topic Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :) in Rebuilding Your Credit

Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 07:24:46 GMT

Shocked. I paid off two maxed ccs, and also the alert said that one of my old derogatory accounts went positive today. Took my score from a 564 to 638. Tried to copy the exact alert in here to get some feedback, because I'd been GW'ing this old $57 charged off account, which happened to be my oldest cc ever, opened in 2003.

Will copy it in tomorrow, as I am VERY curious as to whether this change is an error and I should expect the points to go away again lol.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Shogun — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 13:44:26 GMT

Congrats!

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:59:50 GMT

Anyone have any ideas?? Here are the details of the credit alert that may have caused such a great jump:

1 of your accounts reported changes

HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES

(XXXXXXXXXXXX****)

Account opened: 11/2004

	Previously reported	Newly reported
Balance:	$0
Past due:	$0	$0
Status:	Bad Debt; Placed for collection;	Bad Debt; Placed for collection;
Last activity:	9/1/2007	9/1/2007
Description:	Consumer disputes this account information Paid charge off Account closed by credit grantor Credit card	Consumer disputes this account information Account transferred or sold Charge off account Credit card

Contact: HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES, PO Box 98706, Las Vegas, NV, 891938706 • (800) 477-6000

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

madmann26 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:03:19 GMT

If that HSBC was reporting a balance, it's very possible that the zero balance caused a nice drop in utilization, thus positively affecting your score.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Shogun — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:04:02 GMT

@westo12 wrote:
Anyone have any ideas?? Here are the details of the credit alert that may have caused such a great jump:

1 of your accounts reported changes
HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES
(XXXXXXXXXXXX****)

Account opened: 11/2004
Previously reported Newly reported
Balance: $0
Past due: $0 $0
Status: Bad Debt; Placed for collection; Bad Debt; Placed for collection;
Last activity: 9/1/2007 9/1/2007
Description: Consumer disputes this account information
Paid charge off
Account closed by credit grantor
Credit card Consumer disputes this account information
Account transferred or sold
Charge off account
Credit card
Contact: HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES, PO Box 98706, Las Vegas, NV, 891938706 • (800) 477-6000

I don't really see any significant change in the reporting status. It shows $0 balance so it wouldn't factor into util, shows it was in dispute. I honestly have no idea.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:23:05 GMT

Did a side by side comparison. Here are changes to how acct is reporting:

Old

Date Opened - 4/11/2

Activity Description - N/A

New

Date Opened - 11/15/2004

Activity Description - Transferred/Sold

Could the date change have caused this? I always thought that date looked weird, but figured it meant 11/2/2004...

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Shogun — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:26:14 GMT

That is the only possibility I see. Maybe they had it interpreted as 2012 before and now it looks 8 years older. Anyway,, take it, run with it... Congrats!

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

DaveSignal — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:27:22 GMT

It was in dispute before, and it is still in dispute now, so I don't think this change had any effect whatsoever. I think all the points were from you paying off your maxed cards and getting a good util percentage.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:41:40 GMT

@DaveSignal wrote:
It was in dispute before, and it is still in dispute now, so I don't think this change had any effect whatsoever. I think all the points were from you paying off your maxed cards and getting a good util percentage.

I haven't disputed it for over 3-4 years now. As far as paying off the two maxed cards, would going from before & after below cause such a jump alone??

	Bal	Lim	Util
CC1	297	300	99%
CC2	291	300	97%
CC3	466	320	146%
CC4	779	809	96%
CC5	2770	3000	92%
Totals	4602	4729	97%

	Bal	Lim	Util
CC1	0	300	0%
CC2	0	300	0%
CC3	466	320	146%
CC4	779	809	96%
CC5	2770	3000	92%
Totals	4014	4729	84%

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

DaveSignal — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:02:51 GMT

I think credit card utilization is the single greatest factor in a FICO score. And I am sure your score would continue to go up if you paid those other balances down. When the word 'dispute' is in the description field, that account is not scored the same and doesn't have any great effect on your score.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:08:52 GMT

Dave, Gotcha. Thanks for the input. One last question, am I figuring my total util correct? Average of all individual util percentages (what I did)? Or do I take the sum of all of the card balances, then divide into the total avail credit limits to get the overall util?

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

DaveSignal — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:15:06 GMT

your total util calculation is not correct. It is the total debt on all cards / total line of credit on all cards.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 02:42:46 GMT

Thanks for that correction.

One last question, my current util is showing 78%, it was 84% last scorewatch. But now in the positive factors, "You have many accounts that are in good standing" was added. This wasn't there before the Household cc update.

Makes me want to say that while the 13% decrease in util did help, but it ultimately was the change in status/date of that credit card that made my score jump that much.

If NOT, and it was truly just the util, then I can only imagine what my score is going to be when I get the remaining balances down as well!

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Shogun — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:38:24 GMT

Get that util below 10% and "I" wonder what it could be!

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:08:52 GMT

Lol, no joke right? I just moved in with a friend so I could pay off all my cc debt, clear a few remaining collections (total $1k) and rehab my savings for a home purchase by next year around May. After seeing this jump, I'm more motivated than ever!

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:26:29 GMT

Congrats! I would definitely at least get that 146% acct paid down.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:23:14 GMT

I budgeted to pay the 146% in full next wk, plus an addtl pmt on another card to get that one under 90% prior to stmt close/next reporting also.

I also added a new cc (small limit 700), which will take my help my util a little also. Although I will take a ding on AAofA, I do have a CA that agreed to a PFD for 2 recent collections (within last year) and already have deleted from one bureau, just waiting on another, so hopefully those offset eachother...

After these all report, I'll be at 59% util and will get all of that down by the end of this year ideally.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

LIGHTNIN — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:32:36 GMT

@westo12 wrote:
Anyone have any ideas?? Here are the details of the credit alert that may have caused such a great jump:

1 of your accounts reported changes
HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES
(XXXXXXXXXXXX****)

Account opened: 11/2004
Previously reported Newly reported
Balance: $0
Past due: $0 $0
Status: Bad Debt; Placed for collection; Bad Debt; Placed for collection;
Last activity: 9/1/2007 9/1/2007
Description: Consumer disputes this account information
Paid charge off
Account closed by credit grantor
Credit card Consumer disputes this account information
Account transferred or sold
Charge off account
Credit card
Contact: HOUSEHOLD CREDIT SERVICES, PO Box 98706, Las Vegas, NV, 891938706 • (800) 477-6000

Were there lates reported before, that are not reporting now?

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

westo12 — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:30:33 GMT

On an old report dated 2010, there are two 60 day lates showing in Nov & Dec 2006. On a 2011 report, those lates are gone. On my 09/12 report, it says "No 81-month payment data available for display".

I also noticed that on the new report, the closed date is 12/2006, whereas previous reports do not show a closed date.

Re: Scorewatch score increase.. 74 points today. :)

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 23:13:11 GMT

Congrats