Fico Score 4 for mortgages stuck between 680 and 692 for Transunion and Experian - issue with Jumbo

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Thanks in advance for reading my question.

My Fico Score 4 for mortages is stuck between 680 and 692 for Transunion and Experian. I am having issues refinancing my jumbo mortage as most of the lenders require at least 2 scores 700+. 

Never missed a payment, credit usage is 2% ($4500 out of $225,000 limit) except last year (Feb 2020) AT&T put a collection on my record. I had switched from AT&T in 2013 and they kept sending bills to my old address. Eventually, it went to collections and I paid the $400 bill. Not sure why the collection from 2013 is showing up now on my credit records.

Is there anything I can do to bump my credit score to 700+ as I can easily pay down to $0 (I did 2 months ago and had zero impact on the score)?

Thanks,

[thornback]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

Is the collection account showing as paid? 

Can you pull your reports from annualcreditreport.com so you can find out when the collection is due to be removed? Those reports will provide the expected removal dates for negative accounts.  Once we know that info, we can better advise.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the quick response.

Transunion report states removal date as 9/2023. This $424 collection was reported on 2/20/2019 (not 2020 as I mentioned earlier)

Experian report does not give any removal date except collectionw was reported on 4/2019.

Thanks again,

[thornback]

On Experian, there should be an "on the record until" date.

So the collection is not showing as paid?  Do you still have a record of payment from when you paid att directly? 

The removal date indicates a date of first delinquency (dofd) sometime around 9/2016 -  so the 2013 debt you mentioned may not be the same debt.  Did you have another att service after that?

What is the name of the collection agency? 

[Anonymous]

OP just a minor clarification, your mortgage scores referenced aren't both Fico 4 for both TU and EX.  TU is indeed TU4, but EX when it comes to mortgages is EX2.  The third is EQ5. 

That collection is likely holding your scores back 50-75 points.  If you can get that removed, your scores will be well above what your goals are.  I would focus 100% of your time and effort at getting that collection removed from your CR.

[Anonymous]

Collection was reported on 2/20/2019, paid off full on 3/9/2020. But paying it off made no difference

I tried disputing the date but went nowhere with Transunion. 

The company is Enhanced Recovery Company.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Is it worthwhile hiring a law firm looking into it?

Thanks,

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Collection was reported on 2/20/2019, paid off full on 3/9/2020. But paying it off made no difference

I tried disputing the date but went nowhere with Transunion. 

The company is Enhanced Recovery Company.

Thanks,

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Ughh. ERC is difficult.    I'd seek out the contact info for any executive you can find (google) and send them a goodwill request -- be as kind as can be and request removal of the collection since it's paid.   You can try calling, but you'll need to (politely) escalate to a supervisor to make any headway, and even then, it may go nowhere.    A letter or email to an exec is your best bet.

This collection is your problem (your credit utilization is already low and this is your only negative) so you have to make every effort to get it removed.  Just don't dispute it with the bureaus - if it comes back verified and they update the tradeline, it could result in a score drop.   You need to have ERC remove it.

And btw -- paying it did make a difference -- you may not have seen a score increase after payment, but if left unpaid, ERC would continue to update the tradeline regularly which would ding your scores each time.

[thornback]

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@Anonymous wrote:

credit usage is 2% ($4500 out of $225,000 limit) 

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Forgot to mention this earlier-- 

How many accounts do you have reporting a balance?  Mortgage scores are sensitive to the number of accounts reporting a balance so AZEO (all zero except one) is recommended for optimal scoring on the mortage models.   Do you have more than one credit card currently reporting a balance?  If so, you can try paying of all but one of them and allowing the one with a balance to only report a very small amount of $5-$20.  That should give you a bit of a boost, though not sure if it'll push you over 700.  Note - you must have at least one card report a balance though - otherwise you'll be penalized for no revolving credit usage.

[Anonymous]

Got it, that sounds easy enough

Thank you so much appreciate it