CHILD SUPPORT

[RUSTY101]

I tried to find an answer to this, but could not. My son has child support arrears on his credit report, reporting as a collection. Does FICO count child support against you? If so, does it weight just like any collection? The main reason I am asking, it does not seem to hurt his credit report any.

[Anonymous]

Rusty,

I am not well versed on this so I'm hoping others will chime in, but my understanding is that if the arrearage is reported as a collection, it would be rated as any other collection.

What is it that makes you believe it is not negatively impacting his credit?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Rusty,

I am not well versed on this so I'm hoping others will chime in, but my understanding is that if the arrearage is reported as a collection, it would be rated as any other collection.

What is it that makes you believe it is not negatively impacting his credit?

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If it is a collection, I do not see how it could not have a negative impact.

[RUSTY101]

His credit report was pulled in Nov 2010 and it was 640 then last month he pulled it ( just eq) and it is 643. It says collection but on the page that says collections it says none has been reported. This was put on his report in Dec. 2010.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm.  With a 640, he likely has other issues on his CR.  It's always hard to determine the effect of only one account on the CR - you likely have to look at the whole thing.

Is he pulling his report here and getting a FICO score? 

[RUSTY101]

yes. He does have other issues. He has a bk from 2009. Has since received cap1 750. kay 600. and walmart 300. Never late. I just hope this c support does not hurt him too bad. He has really been trying hard and has just now starting to care about a credit report.

Dont think he is a bad or deadbeat dad because of past arrears. The mother went to the cs officd a few years back and dropped the child support. They worked things out themselfs and he was supporting not only his daughter, but her half sister, that has been in family since she was 6 mos. she is now 14. He gave money, bought school clothes and supplies etc for both girls. He never bought anything for his own unless he could buy for the other.  The mother got mad and went back to the cs office and opened acct. Thats when they hit him for arrears. They said nothing he has done in the past counts toward anything and put it on his CR and offset his taxes. Oh well, thats the way it goes, just thought I would explain

[Anonymous]

Oh I wasn't thinking anything at all about the arrears.  We have all seen how bad things happen to good people.  I'm sorry for the circumstances in this case - very unfortunate.

I was just thinking about the credit report.  With a BK reporting, that collection will not show a huge impact.  When the BK drops off, if the collection is still there - you'll notice the impact. 

He's now in a negative scoring bucket (as many of us are - including me).  Adding one more "baddie" when you're in a negative scoring bucket doesn't seem to have a huge impact.

He's fine on CC's, and can concentrate on rebuilding.  There's a lot of helpful info on the Rebuilding Your Credit forums that wil be helpful.

I couldn't tell from the original yes in your response - if that indicated he was pulling his FICO scores here.  If he is, the reports that come along with it will be very helpful in determining the best steps moving forward.  Focus on the things that are "Helping your FICO Score" and the things that are "Hurting your FICO Score."

I wish him the very best, and hope things turn out more fairly as things move forward.