Score is dropping while trying to rebuild

[Anonymous]

I am currently cleaning up my credit reports, but I am noticing that my scores are dropping significantly with each deletion. I went from a Equ-599, TU-589, Exp-608 to now 30 days later Equ-559, TU-566, Exp-609. I have noticed a lot of big balances and things I have paid off, deleted from my credit file, but my score is falling instead of rising, is that possible. I have not applied for any new credit, no inquiries since August 2008.

[Anonymous]

Are you getting accounts deleted?  Are your credit limits dropping? Also, given that you're posting 3 scores, I'm going to guess that they're FAKOs.  Plus, when you pay off a collection and it updates to "paid", it looks like recent activity score-wise.

[Anonymous]

They are getting deleted, but my score is dropping each time. I currently do not have any open credit except my car, which is financed through wells fargo which will be pd off november this year. I had some lates on this account over 2 years ago, but since then have not been late once. I do not know what to do since I cannot apply for new credit to get my score back up, but all of my negatives are coming off quickly.

[diveforfun97]

The items that you are having removed, how old were they?  Mauve correct me if I am wrong but if the account were too old, it would not effect the score much as the effect has lessen over time.  However, if they were newer if might damage the AoAA.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you're losing account age instead of the negatives on the accounts.  For instance, if you:

Have a negative account with 10 years of history

and a positive account with 2 years of history

You have an average age of accounts of 6 years (which is a positive) and some negatives on the one account.

If the negative account is deleted, you have the negatives deleted (good) but you now have an average account age of 2 years.

You can qualify for cards with your scores - look at the bankruptcy forum for bankruptcy-friendly credit cards - they have qualifying scores listed for them.  You can also go to whogavemecredit.com and look for cards by credit score, but make sure you scroll way to the bottom and see people's recent experiences.  You might need to consider a secured card.

Also, keep in mind that your scores are probably FAKOs and not FICOs.

[Anonymous]

It would depend on what type of accounts.  An OC account, even a negative one, can affect your AAoA whereas, a CA won't.

[Anonymous]

Dive is kind of right and kind of wrong.

The older the negative item, the less it hurts you - especially true of 30 day lates. 

The older the account is, the more it helps you. 

Thus, deleting a newer late helps you more than deleting an older one, and deleting an older account hurts more than deleting a newer one.

[Anonymous]

What is a FAKO and what is the difference?

[Anonymous]

FICO are the ones that lenders use - although there are different versions of FICO scores (for instance, TU's TU98 vs. TU04, or auto-enhanced scores).

FAKO is a generic name for Vantage, PLUS, etc scores that are products of different CRAs and isn't the same as your FICO score.

The reason I suspect you have FAKOs is because, unless you're a member of one particular credit union in PA, you cannot access your EX FICO without getting it from a lender.

[Anonymous]

A lender told me my FICO- 589, but I am a member of creditkeeper.com and these are the scores they provided me. I am afraid to apply for new credit, I want more revolving credit to increase my score and history, but do not know where to start.