FICO 5,4,2 and 100 - 125+ points below Fico 8, Help PLS!

[jkdem85]

Ok so here are the actual installment loans as requested 

Mortgage - Mar 14 Start Date - 0 Late - Balance $204,500 - Original Loan Amount $225,834 

Car Loan (Purchase) Jul 15 (soon to be ex-wife's car) - 0 late - Balance $22,450- Original Loan Amount $35,212

Car Loan (Purchase) Mar 14 (My Old Car) - 0 late - Balance $9,053 - Original Loan Amount $18,287 (0% int, postive equity in car)

Tesla Lease Dec 16 - 0 late - Balance $19,507 - Original Loan Amount $27,000 (36 mo lease)

Fed School Loans - My employer compensates me for this with the monthly payment of $250 

Fed Loan A - Balance $5,716 - Original $7,064

Fed Loan B - Balance $4252 - Original $5,436

Fed Loan C - Balance $5518 - Original $6,000

Fed Loan D - Balance $2,730 - Original $3,500

--- Again I have never missed a single payment. 

My negative reasons listed by my fico for my 5, 4, 2 are

TU score 619 on mortgage, 590 on Auto

*Reent Missed Payment ( the 30 day late for the $3 dollar Merrick monthly fee)

* Accounts with balances

* Number of Cred Accounts

*High revolving balances

EQF 639 on mortgage. 631 Auto

*Recent Missed Payment

*High Revolving Balances

*Missed payments (only 1 again)

*New Account

EXP 695 on mortage, 700 on Auto

*Recent missed Payment

*High Credit Usage

*Accounts with Balances

*Short Account History (I'm only in my early 30s fyi)

My salary is very high but I have a lot of expenses. I'm currently going through a divorce and plan on selling the house within 3-6 months, and at least 2 of the cars. 

Thanks for your help everyone. I really want to fix this, but I'm just confused how 1 small missed payment can lower my score to the 500s

[Anonymous]

The best single thing to do up front is to have pulled all three reports, and frankly I'd be inclined to use multiple tools.  Credit Check Total is a nice 3-bureau tool that only costs $1 if you use their trial offer and cancel.  There are many other free tools out there for pulling your reports.

I agree that it is a bit puzzling for your scores to go from 800 to the 500s over one 30-day late, which is why it is so important that you have used multiple tools to verify that the only derog on your reports is one 30 day late: no collections, chargeoffs, public records, liens, judgments, etc. and no other lates.

Then work with the people in the Rebuilding forum at getting your derog(s) removed.

Implement AZEO (all cards at zero except one) with the remaining card at a small balance.  Sure, the balance doesn't have to be $20 -- it could be higher -- but you are new to credit scoring and are already getting confused by its complexity.  The AZEO rule is designed to make things very simple.

As far as the installment loans, you should be fine with paying off the mortgage and auto loans, since all three of those are loans on which you owe a huge amount.  FICO can freak out a little when you pay off an open loan on which you owe very little but which was originally for a lot.  You, however, owe a lot on these loans, so it won't be a problem for your to pay them off.

You say that the Tesla account is a 36 month lease.  When did you start it?  When is month 36?  As you get closer to month 36 your scores may improve a tiny bit, with them taking a small dive when the lease is paid off.

As I mentioned earlier, the installment accounts aren't a big deal.  Just keep making regular payments and focus on AZEO and the derog removal.

[jkdem85]

Thanks again for the response.

I pulled all my scores yesterday, and I use monitoring on them all for many years. I have 1 derog, the single new 30 day from this month, thats it. 

I will keep looking and advise. I'm assuming that I just have too many accounts at a young age (low 30s) with an average age of account around 5 years. They must think I am a heavy credit user, and that 30 day late is a sign of trouble. I hope it gets removed.

I have paid off all credit cards and left a small balance on 1. Lets see

[Thomas_Thumb]

Just to clarify - Too many accounts with balances includes installment loans, mortgages and PLOC. This factor is not, as some believe, limited to credit/charge cards. With Fico 8 and Fico 9, AU accounts may be excluded (as in mu case).

As a result, you may likely see the "too many accounts with balances" reason statement even with only one card reporting a balance. As I recall, you have 8 total open accounts with balances not including credit cards. If so, 1 card reporting + 8 open loans/leases with balances will still leave you with 9 accounts out of 18 open reporting balances. So you have some point gain opportunities in this area.

I do believe the 30 late transported you to a dirty scorecard - and that scorecard weighs things (such as # accounts with balances and recent credit) more heavily than the clean scorecard you were on previously.

[jkdem85]

If I cant get this 30 day late (again it was for $3) removed, how long will it impact my 5, 4, 2 ? Also would it help to hire a lawyer at that point? I am very busy and I dont know if I can spend weeks writing letters and sending out etc, I travel so much for work. I would gladdly pay an expert to fight it, if I had a good chance of it being removed.

Hopefully they do it after reviewing the situation internally. 

[Anonymous]

---

@jkdem85 wrote:

If I cant get this 30 day late (again it was for $3) removed, how long will it impact my 5, 4, 2 ? Also would it help to hire a lawyer at that point? I am very busy and I dont know if I can spend weeks writing letters and sending out etc, I travel so much for work. I would gladdly pay an expert to fight it, if I had a good chance of it being removed.

Hopefully they do it after reviewing the situation internally. 

---

If the 30 day late payment is removed, as soon as the creditor reports it being gone and the CRAs update, your scores will return to where they were.  This could be as quick as a couple of days from when the creditor removes it from the account, but up to 30 days.  There is no lasting impact of a once-present late payment that is removed.  Once it's gone, it's gone.  As I stated in my previous post, the fact that the late payment was only for $3 isn't relevant to FICO scoring.  A late is a late.  Whether a few dollars or a few thousand dollars doesn't matter in terms of scoring.  I think you stand a very good chance of having it removed with a quick phone call.  If that doesn't work, a letter to the CEO would likely get it done.  Paying a lawyer, looking toward a credit repair service etc. is honestly more work than making a call and/or writing a letter yourself and your chances of success are equal by you doing it yourself.

[Anonymous]

And I know you may be getting tired of me saying this (smile) but I encourage you to rethink the adversarial stance you are taking toward the creditor.  You use the language of fighting them (whether it is you or some hired gun).  If you frame them as an enemy, they will become an enemy, and they are likely to win, since you did indeed miss a payment (not only that but you missed it by more than just a couple days or a couple weeks).  The takeaway lesson here is that when switching banks it is always a good idea to manually pay for a couple months until the autopay has definitely take hold.  And even when you do let the first autopay go through, watch it carefully the following week after to make sure it executed properly.

Better is to enlist this creditor as an ally, rather than an opponent.  They are ways to do that.  BBS is an old hand at this as are many others.

[Anonymous]

CGID is correct above in saying that you should take a friendly approach to this.  I think getting your 30 day removed will be easier than you think if you go at it the right way.  I know you said earlier that you don't have a lot of time to invest in the removal of this baddie.  From my experience and gut feeling I don't think it will take you long at all... probably less time than the sum of your posts took in this thread to be honest!  Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Horrible bank! I had a run in with them 12 years ago when I lost my Job I started calling credit card companies to find a way to lower payments so I could stay current and they wouldn't work with me at all. only credit card not to help me.