topic Re: Another chargeoff question in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Another chargeoff question

myfico5378 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:05:16 GMT

Hi Everyone!

I've been reading here for quite a while and have posted a few times, but need more advice. I'm hoping you can help me with my DH's credit. I have a pretty good handle on my own credit and know what I have to do to get my score up, but his credit profile is completely different then mine so I'm not sure what the best way to proceed is.

History: DH has anxiety over credit/money/bills, etc. so he has turned this over to me. His credit has been poor since his divorce 4 years ago when he had to let a lot of credit cards charge off. I've pulled all of his scores over the last month and disputed several items with some improvement, but not much. His scores should improve some when his mortgage company updates since they are reporting 60 days past due.

I think our biggest problems on TU are:

Discover - Charge Off Balance: $6656 / Past Due: $5285 / CL: $7000 / Monthly payment: $134
DOLA was April 2005 and they have reported late payments every month since then. It is past SOL. Drop off date: 10/2011

Asset Acceptance LLC - Collection for HSBC Best Buy - Balance $1111

Two medical collections when he didn't have insurance. I plan to use the whychat process as soon as we have the money to PIF.

There are several other charge offs, but at least they all show $0 balance and haven't reported updates in quite some time. So, those aren't a major concern to me. I'm sure they won't look great under manual review or any review for that matter, but they don't appear to be hurting his score tremendously since they have aged.

After using the FICO score simulator, I think what is really killing him is the revolving utilization since these are included in his revolving balance and the current late pays on these accounts. What is the best course of action? Should we go ahead and pay the monthly payment and more when we can on Discover even though it is already charged off and risk resetting the drop-off date? Would it be better than having it report a new late every month?

Asset Acceptance is only reporting as a "true" collection on TU. It is listed as a collection factory account or something like that on EX and an installment account on EQ with a notation that it is a collection. I've disputed it on 2 of 3 reports, but haven't gotten the results yet.

DH's only positive open TL at this point are 2nd mortgage, vehicle, and one charge card. The charge card just started reporting as active this month. I noticed it still reported as open without any activity since 1999, but was his oldest account (19 years). So, we got on-line and set up on-line account access and requested a new card and made a small purchase with it (under 10% util).

Any suggestions?

Re: Another chargeoff question

RobertEG — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:48:35 GMT

Charge offs and collections stay on the CR for 7 years from the date of the delinquency leading up to the charge off or collection, and later account activity has no affect. Later payments, or lack thereof, or later closing of the account, have no affect on "updating" the mandated period for deletion from your CR. Any DOLA cannot reset the drop off date. The FCRA was specifically amended in 2002 to make this explicitly clear.

Re: Another chargeoff question

myfico5378 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:24:29 GMT

Thanks! So, it wouldn't hurt him to pay that balance down to help his revolving utilization?

Re: Another chargeoff question

fused — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:02:02 GMT

Since the CO is being reported by the OC, Discover, paying it might improve scores.

Re: Another chargeoff question

myfico5378 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:08:17 GMT

I just thought of something else. If he was to start making payments on it, would that reset the SOL? I'd hate for them to come back and sue him after he started making payments since he is already past SOL.

Re: Another chargeoff question

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:27:58 GMT

It would reset the SOL (statute of limitations). If you could not pay the whole balance off, you could later find yourself in court for the whole remaining balance. I would not pay them until you had the full balance, and I would suggest that you offer them payment for deletion. Some companies are willing to delete if you pay in full.

Re: Another chargeoff question

myfico5378 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:48:42 GMT

That's what I was afraid of. Thank you for your reply! I think we'll wait to do anything until we can PIF it.