I'm not sure if this was a good call, but I called JP Morgan/Chase to have an aged/paid-off installment/auto account placed back onto my Experian and Trans Union reports. I initiated the loan in Nov 2000 ($35k) and paid it off in early 2005. There were some late pays 30/60 days that fell off a few years ago. In the process of cleaning up my credit (disputing aged late pays) Trans Union and Experian removed the account from my report entirely.
That's cool I thought, it was an old negative account years ago and I was still slogging through many other negatives, getting them resolved and removed as best I could. If the credit listed in your report stinks, there isnt much value in average age of account. Fast forward to 2013 and I now have three years of perfect payment history without any negatives in any of my reports. AAoA now has real value.
I started with a fico of about 550 back in 05 and it didn't seem to matter much if the installment loan was totally removed from the EX/TU reports because my overall credit sucked anyways. But that negative account turned positive once the late pay history was no longer reported. EQ never removed the account and the AAoA is now clearly making a big impact reflected in my score differences between reporting agencies.
With my aggressive campaign of removing anything less than perfect, I was left with a "thin" file. 95% of my positive credit was built up over the last three years. My Equifax report still shows the 13 year old account, but it simply shows "paid as agreed" without any the late payment history details. All three of my reports have virtually identical credit reporting data with the exception of this installment loan. My three reports are EQ-742 TU-705 EX-709. The only substantive difference is the average age of account reported on the EQ still reporting the 13yo Chase auto loan.
Since the negative payment history is not being reported on the EQ, I decided to see if I could get this loan reported on the TU/EX with the same information. I called the Chase number listed in my creditors section on my EQ report. I didn't know what to expect actually. I certainly didn't want to get a hot mess of late payments posted back on my reports. The lady I spoke with understood what I was attempting to accomplish. She informed me she was able to place the account back on my EX/TU with the same information that was being reported on my EQ report. She even assured me the late payment history would not be included. She said to expect the changes to my EX/TU reports in about ten days.
Could it be this easy? Almost a 40 point boost with one phone call? I've found nothing is easy or fast in credit repair... I'll find out in a week or so.
I hope this was not a mistake....
Thanks Guinness... I was professional, kind, and patient with the Chase employee... She was very helpful. I called using the number on the EQ report still reporting the account and got to the right department quickly.
What is a TL? You'll have to pardon me here as I'm not really up to speed on some of the acronyms.. I'm getting better though..
Dancing penguins and stickys... Nice.... Yes, I was mildly surprised the attendant would re-open the TL and consider my request. She needed quite a bit of info to verify the account, but I had all the data handy. Heck I'm still driving the 13 year old (paid off) POS around... Is POS in your stickys??? Just a little humor there... This will be a nice bump to my EX/TU reports. I honestly didn't know this was possible. Thanks for the reply.
