** Progress Thread-Experian score into the 700s. The credit card made a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

I have just received an update from FICO that my Experian score jumped up to 729.  I had already done the Experian Boost and seen a jump from 654 to 681.  I opened a credit card a month ago that is now reporting on Experian and my score bumped up from 681 to 729.  I had no credit cards before that.  The other CRAs are not yet reporting this credit card and my scores with them are still around 660.   I guess that I was a bit skeptical about how much of a score boost a credit card would give me...apparently, quite a bit.  I am not really a fan of credit cards after getting into a hole with two BOA credit cards several years ago.  Those two accounts were paid off and closed in 2014.  I have also recently negotiated a PFD of two medical collections from 2016 (total of about $450).  Stupid me thought the insurance covered these, but apparently not, and I guess all communications went to my old address.  This PFD has not shown up on my reports yet but I only paid them a couple weeks ago.  How much of a score boost might I see with these deletions?  I know people can't predict true numbers but would deletions of two collections from about three years ago be a decent score boost?

For some back story, I was laid off a few years back in 2013 and this caused my credit to dive as I had some late payments (the two BOA credit cards and two school loans).  Sorry, but paying rent, food, electric, gas, and insurance trumped paying credit cards.  And then there were the two medical collections I talked about above from 2016.   When these two collections are deleted, I will have a handful of 30, 60, 90 day lates (depending on the CRA) from 2013/2014 from the two BOA cards.  Like I said in the paragraph above, the accounts were closed, a payment plan set up, and both both balances were paid in full in mid-2014.  I also have two 60 day late student loan derogs that will fall off within the next three to four months.  I am not too worried about the student loan ones as they will fall off soon anyway.  The BOA lates will be the only derogs after the student loan derog falls off around the end of the year and the two collections are deleted.  BTW, the BOA derogs are from the time period of 6/2013 to 7/2014.

The only current debt I have is two school loan (less than $8,000 total) and a car loan (about $2500).  The car will be paid off by the end of this year and the school loan within the next three years.  I will probably pay more on the student loans then required each month so it can be paid off sooner.  How much does not having an actual outstanding loan affect credit scores?  If these are both paid off fairly soon, will I see a dip in my score?  I don't plan on getting any more loans anytime soon.  I don't need a loan for anything and will not be taking out a loan just for credit score purposes...just curious about the effect on my credit score.  The only way I forsee getting a new loan is if something happens to my current car, but hopefully, nothing will happen to it *fingers crossed*  The only reason I got this new car (2016 Toyota Corolla) was  because two kids rode out in front of me on their bikes and I opted to crash my old car instead of maiming two children   Please, teach your children to look both ways when riding bikes.  I could have killed those two kids if I hadn't been paying attention.  Anyhoo, I would likely have still been driving my old car if it hadn't been for those two kids.  I really liked that car too *sigh*  So I see no reason to add any loans in the near future.

Any advice will be much appreciated!  Thanks for reading!

[gdale6]

The first 3 open revolving credit cards result in some sort of Fico boost. Since you have 90 lates in previous CCs those weigh down Fico like a CO would the entire time they are on file. Those lates drop individually at the 7 year mark. I would say with the removal of the 2 medical collections and opening 2 more cards you are going to max out around 750 until those lates are gone and your file is completely clean. Once those lates are gone from those paid cards (I am assuming they were not COs) then they become postives until they are excluded at the 10 year mark from close date.

[Anonymous]

You are correct, the BOA credit cards were never charged off.  I set up a payment plan with BOA before it got to that point.  I think that after the two medical collections show as deleted on my credit reports, I will 'good will' BOA to see if they will do early deletion.  Since the medical collections are more recent, I would like them gone before mailing BOA about early deletion.  The medical collections people said they would report it to the CRAs on the 15th which is tomorrow so hopefully I will see another boost the next time the CRAs do their reporting.

