@jamie123 wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Agreed on the last derog is the most important, but which scores are you tracking Jamie? Also how old is the state tax lien? Might be interesting to compare files at some point if you're game as your scores are supiciously like mine if we're talking FICO 8 and I have a couple more delinquencies and derogs than you do in addition to my own state tax lien which isn't going anywhere for another 2.5 years.
Yeah, ever since I started rebuilding 3 years ago I thought our files were similar. When I started rebuilding 3 years ago I couldn't generate a score for lack of credit. I started at MyFICO when it was FICO 04 at 658. I now have 7 active CCs and 1 closed CC, one 2 year shared secured and one 4 year shared secure. I removed all my baddies except for the tax liens. My scores now fluctuate between 698 and about 707 FICO 08 no matter what I do.
I started out with an IRS lien from 2004 on ONE report along with one State tax lien on EACH report. All unpaid.
So on one report I had an IRS lien AND a State tax lien. The IRS lien which was for HUGE dollars fell off after 10 years. Score didn't budge one point because it still had a State tax lien.
The State tax liens on 2 reports are for the same lien from 2008 and are over 7 years old. The State tax lien on 1 report is HUGE and is from 2010. My reports are otherwise identical save for 1 or 2 inquiries. All 3 scores are within 10 points of each other so the amounts of the liens or the age of the liens don't matter.
I saved the liens for last because there really is limited information at MyFICO or elsewhere on the web in how to pay them and have them REMOVED! I knew they would be there when I had the time and money to deal with them. The State that the liens are from will keep them active on your reports for 40 years! Yeah, that's a story in itself!
All my scores posted in my sig are legit MyFICO 3 report pull FICO 08 scores. My FICO mortgage scores are 20 points lower than my sig scores.
After doing quite a bit of research I found somebody to help me pay the liens off AND have them removed from my credit reports. We will see within the next two months if it works.
Yeah, sounds awfully close actually 
. Other than I have a 30/60 from 2010 and also a paid collection from the same time frame.
I started my rebuild (from a straight dirty file) in late 2011; I too found that amount and age of liens were effectively irrelevant in FICO 04 (new lien I lost 5 points on, have to think had my albatross been on EQ probably wouldn't have lost any going from 2 to 3 liens, instead 5 points going from 1 to 2 liens, w/e); however, age of liens does play a more pronounced role in FICO 8 at least in the first 6 months after lien assignment. Generally my scores have been pretty flat over the past few years and I think I'm close to capped out on what I can get with negative information on my file, though I saw someone who had a higher FICO 8 right before his final lien dropped off.
There isn't a lot of information on anything other than Federal liens here (and only a few people who really went through the full IRS monty to know) as it's all governed under individual state law... I'm still SMH at California voters, we actually had a referendum to make our state tax liens mirror the post Fresh Start IRS standard, and it wasn't approved. I hope you manage to get it off, state tax liens are some of the worst things to deal with from a scoring perspective though nobody other than DCU has blinked with it on my report and they just wanted to know if it'd been paid. Underwriting doesn't seem to care that much about liens in general as near as I can tell, but FICO sure hates them.
I'm likewise between 687-715 (693/706/713 EQ/TU/EX explicitly right now with 3/9 balances reporting and most accounts recently active) on FICO 8 though I was 724 EX 8 six months ago before I paid some of the installment loans off; slightly more revolving history (9 open 2 closed) and sounds like more installment history (4 closed, two open). Funny now though my EQ 04 is a 693 as well and my EX 98 when I last checked was within 10 points of my EX 8 score. Waiting for Amex and FIA to report $0 (statements both cut on the 15th) on my reports then will pull the 3B and see what's up before talking to a mortgage banker.
Question for you, what's your ratio of current balance to initial balance on your installment loans now? I'm currently sort of testing whether percentage of installment loans makes a difference to try to isolate if the auto loan was pure goodness (lost ~18 points when it was paid on multiple bureaus and another 5 points when the second loan was closed and haven't fully made it up yet). Kicked $500 to my current USAA loan which I plan to get rid of whenever the mortgage is sorted taking my aggregate from 81% to 65%, seeing if there is a 66% boundary as has been pontificated, should have that datapoint by the end of the month at least. My EQ 04 score never hiccupped when the loans reported paid, and has never been higher than it is now, but FICO 8 likely tweaked that is my thinking.
For fullness, story of my account progress; days not accurate but month / year is for opening; AAOA 2 years (rounded down from 32-33 months) for FICO purposes.
| Closed CC | 5/1/08 |
| Open CC | 10/1/11 |
| Closed CC | 12/1/11 |
| Closed installment | 12/1/11 |
| Closed installment | 12/1/11 |
| Open CC | 1/1/12 |
| Closed installment | 1/1/12 |
| Open CC | 2/1/12 |
| Closed installment | 8/1/12 |
| Open CC | 9/1/12 |
| Open CC | 1/1/13 |
| Open CC | 1/1/13 |
| Open CC | 1/1/13 |
| Open CC | 4/1/14 |
| Open CC | 5/1/14 |
| Open installment | 5/1/14 |
| Open installment | 5/1/14 |
@jamie123 wrote:I don't have time for a detailed response right now, but yeah, we are twins. Oldest open and oldest account is a CC from 4/12. AAoA is 1 year 8 months. My installment loans are from 7/14.
@Anonymous research says that when installment loans are 20% paid off you start hitting the sweet spot. One of my installment loans is for 2 years from 7/14 so is almost @Anonymous% and the other is 4 years from 7/14 so is almost @Anonymous%.
