Experian Score REALITY CHECK *EDIT*

[jbishop1001]

I knew that using the "free" monitoring services out there were not the same as my actual FICO. I thought they'd be somewhere in the range at least, though.

freecreditscore.com shows a 640. I was ELATED!

I applied for a Chase Freedom card - and was turned down due to collections and not enough accounts.

My FICO?

567.

Collection agency hasn't respond to my Pay For Delete letter and DTE wont budge on removing the lates. I'm stuck. I guess all I can do now is wait for my credit card and fingerhut account to age. This sucks.

Actually, my Experian FICO from Chase (actually, a PFICO that ranges 250-900) was 576.

I must have been so upset that I typed it incorrectly. Hey, it's an improvement. I'll take what I can get. SO CLOSE TO 580! NEED IT FOR FHA!

[Anonymous]

If you are trying to rebuild, I'd do so on the basis of accurate information, and avoid FAKO scores.

At the outset, I'm not sure how important scores are anyway, since it's most important to examine your report for mistakes, and then address any derogatories you can.

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If you are trying to rebuild, I'd do so on the basis of accurate information, and avoid FAKO scores.

At the outset, I'm not sure how important scores are anyway, since it's most important to examine your report for mistakes, and then address any derogatories you can.

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Grin, I'm not so certain scores really matter at all other than personal benchmarking and seeing progress on any axis is useful for maintaining any sort of discipline for achieving goals.

End of the day the only score that matters is what the lender pulls, and with rare exceptions we don't know which one will be used.  As such, the report data is king, and putting enough lipstick on the report, will result in a kissable score.

[jbishop1001]

I've already addressed any negative information I could and corrected any errors. I feel like there's nothing else I can do at this point.

[Revelate]

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@jbishop1001 wrote:

I've already addressed any negative information I could and corrected any errors. I feel like there's nothing else I can do at this point.

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Welome to my world.

From your report at some point you want to add additional tradelines (probably another 1-3 revolving, and some installment history if you have none), but once you've gotten sufficient tradelines (and not getting any new derogatories, make those payments!), and you're just racking up pretty OK's as time passes, you're right: sitting on your hands is where it's at for long-term FICO improvement.

In my case I'm not clean for a while and I'm already 2.5 years into this process.

BOFA lates: get kicked out sometime in 2017 depending on where DOFD is set (first or second set)

Collection: 2017

TU-only collection: 2018

Cali Tax Lien: 2018

4 more years and change to get righteous on my report, so all Ive been doing is building as strong of a report as I can for future scoring purposes but I'm pretty much done at this point.  Tale of the tape for whoever may be interested:

Name	Date Open	Months since Open	Notes
BOFA Old	5/1/08	72	Closed 8/10, 30/60 late
BOFA New	10/1/11	31
Capital One	12/1/11	29	Closed 4/14
Cashcall loan	12/1/11	29	Closed 7/12
WFDS Auto	12/1/11	29	Closed 8/12
Amex BCP	1/1/12	28	Backdate from 1/13
USAA loan	1/1/12	28
DCU Secured	2/1/12	27
DCU Auto	8/1/12	21
Amex Zync	9/1/12	20
USAA CC	1/1/13	16
Chase Freedom	1/1/13	16
Fidelity Amex	4/1/14	1
Sallie Mae	5/1/14	0
USAA loan	5/1/14	0
Alliant loan	5/1/14	0
Total		347
AAOA		21	Total/# of acct, round down
Garden Date		5/7/14

[jbishop1001]

Very insightful. 

I have the "installment loan" on EQ & EX. It was my utility bill for electric/gas. I was late several times. Because I defaulted on a shut off protection plan, it posted as a 180+ late consecutively. I asked DTE about the matter (because I have NEVER missed 6 months of payments) and they said that because I defaulted, it was retroactive to when the "loan" began.

My report is seriously hurting. And because they are recent, I've still got another 7 years for these to go away.

I've since opened 2 revolving accounts (Open Sky secured card and Fingerhut - but Fingerhut hasn't reported yet)

I'm trying to save my funds to go toward my housing costs, so I'm trying to avoid another secured card right now. I feel like I'm never going to move. A mortgage would make way more sense in my financial situation, as it would be a lower payment and much easier to manage. I just can't get my foot in the door. I can wait a few months.... understandably. But years? It makes me want to cry.

[Revelate]

A lot depends on how much you have for a downpayment, and you likely are going to need six momths to get mortgage qualified even for the bare minimum floor which as I understand it is 600 currently (heard statements of 580 on some, but rate ain't going to be pretty at that tier) and more realistically 620 or even 640.

In your specific situation, I'd actually go open an account with Alliant CU, drop $500 in a savings account, and then take a 100% LTV secured installment loan against it for a period of 4 years.  It'll add a minimal amount to your DTI (<$10) but you might still be able to claim that money as a reserve, and you get $500 right back anyway.  The old way of building credit was doing this 4-5 times (we're talking back in 1985-1990) at a few different banks, but you don't need that many anymore.  I wouldn't depend on your utility as being an installment loan, and you should likely get a second and knowing what I know now I'd take a flier here: https://www.sdfcu.org/share-secured-loans since I doubt SDFCU would pull credit for that much like they don't for a secured card.  Probably works the same way as Alliant's, and it doesn't appear as though I got an inquiry for either Alliant membership nor their share secured loan.

That plus your 2 cards gives you 4 tradelines, 2 open revolving, 2 open installment, wait for six months, and you'll have a shot at being over the minimum underwriting hurdles both on FICO and on file thickness.

That would be my strategy in your situation.

[Anonymous]

One thing I'd suggest in this situation is to make a realistic assessment of where you are now and where you'll be at future time X.

Derogatories have certain impact decay curves, and by doing some research, you may be able to find out what these are.

For example, there are various threads that say that a 30-day late loses most of its sting in two years.

I'd also suggest getting a couple of good secured cards, but after doing so, not keep fiddling around in this area until your scores rise significantly.

SDFCU might be a good choice, both for the secured EMV Visa and the EMV prepaid.

In terms of actual day-to-day transactions, prepaid cards will work pretty well for most things.

[jbishop1001]

I took your suggestion and purchased scorepower. Equifax is at 579. This is pathetic.

Although I JUST spoke to them on the phone Thursday AND mailed them information asking for the fraud alert on my account to be removed - it's still there.

NOW WHAT! Not that it matters, because it doesn't look like I'll be anywhere near where I thought I would be anytime soon. But still. Why isn't it gone! And "promotional purposes"????

It shows as this:

Alert(s)

File Blocked For Promotional Purposes

Fraud Alert

File Blocked For Promotional Purposes

File Blocked for Promotional Purposes

Expiration Date: 02/27/2020  Date Reported:

03/22/2013 

[EW800]

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@Anonymous wrote:

At the outset, I'm not sure how important scores are anyway, since it's most important to examine your report for mistakes, and then address any derogatories you can.

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I think 5387 has absoutely nailed it with this statement/practice!  With something like 49+ possible scoring models out there, each of which can change basically by the second, I am not sure that any of us are ever actually looking at an exact numebr that a lender may pull (althoughtly hopefully we have a good ballpark number).  Yes, I am tracking scores like crazy through my journey to improve, however my main focus is trying to do all I can to get some baddies removed, let time go by since time heals all wounds in this area, keep UTIL very low and anything else that will help long-term.