My FICO Went ▲UP▲ For a Brief, Glorious Moment...It Was a Beautiful Thing.

[Anonymous]

Looks like I'll have to eat my own words about the futility of trying to improve FICO. I got a three-score pull, and found that two of my three FICO scores improved between October 2006 and yesterday.

..............October 2006 ........... April 2007 .......... ∆ FICO
Experian ........ 589 ................... 576 ................ -13
Transunion ...... 585 ................... 607 ................ +22
Equifax ..........589 ................... 677 ................ +88

AVERAGE ......... 588 ................... 620 ................ +32

My methodology was simple...last June I got a partially secured BofA card, $500 limit. I struck a financial patch of black ice and ended up hitting 99.7% utilization last September, but it's down to around 41% now. By the end of this month it will be around 30%. I applied for a credit-line increase and got slapped down because of the four charge-offs on my CR (one came in October; I was about a week too late to head it off). I think that's what probably hosed me. I talked to two supervisors, who told me to be patient. They said few cards graduated (went unsecured) in nine months. By summer or fall, they assured me, my perfect record with them and low utilization would outweigh my credit sins, and I'd get approved for a $1000 credit limit and unsecured status.

In January, I got a Capital One card. $39 annual fee, but I figured it was worth it...remember, 35% of FICO is paying bills on time, and the card would be another bill to pay. The only wrinkle with CapOne is they report the maximum charged as the limit, so I debuted at 100% utilization. I'm down to about 45% now, and will be around 20% by the end of the month. They, too, promise me a credit line increase in early summer. When I get my CL increase, I'll charge the card up to near the limit, let that get reported, then pay it down to $30 or so. I'll end up with a $480 limit reported and utilization of under 10%.

Now the really bad news which probably means all this is for nothing. Thanks to a vengeful ex-wife, I'm going to have a judgment entered into my accounts with all three credit bureaus for child support. So after all this, I'll be back to the Stone Age FICO-wise. (I don't actually owe any arrears; the judgment is for $300 a month, but they don't care--any judgment hits FICO like a tactical nuke).

See folks, this is why I'm likely going to be moving to Africa...there, vengeful ex-spouses aren't allowed to cause such headaches.  Before I leave, I'd love to file a discrimination lawsuit, because if I were female or not divorced, this judgment would never have been added to my file.


Message Edited by TheNewWorldMan on 04-01-2007 11:22 PM

[antredd67]

Wow, i didn't know that a judgement for child support goes on your credit report.  I always thought that IF YOU DIDN'T PAY YOUR CHILD SUPPORT OR BECAME DELINQUENT, it would end up on your credit report.

[Anonymous]

Child support doesn't go on your report unless you are delinquent. My husband has been paying for years.

[Anonymous]

All personal money judgments go on credit reports.

[yoreljm]

It seems time if the best fixer of FICO scores.

[Anonymous]

NWM glad to see the FICO improvement.  IF you contact the courts you may head off the judgement beign adde to the report, you can pay it within 30 days.  Personally, don't thank your wie, children are a joint responsibility.  Just think, the child support you may not have paid probably kept your kid from participating in things other kids their age enjoyed.

I am a  strong belilever in Child support being paid.  I have the receipts and Microsoft Money to prove that my kid is 16% of my total monthly expense higher than anything else inclulding mortgage, utilities and groceries.  That doesn't count the food he eats or the roof over his head.  Just his extra activities, school expenses and wannas. Where it not for the fact that his father pays support regularly, he would be excluded from many opportunities.

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-02-2007 08:27 PM

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

NWM glad to see the FICO improvement. IF you contact the courts you may head off the judgement beign adde to the report, you can pay it within 30 days. Personally, don't thank your wie, children are a joint responsibility. Just think, the child support you may not have paid probably kept your kid from participating in things other kids their age enjoyed.

I am a strong belilever in Child support being paid. I have the receipts and Microsoft Money to prove that my kid is 16% of my total monthly expense higher than anything else inclulding mortgage, utilities and groceries. That doesn't count the food he eats or the roof over his head. Just his extra activities, school expenses and wannas. Where it not for the fact that his father pays support regularly, he would be excluded from many opportunities.

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-02-2007 08:27 PM

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Sorry, I don't believe in child support, at least in a form anything like what we have today. I think it's too easy for a woman to divorce her husband, break up her family, and then use the ex as an ATM machine and have the government hound him the rest of his life while she lives high off the hog. My ex sits at home and plays video games all day, while she keeps our daughter over two hours away from me. Why? So she can have a higher percentage of custody (thereby getting more of my money) and a higher support award (by staying at home).

I don't think a woman should automatically get the kid, nor should she be able to automatically get support money just for being warm and breathing. I think having a child should be its own reward. Now in the case of abuse, I think the rules should be different...if a man beats his wife and she takes the kid away in the middle of the night for their own safety, heck yes he should pay support. But if she just "gets tired" of the relationship and "wants to live the wild life," then no, I don't think she should be entitled to child support. She CHOSE to end the relationship, and she should be responsible for her CHOICE.

