Every scoring category going up. CS down?!?!

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2016

I've been focusing in on my credit score for the past 4years. I've used every free scoring model out there & currently have an experian fico 8 purchase.

I had a volunteer repo in 2012, auctioned, showing in collection @ 9k, no court action yet. I'm in Florida & had to pay taxes on the collection as I received an income type reporting document for the auction of repo. & it increased my yearly income that year of about 10k.

Anyway, in past 4 years I've opened jcp, cap 1 silver, cap 1 platinum, Merrick mc, Barclay rewatds visa, all unsecured.
I have about 48% utilization, I owe $1800 on 4K with one card @ 97%. I also have marathon gas card I pay off monthly. I opened the cards slowly over 4 years. I have 25k in student loans, deferred, that are in a legal situation where I took a medical leave for back surgery& when I came back 8months later, the school was CLOSED. I was in school for stenography/closed captioning & the nearest school for that is 4 hours away on the Florida/Georgia line (Jacksonville area). Student loans are reporting deferred on time/ pays interest. 65%.

I have no car payment & I owe 35k on what is labeled as a recreational vehicle loan, but is actually a double wide manufactured home in a park on rented land. I'm a FT server @ Disney in Orlando of 20-years & report all tips. I make about 65k.

SOOOO. In the past 3-months I've watched my cap1 credit wise score drop from 640, 580, 505! On that site & other sites, where each category is given a score, everything has improved ! No lates, decreases in utilization, inquiries from 6 to 2, credit mix is perfect, overall balances down in small amounts.
In length of credit I have an :A
On time payments: A
Credit mix. B
Credit used: C
Recent inquiries. 2
That is all from capital one credit wise.

On CS I have about. 560TU VScore
On CK I have about. 564 TU VScore &. 590 EQ VScore

On my experian fico 8 my score went from 612 to 637 from July to August. My Merrick bank go fico score, is also in the 640's
I'm trying to buy a flipped site built home for my retirement on a Usda loan (620-640 score needed), instead of keeping this manufactured home I inherited, but should have sold as I moved to Florida to live in it, as my Grandmither left it to me after 2 months of buying it & passing away. She put 20k down on a 60k dbl wide 5 miles from Disney in a gorgeous gated community/spa of 55+ snowbirds. I was only 33, but they had to let me in because of inheritance clause.I've paid the $420mtg always on time (17 years) & when I moved here the lot rent was $99/month. Now IT IS...............$539/month. That's $1190/month with insurance! CRAZY!
If I do a model to see how much house I can afford it's about $140k, which I've found many beautiful flipped homes with pools 20 minutes away in the beautiful chain of lakes area of central Florida(lake Alfred/ winter haven).
Besides needing to pay down my revolving debt, & dbl wide home loan, what am I NOT doing to get my CS UP?

I don't want to do a mtg. Hard pull until all CC's are paid off & ive got a little more in savings. This is about 6months away.
What do you think is dropping the vantage score? It with a decent fico 8, should I not worry & just keep paying down bills?

I do have 2 collection hospital bills. One is $150 & the other is 1k. They are 7 months short of SOL's for collections & also just showed up in June separately from same junk debt buyer. I am asking for validation & know how to handle them in court if they push it. I just had TU to file a discrepancy for sudden reporting & age. It is possible they are mine, but they showed up out of NO-WHERE!
I will follow up with proof of chain, if they fight TU discrepancy, as its ancient & I know they won't be able to provide any successful completed acceptable court complete documentations.

I hope some1 can wrap their head around all of this!
It's a ton of info & I would appreciate any info, advice, or where is the best place for me to be looking for mtg. CS etc!
Thank-you
Tj

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2016

What do you think is dropping the vantage score?

Doesn't matter since nobody uses Vantage scores.

It with a decent fico 8, should I not worry & just keep paying down bills?

Focus on Fico, and don't worry about Vantage.

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2016

I'm new, so I have no idea what sig means/does?
I also just have iPhone right now, but have to go into Disney early tomorrow to use fax & I'll log on computer & check this out more. I'm also writing a debt validation letter to one of the medical bill junk debt buyers that just popped up. It's from 2006.
I filed investigation with TU to have two collections removed for Dbl reporting(original & 3rd party) & they're gone for now. I found out through ck. They sent email saying to check my new CS. Those two I mentioned came off, but CS still dropped! Craziness!!!
Thanks for help!!!

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2016

Yes, keep focusing on your fico's. I have found V to go down as fico went up? Don't care at this point.
Sounds like you're doing everything right. Just keep going and you will see an improvement.

Anonymous · ‎08-10-2016

Thx sb22

takeshi74 · ‎08-11-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
What do you think is dropping the vantage score? It with a decent fico 8, should I not worry & just keep paying down bills?

It all depends on which products you intend to apply with. FICO 8 is the most commonly used model but it is not used in all credit decisions. If you're only applying for products that use FICO 8's then you only need to worry about your FICO 8's.

If, however, you intend to apply for products that use other models then you need to reference those specific scores, considering both the model and the CRA. Consider relevance of the given model/CRA. Unless you have creditors or intend to apply with creditors thart use a VantageScore in their decision then VantageScores aren't going to be relevant. The same consideration applies to any scoring model/CRA combo.

Mortgage lenders, for example, do not use FICO 8's in the decision for mortgage products. Despite the comment above there are creditors that use VantageScores though they are a small minority. While most creditors use a FICO model in their decision, not all do. You cannot rely on a single model for all creditors/products but at the same time, it makes no sense to try to get every model/CRA out there. If you're going to fixate on numbers then reference the models/CRA's that are relevant to your creditors/products.

For overall credit progress, focus on the data in your reports instead of obsessing over the numbers. Good reports will lead to good scores regardless of model. IMO you're obsessing over small changes and if you want to rely on numbers then you need to look at the larger trends versus the smaller increases and dips. Your scores aren't just going to constantly increase. They will tend to fluctuate with normal activity.

Get your derogs and high revolving utilization addressed first as those have major impacts on your credit profile. You want all derogs removed if possible. Make use of the Rebuilding subforum. Get that maxed card down as quickly as possible.

Anonymous · ‎08-11-2016

Thank you as well. I think I'm taking away some good knowledge here & was kinda on the right track. My gut instinct on rebuilding was good & initially I had a nice leap. Then, cap 1 changed to credit wise (not fico & possibly advantage) & that gutted me to see a 100 point drop when it changed & dropped ) but all my categories went up in scores(assigned like schooling in my day(A-B-C-D's etc.). With two F's & 1D go up to three C's with model change, but a 100 point drop.

So, outside of buying a monthly product like I did for experian to grab that true Fico 8(I will cancel @ 1month as it is expensive,) I've found out that my Barclay & Merrick are fico 8's or very similar & are free. So, when/if I buy it'll be from a true fico.
I also just had a cap 1 card go up from a 750 cl to 1250 since yesterday, & my balance carry is $256. I make twice the minimum required, so in 4 months 0balance. Btw, all CC's arec@ bank in safety deposit bank EXCEPT the high balance one (Merrick). I had it going down, but got a new chip card & didn't put in bank, & a few purchases here's& there have killed utilization @ 48%, which will drop w/new cl increase!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed. I will be reading & educating & fighting & grabbing that retirement home within a year, if not sooner. No more Dbl Wide on rented land for $1250/month, when I can have a flipped mid century, pool, lakefront, 25-30 minute drive into Disney in Lake Alfred, Fl for $390/month! I'll pay that off Quick!!!
Thank-you!!!!!!