I was also thinking about opening a Discover card.  My sister loves hers.  Does anyone know what credit report Discover usually pulls from?  Also, does anyone have other good recommendations for cards?  Like I said, I am not really a fan of credit cards.  I currently have one card from Capital One that I opened about one month ago.  I have already paid off the balance from my NYC trip.  I will keep paying balances monthly as I don't really like having debt.

[Aspireto850]

That’s a nice score bump from one card! Congrats

[Anonymous]

FICO just reported a credit jump for Transunion from 656 to 692, and Equifax went from 659 to 693.  The new credit card is now reporting to them also.  The PFDs from the medical collections will be reported to the CRAs tomorrow so hopefully, next reporting cycle, it will show both the deleted collections.  I am really curious how much of a difference I may see with the deleted collections.  I will definitely be in the 700s for all three CRAs after the PFDs fall off the reports.  The new card also made a larger impact on my Experian score than it did Equifax or Transunion.  I saw a score boost of 48 points for Experian,  36 points for Transunion, and 34 points for Equifax.

I know some people are skeptical about the Experian Boost thing.  I did it and it really did make a difference in my credit score for Experian.  My Experian credit score was 654 (in line with Equifax and Transunion).  I saw a bump up to 681 so it went up by 27 points.  I was able to get a better credit card due to this score bump.  So Experian Boost might be helpful to people who are re-building their credit as long as they have been paying bills such as phone, electric, etc on time.  If you have any late payments, then don't do it.  But if you have been making timely payments, it can help your score.   My Experian score is now reporting about 36 points higher than the other two scores which also just showed credit jumps today.  

[Aspireto850]

@Cloudburst2000,

Please let us know once those collections are removed so we can celebrate another good score bump for you. I’m projecting positivity for you! 😆

[Anonymous]

I was just approved for a Discover card with a $7500 credit limit   That's a big credit limit.  I can totally see how someone could get into trouble very quickly.  Luckily, I am not much a fan of credit cards, but I guess if I need cash for an emergency situation I do have a fall back.  I really just plan on using the card to pay gas and groceries as it has 5% cash back for those.  I plan to pay the balance off at the end of every month.

[Aspireto850]

Cloudburst2000,

Clearly my ‘positivity projecting’ is already paying off!!!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was just approved for a Discover card with a $7500 credit limit   That's a big credit limit.  I can totally see how someone could get into trouble very quickly.  Luckily, I am not much a fan of credit cards, but I guess if I need cash for an emergency situation I do have a fall back.  I really just plan on using the card to pay gas and groceries as it has 5% cash back for those.  I plan to pay the balance off at the end of every month.

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Congrats! That's great!

[Anonymous]

I am not so sure now about 'good willing' BOA to ask them for early exclusion of the late payments from when I was laid off.  Apparently, these do not look to be reporting on Experian.  Most of the months from 2012-2014 are showing as NR.  I think I misspoke above about when I was laid off.  I was laid off in 2012, not 2013.  So I already have had some old derogs fall off from the BOA accounts.  These don't look to have ever been reporting for Experian.  They were just reported as NR and the account is listed in good standing.

Equifax is listing the account to 'Pays as Agreed' and saying worst derog in 120days (not 90).  I didn't look back far enough.  Didn't nitice the other tab that went further back to 2013.  I had thought the dates were off.  I thought I must have had some derogs before 2013.  Transunion (on an old credit report from last year) also listed the derogs.  However, Transunion is no longer listing either of these accounts period.  It seems only Equifax and Experian are listing them, and only Equifax is reporting the derogs.  It's kind of strange because before I did that Experian Boost thing last month, all three of my credit scores were within a few points of each other.  Using the Boost, upped my Experian score by about 30 points.  My Equifax and Transunion scores are almost still identical even though Traansunion isn't listing those bad BOA accounts AT ALL.  

Anyhoo, I am afraid now to 'goodwill' BOA about the old derogs because I don't want them to show up on Experian or Transunion.  However, I still find it odd that my scores are still so close even though Equifax is the only one listing those derogs.  My Experian score is higher yes, but that is due to the Experian Boost.  Before doing that last month, all the scores were essentially the same.