That's another thing I like about Africa--that kind of nonsense isn't tolerated there. A couple Africans I chat with online said American men should revolt against the "man tax" that the child support system in America is. I agree.

[yoreljm]

I dont think the term "man tax" as an appropriate term, as it is not applied to all men indiscriminately; rather, it is mainly applied to men who do not support their kids. I'm a man, and I support child support. I don't see it as "man tax", but being responsible. Yes, i think it is bad that men have to be forced to pay child support. But in countries where the government does not force men to pay up, men tend to take the easy way out by not giving the woman a dime.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

NWM glad to see the FICO improvement. IF you contact the courts you may head off the judgement beign adde to the report, you can pay it within 30 days. Personally, don't thank your wie, children are a joint responsibility. Just think, the child support you may not have paid probably kept your kid from participating in things other kids their age enjoyed.

I am a strong belilever in Child support being paid. I have the receipts and Microsoft Money to prove that my kid is 16% of my total monthly expense higher than anything else inclulding mortgage, utilities and groceries. That doesn't count the food he eats or the roof over his head. Just his extra activities, school expenses and wannas. Where it not for the fact that his father pays support regularly, he would be excluded from many opportunities.

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-02-2007 08:27 PM

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Sorry, I don't believe in child support, at least in a form anything like what we have today. I think it's too easy for a woman to divorce her husband, break up her family, and then use the ex as an ATM machine and have the government hound him the rest of his life while she lives high off the hog. My ex sits at home and plays video games all day, while she keeps our daughter over two hours away from me. Why? So she can have a higher percentage of custody (thereby getting more of my money) and a higher support award (by staying at home).

I don't think a woman should automatically get the kid, nor should she be able to automatically get support money just for being warm and breathing. I think having a child should be its own reward. Now in the case of abuse, I think the rules should be different...if a man beats his wife and she takes the kid away in the middle of the night for their own safety, heck yes he should pay support. But if she just "gets tired" of the relationship and "wants to live the wild life," then no, I don't think she should be entitled to child support. She CHOSE to end the relationship, and she should be responsible for her CHOICE.

That's another thing I like about Africa--that kind of nonsense isn't tolerated there. A couple Africans I chat with online said American men should revolt against the "man tax" that the child support system in America is. I agree.

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LOL!! Just having the kid reward enough in and of itself.  Its apparent that you really don't spend time raising your kids.  Love him as I do, a teenager is no ones reward.  LOL!!  Just kidding.  When my son is ill or he needs me to particiapte in school, I lose income, I don't complain about it.  Kids are not some walk in the sun that shines everyday.  They get attitudes, problems and illness and as a custodial parent you can't just walk away from those things, they must be dealt with.  Writing a check is one heck of a lot easier to do than raising a child.  I write plenty of them and once they're written they're forgotten.

YOU have the option of moving 'God Knows where' because you don't have a kid.  I spent over 1.5 years looking for a house simply because I was trying to find one in the same area to prevent from uprooting the kid from his friends and schoolmates in the same town.

LOL!! Responsible men take responsibility for their children because they want whats best for those children.  They don't punish them for a failed relationship by witholding support of any type, physically, emotionally or fiscally.

As far as using a man for an ATM machine.  That's also hilarious since I seem to come up on the short end monthly.  Not that I blame him it is my CHOICE to allow my son to be involved in the activities he's involved in and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Do you have any idea of how much is spent on clothes when a kid goes from newborn to men sizes in 12 years?  My 13 year old is 5'10, wears a size 14 mens shoe (which have to be ordered online or special ordered) and a 34" waist in mens clothing.

I guess I could shop at Salvation Army or Goodwill but I also chose not to do that.  His father pays a fair amount of support and he is supported on TWO incomes not one. Or does it matter that as a programmer I don't need any man's ATM

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-03-2007 05:58 PM

Message Edited by Brammy on 04-03-2007 06:01 PM

[Anonymous]

I think child support in its current form is just another socialist redistribution-of-the-wealth scheme. Not saying that would apply to any support system, but the way it is done now is WAY too automated. I'm not a believer in anyone getting automatic, free money. And I especially don't like the way the government taxes me on this money that it plans to divert from my paycheck. If they would take the support money pretax, that would be easier to swallow, and more fair. But they won't, which simply reinforces my idea that child support is a system designed to rook the male half of the species. I'd like to find the people who created it and deport them to Cuba.

All I know is that the child support people said the child support judgment would go on my credit no matter what I did, even though I'm not behind. My response was not printable here.

Yet another reason I'll be buying a home abroad. They don't have this kind of nonsense where I'm ending up. If this were Africa, I'd have custody of my kid, and my ex could visit her...when she could tear herself away from the computer long enough, that it.