CC payments on CR

[JohnDoe12]

Hi Everyone,

My some of my CCs are reporting my payments on my CC report. The problem is the reporting is wrong. It will say 1 thing for a balance and then a payment that doesn't match the balance. I always pay my statement balance each month. Since I have multiple cards and some I use infrequenty, I find it strange that it is being reported that I pay about $200 a month, but did use the card in that month (or any time around then). 

Is it worth disputing? Going for a house soon and need to get things tidy.

Thanks,

JD12

[Anonymous]

It may depend on when (time of month) the credit issuer reports your account. I had the hardest time figuring that out when I first came to the forum because I paid in full every month, but you coudn't tell that looking at my credit reports. The amount paid that is listed is often the minimum due. Once in the forum I was able to time my payments to that I raised my credit score. Others with more experience will answer and help.

[Anonymous]

Hello JohnDoe!  It sounds like you have two questions: 

First is an interesting question about your credit cards and how they are reporting over time.  If I understand you right, you are observing that the long term payment history for each CC doesn't look exactly right for at least a few of your cards.  For example, suppose you have a Chase Freedom.  In your latest credit report, it might show the last 10 months of balances and amounts paid for that card, and some of them don't line up with what you think they actually were.  Is that what you are saying?

Second is basically: "I am planning to buy a house and I need to get my credit score as high as it could be -- can anyone give me some help?"

The first question is interesting, and we can talk about it, but it won't have any impact on the second question, which is probably the one you really care about.  All past and current models of FICO use only the last reported balance, so that's the one that matters.  So in what follows I will give you advice that just focuses on the second  question.

Timeframe:

    *  Have you picked a particular property out yet?

    *  If you had to guess, when do you think you be closing on a particular house?  3 months from now?  6-9 months from now?  18 months?

Credit cards:

    * If you don't know this already, learn when the statement cycle ends for each card.  Each card will typically report whatever that balance is on that day to the three CRAs.

    * Get all of your credit cards (except one) to report $0.  Make the remaining card a fairly small balance, bigger than $6 just to be safe.  Goal should be for your total utilization to be less than 1%.  Is paying your cards down to this level a realistic goal for you?

    * Do not open any more credit cards until AFTER you own the home.

    * How many credit cards do you have right now?

Negative payment history:

Do you have any negative data on your report?  That would be lates, collections, liens, etc.  If so, what?  (And give dates.)

Installment loans:

    *  Do you have any open installment loans?  If so, what?

    *  Do you have any closed installment loans?

Age:

   * What is the age of your oldest account?

   * What is your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts)?  If you don't know how to do this, google it and learn how to figure it out.

Credit Reports and Scores:

    * Do you have a tool that lets you pull your credit reports fairly often (i.e. more than a couple times a year)?  What are you using to get your reports?  What are you using to get your scores?  (Reports and scores are different.)

    * Have you had a mortgage pre-approval done where they pull the mortgage flavor of FICO (this is different than your FICO 8 scores)?

[JohnDoe12]

TImeframe: I am looking at property and have not gotten preapproved. I would estimate an offer acceptance within 6 months, and closing ASAP afterwards.

Credit cards:

I have 4 unsecured and 1 secured card. I will be closing the secured card in Dec.  It has 2K limit. My other cards total 30,700 total credit line. I I have only been charging on 1 for about 9 mo. The others I got for specific purposes and haven't needed them, but will throw a little $ on there for the holidays so they keep them open. I charge between 1-2k per month and pay this off every month. 

I have not carried a balance on a card since 2009. 

Credit reports:

I have nothing should have nothing negitive on my credit report. I am going through the reports now to confirm this. There are some old accounts in good standing with a DOLA > 7 years. They were not charged off. 

Negative Payment History:

I have one old cc on my report that was closed in 2005 and paid off in 2008 (paid monthly till it was 0$). This is still showing on my reports and some show it as negitive. Some show it in good standing with the payment history not available. 

Installment Loans:

Student loans: Not late since 2009, and everthing before that was redacted from the CR, so it looks ok. I have $14K left on the loan.

Age:

Don't know at the moment. That's not something I can change anyway. My oldest CC goes back to 2009. My student loans go back to the 90's but they switched providers and not sure if that counts.... They're still on my EQ report though...

Credit Scores: 

Not paying for them until everything is tidy on the reports, then I'm pulling all 3. I'm getting calls and offers for CCs, so I don't think it's that bad. I would get I'm above 720. (I hope!) 

[JohnDoe12]

To further explain the Negitive Credit Entry on for the old CC, TU doesn't show it, EQ shows it as closed by consumers request in 2005 and then finally paid off in 10/2008 (true, except is was closed by the bank.), EX shows this as negitive - closed by the creditor and closed in 2009. The date of last payment was in 2008. I disputed some of the info on this credit entry and they moved my "Date of Status" to 2009! It wasn't closed in 2009, just disputed. Last payments were in 9/2008! EX still shows a 30 and 60 past due in 2008. 

[JohnDoe12]

Credit Card:

One more thing about the credit card wierdness... the one that says I pay $216/mo had a $0 balance for months before and after. In fact several consecutive months say $26 payment with $0 balance...   

[Anonymous]

My comments in blue below.

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@JohnDoe12 wrote:

TImeframe: I am looking at property and have not gotten preapproved. I would estimate an offer acceptance within 6 months, and closing ASAP afterwards.

