60 Point Drop After Collections Removed - PLEASE HELP! AT MY WITS END!

[Anonymous]

So, this seems bizarre and random:   I had a collections account removed (it was an error to begin with, so not newly paid off or anything, just flat out removed). It was also not an old account that could have been somehow helping my score - it was from a local utility company that does not otherwise report, and was only on my report for about 9 months. At the same time I was added as an authorized user on a 5 year old account with a several thousand dollar credit line, perfect payment history (never a late payment) and which currently has no balance.  I was expecting a decent increase in my score with these two changes (removal of collections and being added as an authorized user), but instead it plummed 60 points (TransUnion and Equifax).  I've combed my report for other changes that could have caused this and found nothing. Hard inquiries number is the same, utilization rate went down from 9% to 1%. Average age of accounts increased slightly.  No derogatory remarks, no public record, no other accounts were closed or removed, no late payments.   What in the word could account for this?  

Edit: Not sure if this is relavent, but the person who added me to their account as an authorized user has outstanding credit, a much higher score than mine, but they do have more debt than me (but still a very low utilization ratio due to them having plenty of available credit).

[UncleB]

@Anonymous, your thread was hung in the spam quarantine; I have restored it to the forums and removed your duplicate.  The automation usually gets it right, but sometimes it doesn't, like in this case.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

--UncleB, myFICO Moderator

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So, this seems bizarre and random:   I had a collections account removed (it was an error to begin with, so not newly paid off or anything, just flat out removed). It was also not an old account that could have been somehow helping my score - it was from a local utility company that does not otherwise report, and was only on my report for about 9 months. At the same time I was added as an authorized user on a 5 year old account with a several thousand dollar credit line, perfect payment history (never a late payment) and which currently has no balance.  I was expecting a decent increase in my score with these two changes (removal of collections and being added as an authorized user), but instead it plummed 60 points (TransUnion and Equifax).  I've combed my report for other changes that could have caused this and found nothing. Hard inquiries number is the same, utilization rate went down from 9% to 1%. Average age of accounts increased slightly.  No derogatory remarks, no public record, no other accounts were closed or removed, no late payments.   What in the word could account for this?  

Edit: Not sure if this is relavent, but the person who added me to their account as an authorized user has outstanding credit, a much higher score than mine, but they do have more debt than me (but still a very low utilization ratio due to them having plenty of available credit).

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was this on Credit Karma?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've been monitoring on Credit Karma and that's where I initially saw the drop.  However, I immediately verfied through TransUnion's credit monitoring service (which also uses Vantage 3.0) that the drop, and new rock-bottom score, is real. (I saw posts by Credit Karma members indicating that sometimes the service shows sudden drops that turn out to not be real).   I called TransUnion and the employees were of no help (I spoke to two).   They both initially insisted they have "no information" about how scores are calculatd.  Then the 2nd one eventually said the drop was because there is no payment history on the authorized user account (no payment history by me, that is, as the account itself has an outstanding, flawless payment history).  I don't see how or why this could cause a 60 point drop. The 2nd employee at TransUnion was supposed to have a manager call me back, but so far have not heard from anyone.

After posting here yesterday I did a lot of reading and came across info about "re-bucketing".  This makes some sense since it happened when a collections came off but 1) the severeity of the drop seems far worse than what others describe as typical in re-bucketing cases and 2) I've only been able to find info regarding FICO models re-bucketing.  Have not been able to find a SINGLE reference on all the internet of rebucketing being used in the Vantage 3.0 model.

This is really devastating.  Hope someone can point me in the right direction to get my score AT LEAST back up to where it was before this happened.

[Anonymous]

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@UncleB wrote:

@Anonymous, your thread was hung in the spam quarantine; I have restored it to the forums and removed your duplicate.  The automation usually gets it right, but sometimes it doesn't, like in this case.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

--UncleB, myFICO Moderator

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Thank you.

[medicgrrl]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I've been monitoring on Credit Karma and that's where I initially saw the drop.  However, I immediately verfied through TransUnion's credit monitoring service (which also uses Vantage 3.0) that the drop, and new rock-bottom score, is real. (I saw posts by Credit Karma members indicating that sometimes the service shows sudden drops that turn out to not be real).   I called TransUnion and the employees were of no help (I spoke to two).   They both initially insisted they have "no information" about how scores are calculatd.  Then the 2nd one eventually said the drop was because there is no payment history on the authorized user account (no payment history by me, that is, as the account itself has an outstanding, flawless payment history).  I don't see how or why this could cause a 60 point drop. The 2nd employee at TransUnion was supposed to have a manager call me back, but so far have not heard from anyone.

After posting here yesterday I did a lot of reading and came across info about "re-bucketing".  This makes some sense since it happened when a collections came off but 1) the severeity of the drop seems far worse than what others describe as typical in re-bucketing cases and 2) I've only been able to find info regarding FICO models re-bucketing.  Have not been able to find a SINGLE reference on all the internet of rebucketing being used in the Vantage 3.0 model.

