Frustrated Beyond Belief

[BeachGurl]

I have no idea what is going on with my husband's credit score.  I posted earlier about three accounts showing derogatory on his report, all of which are dated prior to 2008, so pretty old accounts.  I am fighting with the three to get them removed, as they are all paid in full accounts showing past due.  There was one small $300 account that appeared that was a misunderstanding between a local credit union and me (oops) and his name happened to be on the account.  I contacted them and they corrected it, removed it entirely.

He is able to access his credit rating through his bank.  Saturday, he looked and he had dropped from 610 to 599...and a notation "excessive use of revolving credit".  Just went in and looked at Credit Karma and it appears there has been some kind of increase in his balances...there is NO WAY there can be an increase as he has NO revolving credit other than a mortgage which is being paid regularly.

I did finally hear from Chase and it turns out they are reporting an account that was paid after being charged off by Washington Mutual Bank.  Washington Mutual charged this account off long before Chase ever took them over and we paid the charge off in 2007....to WaMu, not Chase.  How can Chase legally report a charge off that wasn't on their books?

It seems like every single time I get a negative taken off, his score drops rather than goes up....I don't know what to do at this point...he is getting really annoyed that his credit rating is not going up, but instead, the more I fight for him, the worse it gets!  Any ideas?

[llecs]

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@BeachGurl wrote:

I did finally hear from Chase and it turns out they are reporting an account that was paid after being charged off by Washington Mutual Bank.  Washington Mutual charged this account off long before Chase ever took them over and we paid the charge off in 2007....to WaMu, not Chase.  How can Chase legally report a charge off that wasn't on their books?

It seems like every single time I get a negative taken off, his score drops rather than goes up....I don't know what to do at this point...he is getting really annoyed that his credit rating is not going up, but instead, the more I fight for him, the worse it gets!  Any ideas?

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Since you paid it in 2007, I would write Chase a GW letter and tell them you had paid it in 2007 prior to their purchase of WaMu in the fall of 2008. Chase seems to be good with GWs, with persistence. Before you do anything though, look at the FICO report and make sure there's a red flag showing which indicates that FICO is not liking the negative aspects of that acct. Absent a red flag, do not touch it and don't send any letters.

Dropping score? If old charge-offs or old OC accounts are coming off, then that can impact his length of history and/or AAoA and therefore drop the score. Sometimes it helps to have old paid charge-offs reporting. Yes, the negative hurts, but there is sometimes more of a positive due to the length of history. DW lost 30 points when a paid CapOne CO dropped. It was her oldest accounts, oldest revolving, and impacted her AAoA.

[BeachGurl]

Actually, Chase is showing as paid after charge off...I was thinking we wanted that off....he has some older stuff on the report...he had a Sears card for many years that has been paid in full for ages and was never late.

I was just reading elsewhere on here that disputes can lower credit scores temporarily...is it possible that the disputes we have filed may be dragging him down somewhat?  There are three disputes pending on the credit reports, but we also have contacted our mortgage company about one 30 day late payment showing on the report...it was due to a miscommunication between our insurance company and the mortgage company...a problem that took me several months to resolve, which caused on payment to appear as if it was 30 days late...I am working directly with the mortgage company on that one, as technically it is reporting right, but is not exactly accurate.

I keep telliing him to give it time, but we've been fighting this for a year....and everytime I tell him I think I have it straightened out, he checks and his score is down again....makes for testy discussions around here!

[llecs]

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@BeachGurl wrote:

Actually, Chase is showing as paid after charge off...I was thinking we wanted that off....he has some older stuff on the report...he had a Sears card for many years that has been paid in full for ages and was never late.

I was just reading elsewhere on here that disputes can lower credit scores temporarily...is it possible that the disputes we have filed may be dragging him down somewhat?  There are three disputes pending on the credit reports, but we also have contacted our mortgage company about one 30 day late payment showing on the report...it was due to a miscommunication between our insurance company and the mortgage company...a problem that took me several months to resolve, which caused on payment to appear as if it was 30 days late...I am working directly with the mortgage company on that one, as technically it is reporting right, but is not exactly accurate.

I keep telliing him to give it time, but we've been fighting this for a year....and everytime I tell him I think I have it straightened out, he checks and his score is down again....makes for testy discussions around here!

