Score going UP with collections added

[Anonymous]

Back in September I started my credit repair journy after loosing my wife in Feb 2019, all of 2018 was multiple late payments due to her being in  and out of the hospital. I signed up for Experian and Credit Karma in September(2020) and I must say the scoring on Credit Karma is JACKED.

no late payments for 20 months

4 collections from 2018 total of about $2000 (3 removed inDecember)

September 30th 2020:
551 Equifax

533 TransUnion

On December 17th drop of 151 points to 492. The changes were my CC dropped $23 (is paid off monthly) and my car note I paid an extra $5K to really drop the balance.

Since then it has been going up slowly as I removed 3 of the collections, and added time, but today it went UP 20 points to 582 with the return of 2 collections that I thought were gone for good.

How did the score go down  so much with the large payment on my car?(did not pay off)

How does the score go UP with collections being put on the report?

Should I try to fight them or let them be?

At this point I have 6 secured cards, 2 auto loans and a LOC, no need to get a loan anytime soon

NFCU 5K 5 months old

RFCU 5K 6 months old

PCB 200 4 months old

ELAN 600 4 months old

1ST PROGRESS 500 4 months old

1ST PROGRESS 200 2 months old

I  picked up all the secured cards as a way to add a lot of positive check marks over the next 24 months  and also to help age my report over time.

2 auto loans

2 small  secured loans

1 LOC

[Anonymous]

Are you going by credit karma scores? Because those are vantage and not your real scores. They are volitle and change over everything that your fico score won't change over. I would never go by credit karma. If you can pay for myfico and get your real scores. 29 a month gets you fico 8 In real time and your other scores and reports every 3 months, 39 a month gets you fico 8 in real time and your other scores and reports every month. You can cancel any time. It's worth it of you're trying to fix your credit. If you can't afford it then just know... Your real score didn't go down if you paid your car an extra 5k... And it sure didn't go up with a collection added. 

I'm sorry about your wife. 

[Anonymous]

yes, credit karma scores. 

It is definitely whacked.

At this time I am unsure paying $39 per month is worth it with the ability of getting a full report from annual credit report . Com weekly, but once they stop it will be as CK does not give you the full picture.

When it tanked in December, I was shocked. But to see it go up today was amazing that it would.

I still have a lot to learn, and offering a settlement on the one that did not drop before, we shall see if they respond, but I want it off the report so the offer is to remove.

[simplegirl]

You could get all three scores for a $1 through creditwise which gives you your real Fico scores. Just make sure to cancel after 7 days & you can repeat the process if needed.

[Anonymous]

Yeah you can’t pay any attention to the scores from CK, Vantage scores. You’re doing the right thing. you have a sufficient number of bankcards and loans. What you need is time and continued payment history and no new accounts and no new inquiries.

just let it age and accumulate positive History & work on removing the negatives. You should see some points when that most recent negative hits 24 months. Good luck and keep doing what you’re doing.

[OmarGB9]

Yea pay no attention to CK scores. Their algorithms are very strange. Collections would NEVER increase your FICO score. And paying down a loan (to under 9%, but not 0%) would only help boost it, not decrease it.

[Anonymous]

I just looked at CK, my equifax is 582 yet when I pulled from NFCU score(FICO 8) it shows a 631, proof positive the scooring is different on each.

reason listed on FICO....

Too many accounts with balances FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances. KEEP IN MIND: Generally, people who limit the number of accounts they have with balances appear less risky to lenders

With 6 CC's limit at $11,300  I bet I have less than 2% utilization as I keep them all at a minimum usage. In fact last month I used each for a single gallon of gas and let it sit till they reported on the CR, so yes, all 6 showed a ballance but it was minimal and always less than 10% each card. 

At this time I am gardining till NFCU clears my card to a unsecured card, should be in March. 

After then I have a decission to make. Should I hold till July and apply for the Chase card as my investments are with Chase, even though they have me with a car and a LOC I am not sure they will aprove me or not with the sub standard credit and having 6 /24.

or say to heck with Chase for a few years, pick up as many secured cards as I can in April to add up the number of positive check marks each month as well as increasing my credit card credit limit? 10 @ 200 each and 4 at higher limits concentrating on no anual fee cards 1st as well as cards that will graduate to unsecured, even if low limits.  

