Scenario:
I'm 19, 20 in a couple months, so I don't have a long line of credit history. I have one card which I've had since I turned 18, another for almost a year, and one more since july. Also an auto loan since December 06. All of them have high balances (yea, i know...im about to pay them all down next month, which will help my score alot). I've only been more than thirty days late on a payment once, which is also hurting me. My question is, I had a collections account on my report that shouldn't have been there. Any particular reason why once it was deleted, my score dropped?
Thanks in advance for any explanation you can provide.
Your credit history is really short (which is to be expected), so if the deleted account with the collection was on the older side, your average age of credit has dropped. In your case, the history was slightly more helpful than the collection was hurtful. (Go figure.)
It shouldn't take long to recover, especially with your card paydown. It will really help you in the future to have that thing gone. Weird, though, huh?
It shouldn't take long to recover, especially with your card paydown. It will really help you in the future to have that thing gone. Weird, though, huh?
Yea, just a little weird. It wasnt an old collections account though. According to the report, the account was opened with CPA in 11/07 and reported 1/08. That little bit of history helped? lol.
Also, mind giving a kid some pointers on the best and quickest way to bring up my credit score? Here's my credit info:
Auto Loan: 12/06, $17075, $15255 balance
BofA Secured: 5/06, $500 limit, $459 balance
AMEX: 3/07, $2000 limit, $2181 balance
Capital One (I HATE THEM, lol): 7/07, $300 limit, $300 balance.
All with perfect payment history except for one 30-day late payment in November 07 on the Capital One card.
Message Edited by mistaritalian on 01-24-2008 03:22 PM
Well, it is hard to believe that something from November was helping your age, I've gotta admit. Are you looking at a FICO score report? (as opposed to a score report from TrueCredit or other credit monitoring services.)
Since you have 4 open accounts, finagle your payments so that only one card reports a balance of under 10% of its credit limit, and the other two show $0. It's easiest to let your "big" card be the one that reports, so that would mean that AmEx would report $190 or less, and the other two would be PIF'd. It's possible that you would do even better having only the car loan report, but you probably don't need to torture yourself to that degree. AmEx has an odd reporting cycle, and they seem to report the previous month's balance, so it might be 6-8 weeks before you see the actual score hops.
Keep up this reporting pattern, and you'll get steady score growth with time. You can continue to use your cards; just make sure to have them paid down or off about 5 days before they're due to report, which is generally when the statement posts. This means keeping an eye on the calendar, and if you do let a card post a balance on the statement, you'll then want to finish paying it off so that you aren't paying finance charges.
And the absolutely single best thing that you can do for your scores is to not be late again, as you well know.
Your November late will drag your scores down for a while longer, but by this coming November, it will fade, and if you haven't gotten any others, it should count very little.
Since you have 4 open accounts, finagle your payments so that only one card reports a balance of under 10% of its credit limit, and the other two show $0. It's easiest to let your "big" card be the one that reports, so that would mean that AmEx would report $190 or less, and the other two would be PIF'd. It's possible that you would do even better having only the car loan report, but you probably don't need to torture yourself to that degree. AmEx has an odd reporting cycle, and they seem to report the previous month's balance, so it might be 6-8 weeks before you see the actual score hops.
Keep up this reporting pattern, and you'll get steady score growth with time. You can continue to use your cards; just make sure to have them paid down or off about 5 days before they're due to report, which is generally when the statement posts. This means keeping an eye on the calendar, and if you do let a card post a balance on the statement, you'll then want to finish paying it off so that you aren't paying finance charges.
And the absolutely single best thing that you can do for your scores is to not be late again, as you well know.
Your November late will drag your scores down for a while longer, but by this coming November, it will fade, and if you haven't gotten any others, it should count very little.
So paying the balances off on my Capital One and BofA completely off, and leaving AMEX no more than $200, will have the best impact on my score?
Also, I'd like to refinance my truck, as my interest rate right now is 12.15% (I had next-to-no credit history when I bought my truck). Would doing this be a good or bad idea?
Also, the money I'm getting for my cards are coming in 2 chunks. I'm getting $1750, then like $2000. Would I be better off paying the AMEX down $1750 first, or paying off the $800 on the other 2 cards, and the rest on the AMEX?
Thanks again for all of your help =)
Message Edited by mistaritalian on 01-24-2008 03:49 PM
20 year old daughter, huh? ;-)
Haha, only joking.
I just mailed out a dispute letter to the three agencies, trying to get that 30-day off my report. Hopefully Capital One won't write back to them in time. Either way, if they do or don't delete it off of my report, would I be better off keeping that account open, or closing it and getting a different card? The latter would be my preferred option, but if keeping it open would be more beneficial to myself, then I'll go that route.
I appreciate the advice. I've been staying on top of it, but I got caught up in moving and missed one payment. I tried calling Capital One, spoke to everyone up to a corporate account manager, and they were unwilling to work with me. From what I've been reading online, I could haven been a cardholder for 20 years with one missed payment, and they still wouldn't help out. =\
Like I said, it's the only negative thing on my report, so we'll see what happens.
Cap1 is notoriously hard-nosed about GW's. Keep trying, but don't let yourself feel beaten down if it doesn't work. As long as this is the only one, it will fade after 12 months.
@mistaritalian wrote:
20 year old daughter, huh? ;-)Haha, only joking.
Yep, 6 feet tall, 135 pounds, plays soccer and rows, 4.0 last semester, going to national competition in Mock Trial, and can only find clothes to fit at J.Crew. Currently unattached--good luck!
BTW, her favorite scent is Clinique Happy.
