Not much of a bump!! Why??

[Anonymous]

I’m in the process of rebuilding and had 2 collections holding down my TU.  One carried a $2500 balance and the other $0.  Got a FICO alert and see a deletion for the one with at 2500.  My FICO increase??  6 pts!!!  That’s it??  I don’t understand!

[Anonymous]

It's because you still have a collection.

The short story is that the first collection hits the hardest as far as impacting your score. Subsequent ones cause smaller negative score changes.

Get rid of the other one and you should see a nice boost.

[Anonymous]

If you have a collection on your report, you're in one of the "dirty" scorecards.

Removing a collection but still leaving another one means you are STILL in a "dirty" scorecard.

Until all collections are removed, you stay in the dirty scorecard.

Some people have a collection removed and their score DROPS.

[Ardecko]

Edit: (Removed now duplicate info, took me a while to get around to posting)

On my DW's TU, going from two to one collection was worth +12 points. It's possible you had other changes in the mean time.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  I’ll have to work on the other and that’s with Calvary.  The other changes can only be descreases in balances (my file is thin).

[Anonymous]

No idea what your profile looks like but if you have zero installment loans reporting open, you should do the Alliant SSL Technique immediately.  That's assuming no installment loans.

[Anonymous]

I have opened small secured loans with both Penfed and NFCU.  They’re paid on time but I need to knock the balances down further.  Calvary is the other collection with a zero balance.  It was included in my BK 13 and it’s noted, yet they chose to report as a collection.  Any suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Dang I have no idea how to deal with BK stuff, I made the mistake of not filing BK when I should have in my past.

My 11 rules signature link covers the gamut of what I think others should do to rebuild so click that and read!

Basically, 3 credit cards, 1 installment loan to start, then start putting money into savings non-stop.  Add up your monthly costs, then add your debt payments if any.  Take that total and multiply it by 6 months.  If you don't have 6 months of living in the bank, live in poverty mode until you do.  It'll change your life.

[Adkins]

I got a 30+ point bump when my last collection was removed. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have opened small secured loans with both Penfed and NFCU.  They’re paid on time but I need to knock the balances down further.  Calvary is the other collection with a zero balance.  It was included in my BK 13 and it’s noted, yet they chose to report as a collection.  Any suggestions?

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You only need one installment account for scoring purposes. Adding more does not help scores, it merely reduces you AAoA. Pay off one of those SSLs and free up that money for other uses.