Chase only gave me a CL of $1500 and on recon said it was because of the tax liens. Refused to raise it. Mortgage brokers won't give me a loan until the liens are paid.
I'll be back later tonight.
Aggregate or individual on that 80% of balance? Wish I'd seen this post before I kicked $500 to one of the secured lines (I know I know, breaking my rules but going to recycle that silly $2500 CD anyway for some smaller line if I don't get the mortgage as planned anyway... DCU 10 year, I'm looking at you!)
Open lien is a deal breaker on a mortgage app, absolute truth there. Was that on a Freedom or other app? I got my Chase Freedom (at 1K) with open liens but I never asked why as I was reconning a denial anyway... not sure on my Chase Ink approval what the status of my liens were, would have to go look up some dates. I do think they were all paid or gone by that point.
Actually I had at least one lien on EX at that point which wasn't listed as released, and possibly my albatross too as that would've been scheduled to fall off 5/14 correlating some old reports with my 4/14 open date on the Ink.
Interesting seeing your AAOA: my old negative BOFA line apparently helps me more than I thought in that regard; if I take that out of the calculation there's only 6ish months difference which if you started building right around the time you registered for the forum, that sounds about right given I think I was slightly more aggressive in acquiring accounts, but if I leave it in it's a big discrepancy.
@jamie123 wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Aggregate or individual on that 80% of balance? Wish I'd seen this post before I kicked $500 to one of the secured lines (I know I know, breaking my rules but going to recycle that silly $2500 CD anyway for some smaller line if I don't get the mortgage as planned anyway... DCU 10 year, I'm looking at you!)
Open lien is a deal breaker on a mortgage app, absolute truth there. Was that on a Freedom or other app? I got my Chase Freedom (at 1K) with open liens but I never asked why as I was reconning a denial anyway... not sure on my Chase Ink approval what the status of my liens were, would have to go look up some dates. I do think they were all paid or gone by that point.
Actually I had at least one lien on EX at that point which wasn't listed as released, and possibly my albatross too as that would've been scheduled to fall off 5/14 correlating some old reports with my 4/14 open date on the Ink.
Interesting seeing your AAOA: my old negative BOFA line apparently helps me more than I thought in that regard; if I take that out of the calculation there's only 6ish months difference which if you started building right around the time you registered for the forum, that sounds about right given I think I was slightly more aggressive in acquiring accounts, but if I leave it in it's a big discrepancy.
I'm not sure about the aggregate or individual as to installment loans. It is my understanding that at 20% payback you have demonstrated good credit behavior and will be on the plus side of point generation. I would think that that would apply to each individual installment loan. You know how slow installment loan point generation works so in my thinking it is probably a slow increase until pay off. I would also think, that just like credit cards, you reach a point where having more installment loans don't benefit you anymore. I imagine that since the average person would only have one or two installment loans the point generation really drops off after the first installment loan.
Yeah, Chase Freedom only gave me a $1500 CL when my average CL was over $5000 at that point. Haven't received an auto CLI either and the card is over 18 months old. I've used it regularly since I received it and tried all the tricks to trigger an auto CLI like running up high balances etc. Nothing has worked.
Yeah, finding MyFICO three years ago was a godsend. I went through some awful times for about 5 years in the late 1990s and early 2000's and wrote off credit. Cancelled all my cards and lived a cash only existence from about 1997 to 2012. I wish I had known then what I know now. I cancelled my first Sears credit card in 1997 that I had since 1978. I also had several cards that were at least 10 years old at that point. The only thing that I had on my reports when I checked in 2012 were a couple of small baddies that were easily removed and these tax liens. And to make a long story short, the tax liens were unjustly filed against me but because they were so old at that point I couldn't question their validity. I had moved and wasn't ever notified that they were suing me.
My plans are to have these State tax liens paid and removed. Hopefully my FICO 04 scores will jump from the 680s where they are now into the 720s at least. The next day, I'm out house hunting. After the house closes, two more credit cards and I'm in the garden!
I hope to have all this accomplished in the next 4 to 5 months.
Will see what I can figure out then in my own testing on the installment loan side. I am not certain I can remember seeing auto CLI's on Freedoms, Chase has always been known for if you want a bigger CL, go apply for a new card. I did get a $1500 auto CLI on my Ink when I run all of $250 / month through it currently in business expenses of all things.
Agreed on the benefit myFICO has been to me too; wouldn't be where I am without it in terms of being on the cusp of actually getting a mortgage. Which state do you live in if you don't mind my asking regarding your tax liens? Anyway I do hope it works out for you, chasing a mortgage has been my goal for the past 3 years and may be able to actually get into a something in the near future.
@6speed8 wrote:Yes they certainly should have changed. I went through a three year battle with the IRS over Tax Refund Fraud / Identity Theft. During this, they imposed a $50,000+ tax lien against me. All was finally settled in December. Once I got the Release Of Lien forms from them and confirmed the court received them as well, I went to the county Clerk's Office to get copies of their versions and mailed them to all the reporting agencies. I had confirmation from all three by the end of January showing "Released/Satisfied". With my bankruptcy still in progress and no other action on my reports, my scores went up from 505/515 to 589/594 between January and this month.
Federal tax lien? See if you can get that withdrawn under the Fresh Start program if it's released.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f12277.pdf
Worked like a champ twice for me, worth a shot absolutely. In my experience a tax lien updating to released does nothing score wise from the 2 federal and 1 state tax lien I've addressed over time while using the monitoring solution here.