Dispute opens - Equifax FICO 8 immediately dropped 107 points

[dafeagans]

A dispute opens and my Equifax FICO 8 tanked 107 points from 743 to 636. Is this normal? Can I expect the points

to come back after the dispute closes? The tradeline is correct. Sky Blue Credit Repair opened the dispute. 

Verizon account opened in 2008.

[Anonymous]

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@dafeagans wrote:

A dispute opens and my Equifax FICO 8 tanked 107 points from 743 to 636. Is this normal? Can I expect the points

to come back after the dispute closes? The tradeline is correct. Sky Blue Credit Repair opened the dispute. 

Verizon account opened in 2008.

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When you use a credit repair service you don't know what they are saying on your behalf. I myself looked into Sky Blue before deciding to do it myself. They said their letters are proprietary so they would not tell me how they dispute exactly. Since you said the tradeline was accurate I'm not sure what their plan was. An 11 year old account was probably helping you more than hurting you. Unless the dispute comes back as it was before or better (bad stuff gone, good stuff remains, for example) those points are most likely gone.

If your scores are low then you really have nothing to lose by disputing. Once your scores reach were yours were (743) it's better to just let stufff age off imho. Btw, I'm not saying you MUST do it yourself. That's a popular opinion here. I don't see anything wrong with outsourcing the work. I'm just saying there are risk. If I did outsource it, I would go with someone local rather than a big national firm that cranks out thousands of the same letters with your name and address inserted. Good luck. Follow up with them. If remember correctly they have a no questions asked money back guarantee.

[Anonymous]

when you dispute something they block it from affecting your score until the dispute ends. this means that it was helping your score by 107 points, and if the dispute succeeds and they remove that account your score will lose those points for good. why did you dispute that account?

[dafeagans]

because I'm a dummy, or at least I feel like one.

Before that dispute, the trade line was an 11 year old paid collection. When the dispute opens, I think it is treated as

an unpaid, open collection account??

[Remedios]

No, it's not treated as such but if you're disputing valid collection, especially with Verizon, you can bet it will come back as verified, which will cause a scoring drop.
Drop is more significant older the account is and if it has not been updating regularly.

[Anonymous]

an account will only remain on your report for 10 years after the date it was closed if it was helping your score, and 7 years if it was harming. so if it was closed for 11 years it shouldn't of been on there anymore. that's how you can get it removed even if it's valid.

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-long-collections-stay-credit-report/ 

[calyx]

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@Anonymous wrote:

an account will only remain on your report for 10 years after the date it was closed if it was helping your score, and 7 years if it was harming. so if it was closed for 11 years it shouldn't of been on there anymore. that's how you can get it removed even if it's valid.

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/how-long-collections-stay-credit-report/ 

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7 years from DOFD - not when the account was opened;   since Verizon tends to handle collections themselves, this was probably still the original account.   

OP can you clarify?

[dafeagans]

That's right. The account was opened 11 years ago, but first delinquency was about 3 years ago.

[Anonymous]

the older those derogs become the less it impacts your score. the aging brackets are: never late. 0-5mo. 6-11mo. 12-23mo. 24mo+.

the derog would of been in the oldest age bracket already.

[dafeagans]

Thanks for the input everybody. I'm hoping that when the dispute closes, my score will jump back up.