@credit_endurance wrote:
@VanderSnoot that is correct. Student loan account is paid off and was trying to get lates removed expeditiously but not to sacrifice scores with removing the whole account. If I can understand the thread correctly by having TU remove the entire account once lates are removed I wouldn't receive any boost in Fico scores? I do currently have an Alliant SSL reporting would that help if whole account is removed?
You have two options:
(1) Allow the delinquencies to age off on their own. This is almost always the best choice because it preserves the account on your report, which can add to credit mix and age of accounts. To satisfy the credit mix criterion for scoring purposes, you need 3 revolving accounts and 1 installment account. Your SSL counts as an installment loan. Age of accounts is more complicated because there are numerous calculations (e.g. Age of Oldest Account, Age of Youngest Account, Average Age of Accounts, Age of Open Accounts) and numerous thresholds for each calculation (e.g. AOYA hitting 6 months or 1 year, or AAOA hittting 1 year, 2 years, or 5 years). This criterion is a bit of a black box, which people here have tried to decipher by posting DPs as their accounts age.
(2) Request Early Exclusion. EE will remove the entire account from your report. You lose the delinquencies, but you also lose the positives the account adds to your scores, namely credit mix and age of accounts. Requesting EE may be the right choice if you have a major purchase coming up (e.g. a mortgage) and you want to get your scores above a threshhold to qualify for better rates. EE is also appropriate if you don't need the negative account to satisfy credit mix or boost account age.
In your case, if this is your only negative, and you have a major purchase coming up, then EE is worth it. You have another installment loan, so the closed student loan isn't helping your credit mix. Depending on your other accounts, it may be helping your age, but in general, the loss in score from delinquencies, especially 90 or 120 day delinquencies, is much larger than the points you gain from age. (With a 90/120 day delinquency on your report, you are losing 50-100 points, whereas passing an age of account threshold seems to gain anywhere from 2-3 points to maybe 20 points.) This said, if you have other derogs on your report, then you won't see the large gains until they're all gone. There's no reason to request EE on a 6.5 yr old delinquency if you have a 2 yr old delinquency (or other derog) on your report.