Credit cards:

I have 4 unsecured and 1 secured card. I will be closing the secured card in Dec.  It has 2K limit. My other cards total 30,700 total credit line. I I have only been charging on 1 for about 9 mo. The others I got for specific purposes and haven't needed them, but will throw a little $ on there for the holidays so they keep them open. I charge between 1-2k per month and pay this off every month. 

Any particular reason you plan to close the secured card?  Just curious.

Great to hear that you are paying in full each month.  Good for you.  You may be able to improve your score in the run-up to getting pre-approved for the mortgage by paying down the one card you use to something like $100 or so, every month, a week before the statement cuts.  2k / 30k is still a tiny bit high for maximum benefit.

It's a good idea to throw a little on all the cards youu haven't used in a long time and to do so ASAP.  Wait till the charges appear on the next statement and then pay it off.  Cards that have not been used in many months can be canceled for non-use.  

I have not carried a balance on a card since 2009. 

Credit reports:

I have nothing should have nothing negitive on my credit report. I am going through the reports now to confirm this. There are some old accounts in good standing with a DOLA > 7 years. They were not charged off. 

You should consider getting a credit monitoring service that will give you reports at least once per month (a few times a month is even better).  Credit Karma is a free service that gives you the TU and EQ reports as often as once a week.  I don't know of a free solution for EX but while you are in your aggressive cleanup phase this would be a good thing to have.

Negative Payment History:

I have one old cc on my report that was closed in 2005 and paid off in 2008 (paid monthly till it was 0$). This is still showing on my reports and some show it as negitive. Some show it in good standing with the payment history not available. 

You may be unclear as to what a "negative" record is.  Any late payment is an example of a negative record.  Thus when you mention (below) that your credit reports show a late payment on an installment loan, that's an example.  Negative records are sometimes called "derogatives" or derogs.  Some people on the Forum will refer to them as baddies.  Lates, missed payments, charge offs, liens, collections, bankruptcies are all examples of negatives.

Installment Loans:

Student loans: Not late since 2009, and everthing before that was redacted from the CR, so it looks ok. I have $14K left on the loan.

When in 2009 was the late payment?  Which month?  If it was early in the year, you may be able to get it to fall off before the crucial final review by the underwriters.

Age:

Don't know at the moment. That's not something I can change anyway. My oldest CC goes back to 2009. My student loans go back to the 90's but they switched providers and not sure if that counts.... They're still on my EQ report though...

When you pull your credit reports, what is the DATE OPENED on your student loan accounts?  Do you have more than one open student loan account?  Switching providers should not cause you to lose the age of the account, and if it did, this is worth disputing so that you can get a much greater age to your credit profile.  When in the 90s did you open your loans?  (I am not talking about loans you might have paid off here but loans that are still open.)

As you can see, don't assume that you can't change the age of your profile. 

Credit Scores: 

Not paying for them until everything is tidy on the reports, then I'm pulling all 3. I'm getting calls and offers for CCs, so I don't think it's that bad. I would get I'm above 720. (I hope!) 

Your idea of working aggressively on cleaning your reports before pulling scores is fine.  But you should be working hard on this during sept and oct and nov -- you have a fair amount to do.  The good news is that you also may be able to achieve a great deal that will improve your score (possible correction of false or negative information, lowering your CC balances further, etc.).

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[Anonymous]

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@JohnDoe12 wrote:

To further explain the Negitive Credit Entry on for the old CC, TU doesn't show it, EQ shows it as closed by consumers request in 2005 and then finally paid off in 10/2008 (true, except is was closed by the bank.), EX shows this as negitive - closed by the creditor and closed in 2009. The date of last payment was in 2008. I disputed some of the info on this credit entry and they moved my "Date of Status" to 2009! It wasn't closed in 2009, just disputed. Last payments were in 9/2008! EX still shows a 30 and 60 past due in 2008. 

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Sounds like there are two issues here, which it is in your interest to distinguish very sharply.  One is "what really happened?"  I.e. in the case of this credit card, were you in reality ever late on it?  When it was closed, who in reality closed it -- the bank, or you?  If the bank, why did they close it?  If you, why did you close it?  Did you dispute something about this account later?  If so with which CRA and when and what did you tell them was false?

That's the first step: getting extremely clear about what happened in reality and WHEN the various events happened. 

Once you are clear about what happened, you can look at what the credit reports SAY happened.  If a particular CRA says that nothing bad happened, then of course leave it alone (even if something bad did happen).  What you should consider looking into further, however, is if the CRA has a harmful record that is also untrue.  The only reason not to dispute that is if it is about to fall off.

In this case, however, I can't tell for sure from your description what happened back in 2006-2009.

[JohnDoe12]

TU doesn't show it - I just checked with my Discover card. As of 8/11 I have an 822 with TU. I had an 843 in Dec! I have to figure out what brought it down. 

EQ shows it as closed by consumers request in 2005 and then finally paid off in 10/2008 (That's all true, except it was really closed by the bank.),

EX shows this as negitive. It shows closed by the creditor in June 2009. The date of last payment was actually in 10/2008. I disputed some of the info on this credit entry in June 2009 and they moved my "Date of Status" to 2009! It wasn't closed in 2009, just disputed. EX still shows a 30 and 60 past due in 08/2008 and 09/2008. 10/2008 The card was paid in full. 

[Revelate]

Didn't see it (might have missed it) but no it's not worth disputing payment information.

Use disputes for things that make a difference especially when we're talking about prep for a mortgage where active disputes are a no-fly zone; the payment information isn't used for FICO purposes currently and means less than zero when it comes to mortgages in particular.