One late payment and random collections item?????

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I just checked my report with credit karma. It came up saying I have one late payment on a credit card in 2010. And some $98 random thing in collections that seems to have been on there longer then 7 years. 

I have about a 15% utilization at the moment with nearly 90,000 in available credit. My account lengths they're considering fair, but most of my cards are almost to the 8 year mark with a few opened in the last 3 years. 

It seems like these two negatives are really bringing down my score! What would be the best way to deal with these things?

[Anonymous]

Also, if I pay this $98 collections (which i have no idea what its for, i've never seen it before today) will it show for another 7 years on my report? Should I dispute or will that open the debt back up?

[takeshi74]

Hit Rebuilding to read up and see what you can do about the derogs.

As for AAoA you can't do anything to increase it.  That just takes time.  Keep in mind that account that you open reduce your AAoA.

That said, take CK with a grain of salt.  CK does not generate FICO's and its information isn't entirely correct.  What they actually provide is AAoOA since they only include open accounts.  FICO factors in both open and closed accounts on your report.

AAoA is generally 15%:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

[Anonymous]

Sorry, one more question. On the card with the late payment showing should I pay off the balance ($200) and close the card? The card is one of my lower limit cards so it wont hurt my avl credit. Will the late payment still show up? 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Will the late payment still show up? 

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Yes.  Again, hit Rebuilding and caefully research before taking action.

[Anonymous]

Are you saying I'm posting in the wrong area? I'm not sure how to find the place where you are suggesting. I can never figure out these forums. I'm just trying to get a few questions answered. 

[Anonymous]

I have no idea what AAoA means. Can anyone speak in full terms 

[Anonymous]

AAoA is Average Age of Accounts. CK (CreditKarma) uses AAoOA (Average Age of Open Accounts)

[Anonymous]

Here is a link to the Rebuidling Credit Forum:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/bd-p/rebuildingcredit

There is also a stickied thread there called Useful Threads, or something like that. Inside is a bunch of useful information about FICO scoring, what to do in certain scenarios, and commonly used abbreviations. 

[RobertEG]

A late payment has a credti report exclusion period of 7 years from the date of occurency of the delinquency.

A collection has a credit report exclusion period of no later than 7 years plus 180 days from the date of your first delinquency (DOFD) on the OC account.

The debt collector was required to have obtained that DOFD and reported it to the CRA within 90 days after reporting their collection, so the DOFD is of record in your file.

Add the exlcusion period to the DOFD to obtain the maximum date that it can remain in your credit report.

If your commercial credit reprot does not show the DOFD, try ordering your free annual report from annualcreditreport.com.