topic Waste of time in Rebuilding Your Credit

Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 03:51:24 GMT

6 months in and scores have only gone up 15 points. Paid off auto loan, paid down credit debt to less than 10%. Nothing bad has been added to my reports in 11 months. Most negative info is over 2 to 3 years old. Scores all right around 605.

Re: Waste of time

washpadude — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 07:44:21 GMT

Do you have another installment loan? If not, paying off your auto loan likely lowered your score.

Re: Waste of time

AutoBot — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:59:26 GMT

I feel your pain. My FICO scores are near where they are at the beginning of 2016 even though I have 3 positive revolving accounts (15% util) and all negative accounts are 16 months old. In my case, I have an old Kohls charge off account from almost 4 years ago and a NFCU charge off from almost 3 years ago that continue to report late/past due. Pretty sure these 2 accounts will be dogging my scores for years to come.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 11:32:28 GMT

@jdxprs1 wrote:
6 months in and scores have only gone up 15 points. Paid off auto loan, paid down credit debt to less than 10%. Nothing bad has been added to my reports in 11 months. Most negative info is over 2 to 3 years old. Scores all right around 605.

Hi jdxprs1,

I certainly understand your frustration and the feeling that this is a "waste of time". I have been there myself having the same feeling. I think it is going to require much more time for the baddies to "age" like wine ages. I think the only way around that is to somehow get the baddies removed from your credit reports- especially if you want huge jumps in a short period of time.

Your score is improving though, and the sure way to make it reverse is for additional baddies to jump onto your credit reports.

Please continue the good behavior of making your payments on time, as well as keeping individual credit lines utilization down, as well as your overall credit utiliztion down as well. No matter what though- no more baddies.

Hang in there!

(-:

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 15:04:54 GMT

I have 2 installment loans that are 6 months old but aren't showing up on reports yet. They should show up in January.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 16:03:02 GMT

FICOdeMIno - Baddies don't age - they stay there and rot. My baddies are all 6+ years old and are sitting on my credit file like a pile of cow manure lies on the ground. In the mean time I opened a new Credit Card a couple of months ago, less than 10% utilization and my scores have increased just a couple of points. All my baddies age off by June 2017, so please don't tell people it takes 2 years - it takes the full 7 years PLUS some. Paying off debt actually LOWERS scores - I lost 40 points when I paid off my mortgage.

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 16:24:28 GMT

Flyingifr

That's how you know it's all a scam designed to cost people money. Paying off debt should never make you a higher risk. Same thing happened to me when I paid off my last vehicle.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:07:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
FICOdeMIno - Baddies don't age - they stay there and rot. My baddies are all 6+ years old and are sitting on my credit file like a pile of cow manure lies on the ground. In the mean time I opened a new Credit Card a couple of months ago, less than 10% utilization and my scores have increased just a couple of points. All my baddies age off by June 2017, so please don't tell people it takes 2 years - it takes the full 7 years PLUS some. Paying off debt actually LOWERS scores - I lost 40 points when I paid off my mortgage.

Hi Flyingifr,

Never said it takes two years, I said it takes time to age- like wine ages. That means a while... lol... You're right though they will stay on your credit report for approximately 7 years plus a little bit. You are right thought that paying debt off does acutally lower you score, but under a manual review they always look good- especially more so if there are no lates or anything like that with the specific credit line. The drop can be a significant one when you factor in a large amount like a mortgage. You can often regain some points if you take out another type of installment loan such as personal secure loan line of credit. Then you could do a loan of say $500, within a week or so of opening the account, pay it down to next to nothing, and then not pay again until the loan period is almost up. That way you've freed up the majority of the $500, and making very very minimal payments until that 5 or 6 years is up. Many people have did that here on the forums. I am hopefull to pay off my mortgage, but at the same time I know my score will drop and then I'll use that trick in that point in time- unless the rules have changed at which point I will just deal with it then.

Here in USA they want us to be in debt no doubt because it makes the credit lendors so much money.

Scores are like a double edged sword. Too much credit can cause problems, and too little credit can do the same thing.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 17:14:54 GMT

my scores have stagnated as well...

congrats on paying off your auto loan though. could be why, maybe you can get a line of credit or loan from the bank even if you just sock it away-like 0% intro rate maybe? idk. im still paying on mine so I don't know what will happen when it's done.

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:13:41 GMT

I have 2 capital one charge offs that have been reporting every month. They have been bad for about 4 years now. Should I pay them off to get them to stop reporting?

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:27:51 GMT

@jdxprs1 wrote:
I have 2 capital one charge offs that have been reporting every month. They have been bad for about 4 years now. Should I pay them off to get them to stop reporting?

How much are these charge offs? Also, just because you pay, will not mean that they will not continue to be reported. You could ask to PFD, and see what they say. If they say yes, I would probably pay them off immediately to get them removed. You still have at least 3 more years to go of reporting.

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:31:38 GMT

Both between 600 and 800. They report as late every month and they show as high balances on 500 limits, so I think they are effecting my utilization percentage.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 20:43:49 GMT

my scores only went up about 10 points this past year, and i had some pretty positive things happen. i gained about $20k in available credit, paid off a car loan and re opened an installment loan so i didnt lose the points, kept debt low, got in with discover and amex, and only gained about 10 points. its definitely a sloooow sloooooooooooow journey

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:05:18 GMT

@jdxprs1 wrote:
Both between 600 and 800. They report as late every month and they show as high balances on 500 limits, so I think they are effecting my utilization percentage.

I would certainly pay them. Like I say though, reach out to them as ask for PFD. If they do not agree to do that, then counter if they can simply mark the account as closed/paid in full.

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:09:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
my scores only went up about 10 points this past year, and i had some pretty positive things happen. i gained about $20k in available credit, paid off a car loan and re opened an installment loan so i didnt lose the points, kept debt low, got in with discover and amex, and only gained about 10 points. its definitely a sloooow sloooooooooooow journey

You are absolutely right. It often is a very slow process. Getting good credit is easy, it is keeping it that is hard. And once we get it, we have to continue as much as possible to exercise sound judgment for sure. This 2nd chance that I have, I am certainly not trying to take it for granted.

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:14:31 GMT

If I pay in full they have to mark it as paid in full don't they?

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:43:13 GMT

When a charged off account is paid, the balance will be updated to show that it is no longer past due. However, the account entry will still show the amount that was initially charged off as a loss and the payment history of the account, including previous late payments.

If you pay what you owe, it should be listed as "paid in full" not "settled in full." The collector will report to the original creditor that the account was paid, and the original creditor will add to your credit report that the account is a "paid charge-off."

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:48:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
FICOdeMIno - Baddies don't age - they stay there and rot. My baddies are all 6+ years old and are sitting on my credit file like a pile of cow manure lies on the ground. In the mean time I opened a new Credit Card a couple of months ago, less than 10% utilization and my scores have increased just a couple of points. All my baddies age off by June 2017, so please don't tell people it takes 2 years - it takes the full 7 years PLUS some. Paying off debt actually LOWERS scores - I lost 40 points when I paid off my mortgage.

You got that right!

Re: Waste of time

jdxprs1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:49:44 GMT

I don't have a collections agency reporting these accounts. So even though they are charged off, I think capital one still has them.

By paying them off, it will stop the reporting of late every month and make my utilization look better right?

Re: Waste of time

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:51:37 GMT

@jdxprs1 wrote:
I have 2 capital one charge offs that have been reporting every month. They have been bad for about 4 years now. Should I pay them off to get them to stop reporting?

That right there is what is and what will continue to hold your scores down. Paying them will report zero. But they will haunt your scores until they are GONE.