I am having trouble figuring out what I need to do to improve my score, since my FICO changes inconsistently. I am hoping that someone could look at this score-watch data and give an explanation:
DATE: 4/22/2012SCORE:643
SW ALERT: signed up for myFICO Score Watch
DATE: 4/24/2012SCORE: 668
SW ALERT:
Your FICO score may have gone up because the following 2 factors are not hurting your FICO score as much as before:
- You’ve recently missed a payment or the date of your most recent missed payment is unknown.
- You have multiple accounts showing missed payments or derogatory descriptions.
DATE: 5/06/2012SCORE: 675
SW ALERT: New Installment Account
DATE: 5/08/2012SCORE: 675
SW ALERT: New Inquiry
DATE: 5/13/2012SCORE: 675
SW ALERT: New Inquiry
DATE: 5/15/2012SCORE: 675
SW ALERT: Small Balance increase on store-card account
DATE: 5/19/2012SCORE: 666
SW ALERT: Two charge-off accounts (1+2 of 4) put in dispute after I sent in letters requesting verification of DOFD.
DATE: 5/23/2012SCORE: 671
SW ALERT: No specific reason given
DATE: 5/24/2012SCORE: 655
At about this time all of my accounts had finished updating to $0 balance except for 1 store card report a $62 balance. This combination put me at less than 1% utilization.
SW ALERT: Another charge-off (3 of 4) put in dispute after I requested on-line that the payment history should not continue to be updated after the date the CO was paid.
DATE: 5/26/2012SCORE: 655
SW ALERT: Charge-off 4 put in dispute for same request that CO should not be reporting payment history after paid and closed.
DATE: 5/31/2012SCORE: 655
SW ALERT: Charge-offs 1 and 2 come back verified expect that CO 1 is now reporting 'account status: open' instead of a paid and closed account. called-in to request change to account status and account immediately put back in dispute.
DATE: 6/1/2012SCORE: 655
SW ALERT: Charge off 3 comes back verified and Charge off 1 back in dispute.
Does this stuff make any sense at all? My score dropped 20 points when I lowered my util to <1% because a charge-off account was in dispute?
disputed accounts come back with no change but FICO remains lowered?
new accounts and inquiries have no effect on my FICO?
What is going on?
EX:694 TU:744 EQ:777
I do subscribe to another CMS service. The disputes, which I am only trying to get a 'date closed' added for the charged-off accounts, just come back verified with the only change being that the 'date reported' or 'date verified' is now the current date.... the date of CO and all other info retains the same dates. My CMS gives me a PLUS score, which I know already is not a FICO score, but the PLUS does not change even 1 point when the dispute comes back verified. The FICO, however, is all over the place.
It is so unpredictable that I will have a great urge to apply for lots of credit as soon as my score goes above 675 (it could happen any day), because the next day it could suddenly drop 30 points.
I hate disputes. I want them all to stop. I called in and asked for this and was told there was nothing I could do but wait. And then sometimes EQ will inaccuratly update an account that was closed and paid years ago with something like: "account status: open, 120+ days past due"....PLUS will disregard this and see the charge-off date in the history and assign the same score... I can't trust FICO to do this though... in which case I have no choice but to dispute again. I wouldn't be surprised if my FICO would drop if a period was added after "account status: closed". It is awful.
UPDATE: Score watch alert today. EQ score is now 680. This is a good score for me. Am I happy? Yes. Is this ridiculous? Yes. Do I understand FICO? No.