This would give me up to 480 positive check marks over the next 2 years and I think would have my  lates about 2%, as well as graduating several high value ( $2500 plus) cards.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

as an update.....with my new LOC at max if it reports as utilization rate 100%, this may tank me for a few years as I will not be able to pay off the LOC till then.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just looked at CK, my equifax is 582 yet when I pulled from NFCU score(FICO 8) it shows a 631, proof positive the scooring is different on each.

reason listed on FICO....

Too many accounts with balances FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances. KEEP IN MIND: Generally, people who limit the number of accounts they have with balances appear less risky to lenders

With 6 CC's limit at $11,300  I bet I have less than 2% utilization as I keep them all at a minimum usage. In fact last month I used each for a single gallon of gas and let it sit till they reported on the CR, so yes, all 6 showed a ballance but it was minimal and always less than 10% each card. 

At this time I am gardining till NFCU clears my card to a unsecured card, should be in March. 

After then I have a decission to make. Should I hold till July and apply for the Chase card as my investments are with Chase, even though they have me with a car and a LOC I am not sure they will aprove me or not with the sub standard credit and having 6 /24.

or say to heck with Chase for a few years, pick up as many secured cards as I can in April to add up the number of positive check marks each month as well as increasing my credit card credit limit? 10 @ 200 each and 4 at higher limits concentrating on no anual fee cards 1st as well as cards that will graduate to unsecured, even if low limits.  

This would give me up to 480 positive check marks over the next 2 years and I think would have my  lates about 2%, as well as graduating several high value ( $2500 plus) cards.

Thoughts?

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@Anonymous i'm sorry but that's a terrible idea. It would kill your average ages and prevent your profile from aging. you have enough positive accounts. Just pay them and keep them up and allow your profile to age. And work on any baddies. 

[OmarGB9]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just looked at CK, my equifax is 582 yet when I pulled from NFCU score(FICO 8) it shows a 631, proof positive the scooring is different on each.

reason listed on FICO....

Too many accounts with balances FICO® Scores consider the total number of accounts a consumer holds with balances, including credit card balance amounts that appear from the most recent account statements—even if that balance was paid off. Your score was impacted by having too many accounts with balances. KEEP IN MIND: Generally, people who limit the number of accounts they have with balances appear less risky to lenders

With 6 CC's limit at $11,300  I bet I have less than 2% utilization as I keep them all at a minimum usage. In fact last month I used each for a single gallon of gas and let it sit till they reported on the CR, so yes, all 6 showed a ballance but it was minimal and always less than 10% each card. 

At this time I am gardining till NFCU clears my card to a unsecured card, should be in March. 

After then I have a decission to make. Should I hold till July and apply for the Chase card as my investments are with Chase, even though they have me with a car and a LOC I am not sure they will aprove me or not with the sub standard credit and having 6 /24.

or say to heck with Chase for a few years, pick up as many secured cards as I can in April to add up the number of positive check marks each month as well as increasing my credit card credit limit? 10 @ 200 each and 4 at higher limits concentrating on no anual fee cards 1st as well as cards that will graduate to unsecured, even if low limits.  

This would give me up to 480 positive check marks over the next 2 years and I think would have my  lates about 2%, as well as graduating several high value ( $2500 plus) cards.

Thoughts?

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No, I would not add a bunch of secured cards. More "positive checkmarks" won't help. The whole "on-time percentage" fluff from Credit Karma doesn't translate into anything on FICO. FICO only cares whether you're always on time or not. So either 100% or not. There's no "on-time percentage" metric. So even if you add a dozen cards with perfect payment history, it won't outweigh the bad. The only thing for the late payments is time for them to fade away, or possibly try GW removal. Also, more credit doesn't mean good credit. FICO also doesn't care if you have $1000 in total credit, or $100,000 in total credit. All that matters is that you keep the utilization low, as in below 30% total, and under 10% on each individual card.