 30 day late in 2003 and another with three thirty day lates in 2003-2004 is:

5/29/08 EQ 695/TU 707/EX 706

I am still angry about the rate drop, but had nothing to do with the collections. So yes, you can be over 700 FICO

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:44:21 GMT

As soon as I get my uti down, my scores will probably be in the 710 to 720 range with multiple unpaid collections.

How can this be? I have an educational slideshow on "postnuclear credit recovery," or how to get good credit back despite the baddies.

http://allaboutthebenjamins.org/RecoveringCredit1.html

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:02:21 GMT

One paid collection showing. It happened 2.5 years ago.

One 90 day late 2.5 years ago.

One credit card with 4% utility.

One mortgage, one student loan, one car payment

Experian: 740
Equifax: 732
Transunion:711

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

RobertEG — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:08:27 GMT

Just to reiterate what Cheddar posted. The fact that a debt is either charged off, placed into collection, or whether or not you make any payments on the debt, has no effect on how long it may be reported. It is 7 years from the date of the delinquency that resulted in the CO or CA activity, and not the date of the CO or collection. Paying the CO or CA debt will be reflected in your CR, and might help in a manual review, but has no effect on FICO scoring.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:32:05 GMT

The most important factor for earning a 700+ FICO is hard to put a finger on when you have collections... If your credit history is less than 10 years old, with at least one collection, it will be harder to hit 700 than for someone who has a 15+ year history with exactly the same collections.

Of course that is only one of the many factors that will affect your ability to reach that pinnacle... utilization, average age, length, credit mix, etc, etc, etc.

So without a bigger understanding of your credit history, it's really hard to say. But is it possible? Absolutely.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:47:19 GMT

Some of the stuff mentioned is worse than mine, and I cant seem to get out of the 600s. Those ca that update every month, could that be why. I have one that will fall off in 2 yrs, but they update every month.

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:27:17 GMT

Ok I have 2 CO that are 4 yrs. old

I have 1 collection over 4 yr old

I have 3(30) day lates over 2yr old

Thats it. My cards have 0-2% uti

My avg age is 3yr.

But they update the report date on the above every month. Still in the 600, what else can I do??

5 open accts showing pd as agree

Re: Credit score 700 with collections

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:55:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I have 2 CO that are 4 yrs. old
I have 1 collection over 4 yr old
I have 3(30) day lates over 2yr old
Thats it. My cards have 0-2% uti

My avg age is 3yr.

But they update the report date on the above every month. Still in the 600, what else can I do??

5 open accts showing pd as agree

Do you have any installments or mortgages? And how old are they and the CC accounts?

Just on what you've shown, my guess is that both CO are way too new (and certainly not good that there are two of them), so those (and the collection) are probably the worst kickers to your score, and if they are legit, then the only thing to do on those is to let them age and fall off (before you try to DV or anything, check your state's statute of limitations to make sure you are not waking a sleeping beast that might take the fight to court)

The lates are not good either, but less harmful because the were 30 day lates, but are past the 2 year mark (but still not good). If you have a good/current relationship with these creditors, it wouldn't hurt to try and GW, and if that fails try calling them and plead your case.

The biggest thing is letting your current 5 open accounts age... and more importantly let the them age while paying on time.

Showing a current track record of on-time payments is the first step in correcting your past woes.