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When is the open date of that account (in other words, how old is it)? How old is your AAoA? AAoA is the average age of accounts within any given CR. Compare the age of that Chase/WaMu account in relation to the AAoA. If Chase is older and/or his oldest, then do nothing. Leave it as getting it to delete could result in a score drop. If younger, and not your oldest revolving, oldest overall, etc., then send a GW letter asking if they wouldn't mind deleting.

For the other items, wait for the disputes to clear before doing anything. As mentioned, disputes can harm your credit in many situations and there are many reasons why you shouldn't dispute, even if reporting accurately. There are other steps to take first as indicated in th elinks above.

How old is the mortgage late? If older than 2 years, then ignore it. It isn't hurting your FICO. If younger, then a dispute isn't the way to go. Send a GW.

[BeachGurl]

Just pulled Transunion because it was bugging me....

Mortgage payment was 30 days in Jan 2011, so 2 years as of this month...it will probably drop off in a few months, but it bugs me because it was NOT our error....

Cap One says last payment made in 2008...balance of $1287

Dell says last payment 2008...balance of $3041 - I know that balance is not right....only thing we purchased was a laptop that was paid in full almost immediately

Both of these accounts were paid in full prior to 2008 according to our records but we can't get them to send us verification of items charged after....

Chase on Transunion is reporting as a satisfactory account - even though it says it was transferred to another office...says current; paid or paying as agreed...interesting...and the rating by month has an X....so Chase is NOT a problem, at least according to TU

However, two others appear on TU that i was unaware of....Sears...which to my knowledge was never late, is showing some 30 day lates that I think are wrong...gonna try a GW letter to them, and an old car payment that had one 30 day late in 2006...

Oldest account is a mortgage from 2000...newest is a paid in full car loan with last payment 2008....oh...wait...Sears was opened in 1985 but is showing as derogatory

So is it possible this slam on his credit is the two we know are not right?  Or is it a combo of the fact that he has so little revolving credit and that his oldest account, Sears, is showing late payments? 

He literally has five accounts under adverse...Sears, Wells Fargo, BAC Home Loans, Dell and CapOne, with the Sears having about three 30 day lates, Wells Fargo and BAC showing one thirty day late each - all lates are more than 2 years old, and the two Dell and CapOne accounts, charged off in 2008.

[jandj80]

The Dell and Capital one accounts are killing his score if they are showing a balance as you stated above- this is where that high util comes in. If you paid those accounts, you need to get proof and have that updated asap. Those are prob your biggest problem. Getting a 0 balance to report on those account will help enormously.

The lates are so old that it is not likley hurting him much if at all. You can GW the lates, but do NOT have that sears card removed, that will drop you big time since its a really old account. I would send GWs on all of the lates, but only ask to have them update to paid as agreed, and do not ask for deletions. You need those accounts. 

Have you started any new trade lines? Even a secured card would help bring him up.

[Shogun]

+1   I just wanted to add to the fact not to take to heart anything Creditkarma posts concerning these accounts.  They are often way off base.

[BeachGurl]

Well, then this brings up another question....how on earth do I get them to send me verification?  The only CapOne account we had was a car loan, and I do have documentation of that payoff.  I will send that off to them (maybe there was some kind of error in the processing - I know I had a problem once with that car loan where the payment was applied to a credit card we didn't even have)

The Dell account we sent documentation of payment...we even filed a fraud complaint on it, but they claimed "payments were made" so they didn't know what our question was...I tried to explain that we were asking for shipping information, what was supposedly purchased, etc. because we had not ordered anything since the laptop that we paid off...they never sent anything other than a form letter saying the account had been "transferred" and they had no further information.

I am sending off a GW letter to Sears asking for a removal of the lates...not a removal of the account....I had no idea the account had ever been late.

Ugh...these two accounts are gonna kill me...

[jandj80]

Keep your chin up, these things take time. You may have to send the letters in repeatedly. If you can't get anywhere with them, file a complaint with the consumer financial protection bureau. You can find it through google. It has worked for me, as well as many others. 

[BeachGurl]

Thanks...I understand it takes time...it is my husband, whose birth defect is showing, that is driving me nuts....you see, he was born without patience

I keep saying we are working on it...but it seems as if the baddies take forever to fix, while the goodies just seem to get ignored