Best Option To Regain Points!

[Madyun1982]

Hello Everyone..

I My Experian/Transunion Fico score has dropped 14 points due to me paying off a closed student loan.

I was wondering what could be done to get the points back if anything?

I currently have 7 Credit Cards..

I have a Neiman Marcus 16,000/ 1,000

Capital 1 QS 1,250/0

Discover 1,300 0% apr for 12 mos 173 bal

Uber Visa 2,510/0

Target 2,600/56.00

Walmart 1,500/0

paypal extras 300.. Thinking about closing this card.0 balance

Any information would help Thanks in advance.. Current Fico Scores Ex 657 Trans 691 EQ 728

[Anonymous]

Since your utilization appears to be in a good place, I'm assuming you have negative items present on your CR, which is why your scores are where they are?

If that's the case, have you done anything to try and get those negatives removed?

[Madyun1982]

Thank you for responding...

The Negatives I have on my report was from the student loan..

I contacted them, asking if they could remove the late payments.. The student loan is a closed account.. They stated they could not being that it was reported accuretly.. I'm not sure if writing a goodwill letter will help at all..  The student loan is due to fall off my credit report 6-2020

[Anonymous]

When was the loan closed?

Do you have any open loans right now?

[Madyun1982]

Hello...

The loan was closed July 5 2013.. I was just the co-signer on the student loan.. 

And at this time I do not currently have any other open loans...

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  And can you confirm, you have not had any open loans for the last six months?

If so, and if we can be certain that the score drop could not be attributed to anything else, it is helpful to us here on the forums, since it implies that a person can get a scoring bonus for any loan with a positive balance, even if all his loans are closed. 

What was your balance just prior to payoff and what was the original loan amount?

[Madyun1982]

No I haven't had any loans in the last six months.. The balance before paying it off was 309. The original loan amount was 6,789..

[Anonymous]

Fascinating.  Now if you are willing to let's explore whether the score loss might be attributed to anything else.

There are basically two timepoints in question, for which you have scores.  The first is a report (with scores) generated before the loan payoff.  The second is a report (with scores) after the loan payoff.  I'll call those BEFORE and AFTER.

You have listed all your cards and their balances and limits, but can you confirm that is for the AFTER shot?  And if so, can you clarify whether any of the balances could have been different in the BEFORE shot?

Also, can you indicate what tool(s) you were using to pull your scores in the Before and After shot?  For example, Credit Check Total, free scores that come with credit cards, myFICO Ultimate, Credit Karma, etc.

BTW, to answer your question, there's a nice trick which will indeed get you back all the points you lost (and probably more).  It is called the Share Secured Loan Technique: 

Do you have anyone relatives in the armed forces?  If so, the lender currently most friendly to the SSLT is Navy Fed.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Sec...

[Kree]

Really interesting data, to add onto CreditGuyinDixie's list, could you also look to see if there were any other closed accounts that appear on the BEFORE report, that no longer appear on the AFTER report.

There could also be an unrelated account dropped off at the same time causing a decline in the Average Age of Accounts, or the Age of Oldest Accounts.

Also, the SSLT mentioned will be the greatest score booster available to you, but I believe just about any installment loan will see a small score increase in the short term and a moderate score increase over the long term.  The benefit of the SSLT will be minimal in conjunction with another loan, so if you are looking at financing a new vehicle in the near future I would just stick with that to keep your number of inquiries down, and the AAoA up.

[Madyun1982]

Hello..
My Experian Fico score before the loan payoff was 671.. After 657 Trans was 712 before After 698 the loan was never reported to my Equifax.. I have the monthly subscription with Experian to get my Fico score.. The balance on my credit cards were as I put in the op.. I only just paid down my Neiman marcus card by 200 .. but that hasn't reported yet.. When I log into experian and it gives you what's helping and hurting your score.. After I paid the loan and the score dropped. It says in Red.. No loan activity.
But I'll be sure to look into the SSLT
Thank you guys for trying to help me understand what happened.. I'm new to this credit thing. And I don't want to make any mistakes.