Disputed a Paid in Full Charge Off - Score Dropped 50 Points!!!!

[anik28]

I owed Citibank $344 for a charged off secured card, which I paid in full and settled with them back in June. On TU & EX my reports were updated "paid in full" and show a 0 balance. I noticed on Equifax they were still reporting that I owed the $344 and it was not paid. I disputed the account because it's been paid - today I got a notification that they updated the account remarks to "consumer disputed" and my score dropped 50 points.

im so beyond frustrated with my Equifax score. It's already lower than all my others and now it's dipped into the 500's, while my other reports are 640. 

why would my score drop so much for a simple dispute of information that is incorrect? I'm hoping this is a temporary dip until they fix the incorrect information.

[FireMedic1]

Because it updated as a new entry. Disputes are for inaccurate info and not to get things quicker to show up on your reports. Let it be.

[anik28]

@FireMedic1 but the information is inaccurate. This account was paid in full almost 6 months ago, why is it being reported correctly to 2 of the CRA's as paid in full & a 0 balance, but Equifax is still showing a 344$ balance and unpaid. 

My Equifax score has lagged the others over the past few months of rebuilding, I have a feeling the way the Citi charge off is being reported, has been dragging the score down, which is why I disputed it. Am I supposed to just wait around a year or whenever the information decides to become correct?

[anik28]

Hopefully when they update the account remarks the score will bounce back. At this point I'm overall frustrated with my rebuild. I put in a long of hard work and have gotten a bunch of CLI's over the past 6 months, low utilization. But this knocked me back down - score wise. My goal of 700 is that much further with Equifax now.

[FireMedic1]

Has the investigation been completed? By the looks at disputed its still in process mode. It will update and a new comment will show up. Look at your real credit reports at annual credit reports for EQ and see what it has. Where are you getting these scores from?

[shalimarcat]

  Hello there.  That sucks that your dispute- which was completely justified, given the inaccuracy- lowered your score. My Equifax score has always seemed to lag behind Experian and TransUnion, as well. I wonder why that is?  

[anik28]

@FireMedic1 @Credit Karma because I'm on the free plan from Fico so my scores only update every once and a while.

both my credit line increases reported today so my EQ jumped 40 points back up, but still missing those 50 points I took from the dispute. Hoping to gain those back soon cause I'll be in a good place score wise. Really pushing to hit 700 by 2022.

[anik28]

My overall credit limit is now 12,900$, with 30% overall utilization @ 3500. I'm aiming to cut my util to about 1500, which will give me some points. The main goal is to get a large limit revolver in the next 6 months to up my credit limit a lot and let me shed some of the smaller limit revolver cards.

[anik28]

Update: they updated the balance to paid in full and my score bounced back. Glad I disputed the item so the information is now accurate 

[FireMedic1]

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@anik28 wrote:

My overall credit limit is now 12,900$, with 30% overall utilization @ 3500. I'm aiming to cut my util to about 1500, which will give me some points. The main goal is to get a large limit revolver in the next 6 months to up my credit limit a lot and let me shed some of the smaller limit revolver cards.

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get the util below 8%. Your losing points and paying interest which you'll never see again. Cuts into your card perk profit.