Impact of correcting a 60, 90, 120 late to 30, 60, 90 late

[Anonymous]

I just found an error on all three reports for Bank of America from 2007. They are reporting 60, 90, 120 days late (April, May, June) when in fact March is showing paid. Therefore, I'm thinking it should be reporting 30, 60, 90 days late, since they can't just jump to 60 days late if I was current the month before. Would having this corrected increase my FICO scores, or am I better off leaving the sleeping giant alone? I need 6 little points to increase my chances of being approved for a mortgage loan!

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

[fused]

Welcome to the forums!

Its certainly possible your score will go up if you have the 120-day-late removed, but you also run the risk of hurting your scores when you dispute. If you're not successful with your dispute, strange things can happen. There are dangers when disputing items on your credit reports. Even though you believe what you're disputing is inaccurate, be aware of what can go wrong when disputing with the CRAs. Have you thought about disputing this directly with BoA?

Another option to raise your scores which isn't dangerous is to pay down balances on credit cards. May I ask what your reporting limits and balances are on your cards?

[AndySoCal]

Since the lates  are 3 plus years old I doubt  it would increase your score if any. I would leave it be.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for responding. It's a closed BofA account with a zero balance. Depending on suggestions here, I planned to exercise my right to contact BofA directly about the error rather than filing a dispute with the CRAs. Still a little afraid that BofA might make things worse rather than better if I point out an error. Decisions, decisions!

[guiness56]

Even though the account is closed and they are close to 3 years old, a 90 day late can adversely affect your score for a long time.

I would send out good will letters to see if they can be removed.

[creditchild]

hey fused, i just read your comment, and disputes hurting your score is something new to me. i have several disputes going on as i write this,

and my scores havent moved. no, i'll change that trans just went up like 2weeks ago. can you please tell us why disputing can

 hurt a score?

[AndySoCal]

While an account is in dsipute that account is not considered in the score calculation. So if the account is helping your score your score would/ might drop while it is in dispute. Depending on the results of the dispute the changes can also affect the score either positively or negatively as well. I only dispute an account when I know what the results will be. Also, when I dispute I also provide the proof  that supports why I am disputing. I do not leave it bureau research or validate my dispute. If I missed something Fused can add or correct what I said.

[llecs]

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@creditchild wrote:

hey fused, i just read your comment, and disputes hurting your score is something new to me. i have several disputes going on as i write this,

and my scores havent moved. no, i'll change that trans just went up like 2weeks ago. can you please tell us why disputing can

 hurt a score?

---

To add to Andy's comment, specifically, a dispute will remove the financial components to the dispute like the balance, CL, lates, etc. A dispute will never impact a CA or PR, if reporting as such, but a dispute can hurt your score. One example is a CC. If you dispute the balance, for example, the balance and CL are removed from FICO scoring during a dispute and that can drop your score if it helped your overall util. Same applies for a CC CO if that balance and CL helped your score. Another example might be that you PIF a closed CC, but isn't reporting a such. A dispute in this case can result in a significant drop if that CC CL helped your util. Once it reports $0, then it is removed from util.

On the flip side, and from personal experience, a baddie may opt to add lates when there were none reporting before and that can lead to a score drop. Another might be that the CA/OC baddie hadn't updated in a while. A dispute will reset the DOLA and/or the reported date and that can seriously drop your score if it hadn't updated for quite some time.

[fused]

Thanks for posting, Ilecs!

My coffee hasn't kicked in yet.