This is really devastating.  Hope someone can point me in the right direction to get my score AT LEAST back up to where it was before this happened.

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Pull your FICO scores on CCT.  It only costs $1

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I've been monitoring on Credit Karma and that's where I initially saw the drop.  However, I immediately verfied through TransUnion's credit monitoring service (which also uses Vantage 3.0) that the drop, and new rock-bottom score, is real. (I saw posts by Credit Karma members indicating that sometimes the service shows sudden drops that turn out to not be real).   I called TransUnion and the employees were of no help (I spoke to two).   They both initially insisted they have "no information" about how scores are calculatd.  Then the 2nd one eventually said the drop was because there is no payment history on the authorized user account (no payment history by me, that is, as the account itself has an outstanding, flawless payment history).  I don't see how or why this could cause a 60 point drop. The 2nd employee at TransUnion was supposed to have a manager call me back, but so far have not heard from anyone.

After posting here yesterday I did a lot of reading and came across info about "re-bucketing".  This makes some sense since it happened when a collections came off but 1) the severeity of the drop seems far worse than what others describe as typical in re-bucketing cases and 2) I've only been able to find info regarding FICO models re-bucketing.  Have not been able to find a SINGLE reference on all the internet of rebucketing being used in the Vantage 3.0 model.

This is really devastating.  Hope someone can point me in the right direction to get my score AT LEAST back up to where it was before this happened.

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Virtually no lenders use Vantage scores. You can get Fico scores through here or any Experian product.

[Anonymous]

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@medicgrrl wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I've been monitoring on Credit Karma and that's where I initially saw the drop.  However, I immediately verfied through TransUnion's credit monitoring service (which also uses Vantage 3.0) that the drop, and new rock-bottom score, is real. (I saw posts by Credit Karma members indicating that sometimes the service shows sudden drops that turn out to not be real).   I called TransUnion and the employees were of no help (I spoke to two).   They both initially insisted they have "no information" about how scores are calculatd.  Then the 2nd one eventually said the drop was because there is no payment history on the authorized user account (no payment history by me, that is, as the account itself has an outstanding, flawless payment history).  I don't see how or why this could cause a 60 point drop. The 2nd employee at TransUnion was supposed to have a manager call me back, but so far have not heard from anyone.

After posting here yesterday I did a lot of reading and came across info about "re-bucketing".  This makes some sense since it happened when a collections came off but 1) the severeity of the drop seems far worse than what others describe as typical in re-bucketing cases and 2) I've only been able to find info regarding FICO models re-bucketing.  Have not been able to find a SINGLE reference on all the internet of rebucketing being used in the Vantage 3.0 model.

This is really devastating.  Hope someone can point me in the right direction to get my score AT LEAST back up to where it was before this happened.

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Pull your FICO scores on CCT.  It only costs $1

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Not sure how this can help as the score in question is Vantage 3.0, not FICO.  I have no recent FICO scores to compare a current FICO score to.

[medicgrrl]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@medicgrrl wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I've been monitoring on Credit Karma and that's where I initially saw the drop.  However, I immediately verfied through TransUnion's credit monitoring service (which also uses Vantage 3.0) that the drop, and new rock-bottom score, is real. (I saw posts by Credit Karma members indicating that sometimes the service shows sudden drops that turn out to not be real).   I called TransUnion and the employees were of no help (I spoke to two).   They both initially insisted they have "no information" about how scores are calculatd.  Then the 2nd one eventually said the drop was because there is no payment history on the authorized user account (no payment history by me, that is, as the account itself has an outstanding, flawless payment history).  I don't see how or why this could cause a 60 point drop. The 2nd employee at TransUnion was supposed to have a manager call me back, but so far have not heard from anyone.

After posting here yesterday I did a lot of reading and came across info about "re-bucketing".  This makes some sense since it happened when a collections came off but 1) the severeity of the drop seems far worse than what others describe as typical in re-bucketing cases and 2) I've only been able to find info regarding FICO models re-bucketing.  Have not been able to find a SINGLE reference on all the internet of rebucketing being used in the Vantage 3.0 model.

This is really devastating.  Hope someone can point me in the right direction to get my score AT LEAST back up to where it was before this happened.

---

Pull your FICO scores on CCT.  It only costs $1

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Not sure how this can help as the score in question is Vantage 3.0, not FICO.  I have no recent FICO scores to compare a current FICO score to.

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The majority of lenders use FICO.  If you want to see how your rebuild is coming along and how lenders view you, I would suggest pulling the score that lenders use.  Don't stress over Vantage scores, they are virtually useless.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Not sure how this can help as the score in question is Vantage 3.0, not FICO.  I have no recent FICO scores to compare a current FICO score to.

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Vantage scores tend to fluctuate up and down more wildly than FICO scores. We don't have near the research and data points for Vantage as we do for FICO, so we really can't help explain why there was a downward swing, and honestly, we find it to be irrelevant.

Having your FICO score will help you in general.