question about a response to a dispute

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

In December I disputed 3 items on my credit report at all 3 bureaus.  One dispute was a collection from a cell phone company, the other two were credit cards that were charged-off. One of the credit card accounts was my fault being young and irresponsible but the entry on my report had incorrect information, the cell phone collection and other credit card were legitimately not my doing. So far, I have heard back from Experian on one of the credit card accounts and from Equifax on the collection, the others I still have yet to hear. 

I received a notice from Equifax that the collection was deleted from my credit file and heard from Experian that one of the credit card charge-offs was updated. When speaking with a representative at Experian they informed me that the charge off was updated from paid in full to settled, unfortunately . I have two questions regarding this...will the fact the status changed from paid in full to settled negatively effect my credit score and secondly will the date of this account be updated as well so that it shows this debt/charge-off as being more recent, therefore, hurting my score?

Lastly any rough ideas on how much a credit score can be impacted by having a collection deleted from a credit report.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

[RobertEG]

There are differing opinions and experiences expressed on the site about the affect of "settle for less" on scoring.

Some proffer that FICO negatively scores that special comment, while others assert that it does not.

Regardless of scoring impact, that special comment is a negative upon any manual review, as it informs others that, in the past, you did not pay the entire debt that you incurred.

Update of the account to now include that special comment will have no effect on the ultimate exclusion date of the charge-off from your report.

CR exclusion of both charge-offs and collections is based soley upon the DOFD on the OC account.

Regarding score increase based on deletion of the collection, your file still has at least one major derog in the form of the charge-off.

Thus, you are currently in a "dirty" credit file categorization that will continue until all major derogs are gone.  Score increases due to deletion of a major derog are less when other major derogs remain.

Finally, with respect to the CC reporting a CO, why was it "not your doing?"  No account delinquency upon which to base a charge-off, or another factor, such as account not yours, with possible identity theft?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response I appreciate it. To answer your question the cell phone account was under my name and I never had a late payment with them. I had myself and a girlfriend on the account at one time and then I got hired by a company who provided a company-issued cell phone so I no longer needed my personal one any longer. Since my girlfriend had a phone through that same account I only canceled my line but allowed her to keep hers and had the bill sent to her place. Long story short we broke up and she stopped paying for the phone and it went into collections. The credit card, same issue, it was under my name but I allowed her to use it and bill was sent to her place. She was responsible with it while we were dating but afterwards she got irresponsible and it went into charge-off status. I paid a settlement on the CC account for roughly 75% of the total which was about $600. I understand if it's under my name it's legally my debt and therefore goes onto my credit report, it's just a unfortunate situation.

Lastly my wife and I are currently building a new house. My credit scores are EX 697, EQ 699 and TU 704. As we stand now our loan rate is 3.65%. Our mortgage lender has told me if I can get my 3 credit scores to average 710 we will be given a sub 3.50% rate so I am trying everything in my power to get my credit score to bump up the only derogs on my credit report are the CC I explained above and the collection that was removed by 2/3 of the bureaus, I'm just waiting to hear back from TU and keepign my fingers crossed for a removal. My AAoA is 8.91, however, as soon as February comes my AAoA will turn 9. I need my credit score to average 710 by the middle of February. I have tried calling the CC company (Capital One) to check into pay for delete but they wont do it.

Any helpful hints on somehow talking the supervisor at Cap One to allow me to do a PFD or other options to raise my scores?