FICO score headed to zero -

[Queen_Etherea]

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@AllZero wrote:

In addition to the above, you can get your 3 bureau FICO 8 scores for $1. Go to experian.com or creditchecktotal.com, cancel in 7 days or less to avoid the re-occurring charge.

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I found a very old letter from Toys R Us (denial letter) that showed my score was in the 370's back then. I literally have NO idea what could have possibly been on my reports, but I'm sure I had tons of collections. 2 defaulted student loans, and one credit card that I lost and never paid off, are the only 2 things that come to mind. 

[RickNATL]

Kind of following this out of curiosity; any updates?

[Anonymous]

Thank for asking. My score has fallen off another 16 points. I’m headed in to the 500’s do to “inactivity”.
I made serval attempts to call experian and was on hold forever, never got a call back. So, this week I’ll make an attempt for all 3 and see if I can get an explanation. The main reason I have Hearn so far is inactivity- if that’s the case I’m screwed.

[Anonymous]

@nodebtdude No you’re not. First off you don’t call them. You go online and pull your scores as you were told above.

Secondly even if your scores are that terrible or you don’t have a score, you go get a secured card and you use it to build positive payment history for six months and then you will begin to have a decent score again.

[Nayola]

My husband and I were in a similar situation.  Over time we had paid off our home, rental properties, cars.  We had no outstanding loans.  The only credit cards we used were our Costco Business cards (which do not report).  We didn't give it much thought because our scores were always in the 800's from all of our past usage and we had no need for new credit.

Well, eventually I noticed that our scores were dropping.  The passage of time was causing our credit history to evaporate!!  Unfortunately, if you don't use it, you will lose it.  You need to have different things reporting or there will come a point where your history will be naked as a newborn baby!

So two years ago we made it a point to reapply for credit cards (Amex, Disco, Bank of America, Chase) and got a Shared Secured loan from Navy and also a line of credit from PenFed. Our scores once again started going back up and now we are back in the 800's.

[Anonymous]

Great example. Yes fico require six months of recent payment history to generate a score. But the good news is all those accounts are still on your report typically for 10 years so long as they’re clean, so once you get the six month payment history in, all those still help you. Glad to hear you’ve got everything in order @Nayola well done!

[Anonymous]

Yeah I pulled them yesterday. I have no interest in applying or getting a card or loan. So be it. I guess have no interest in play the “game”.

[Anonymous]

That’s exactly what’s happening to me!
I’ll just let it go at this point if that’s the case. I’ll just pay cash for my purchases at not worry about it???? It’s sucks im are forced to operate I a system I don’t wish to participate in. I guess it is what it is. I’m sure my only issues going forward would be when my insurance companies pull my score for my premiums??

[Anonymous]

Not necessarily, they use a different algorithm and I don’t think it requires six months of recent payment history, but I’m not an expert on that, so I’m not positive.

Totally up to you but if you just get one no annual fee credit card you can maintain a score, just put one charge on every six months to keep it active.

[Anonymous]

Thanks the quick response! I appreciate everyone’s input to my question posed. Very helpful and great explanations. I guess I need to decide if I need to jack with it or not. I can’t think of anything I would need to purchase to be worried about it so I guess it comes down to keeping a high score just have a high score ? Thank you everyone! Great forum.