Remember this mantra.. A clean report is ALWAYS better.
Where are you pulling your scores from? myFico?
If your goal is a new mortgage, don't be too concerned by score variations on other models. Focus on your FICO 2, 4 and 5 (and possibly 10T) scores.
How old are the lates and what type? 30,60,90? You got rid of a few but still have some. Where you seeing these drops in scores?
@CozmicCrow wrote:Three months ago I did a pay for delete on a collection. It's gone, but my score dropped. I got 2 erroneous late payments removed. Score dropped more. I increased my credit limits, paid down some accounts and my utilization was at 15%, now at 6%, and it dropped even more. I am so confused. I have no recent late payments, they ones I have are quite old, so were the ones I got removed. No new credit. I'm two payments away from paying off a car loan which I know will drop me even more. We are planning to move this summer and buy a new home but instead of improving my credit I've somehow dropped my fico 8 30-40 depending on the credit bureau I look at. The scoring for mortgages hasn't changed at all. What am I doing wrong? Or does this just need a few months to shake out?
Your scores aren't necessarily affected by a few negatives being removed, while other negatives remain. Getting late payments removed wouldn't drop your scores, so it was probably other things. As to what things you're "doing wrong" we would need a lot more information than you have provided, but I can say that (a) getting a collection removed with a pay for delete is not one of them, (b) getting 2 erroneous late payments removed is not one of them, and (c) paying down balances and reducing utilization is not one of them, either.
As to paying off your car loan, if you have no other open loans, that will likely cause some loss of points in your FICO 8's and 9's, but will have little, if any, effect on your mortgage scores.
