Highest score with judgment(s)?

[jdogi]

I know this restricts the pool of potential responders, but I'm wondering if those of you who have been so afflicted could share your highest score attained with a judgment reporting.  My report is completely clear of baddies (and has been for some time), with one exception, a pair of judgments (6yrs and 6.5yrs old).

My

AAoA: 5+yrs

Oldest: 16+yrs

Still, my FICO scores are stuck in the 690-700 range.  My utilization is enerally in the 10% to 20% range, but it doesn't seem to change these scores much.

I've pretty much resigned myself to this range for another year until the judgments are gone, but I'm interested in hearing other observations.

Anybody been able to get over 720?  750?

[GregB]

A judgement puts you in one of the major derogatory scorecards, sometimes called buckets. One falling off probably won't help much. I can tell you that when an erroneous judgement appeared on my reports it dropped my score from almost 800 to just below 700. This makes me think your score won't go up much until those are gone. How much the judgment affects your score might depend on the age but it seems they hurt a lot until they are gone. The one that hit me for 100 points was new. My score returned when I had the report corrected.

This is referring to FICO 04 based scores like the EQ FICO provided here. I believe FICO 8 based scores, more likely to be used on Auto or CC applications, ignore one judgement for less than $100.

As long as your FICO is good enough to get you through the first part of an application, an old judgement that is paid might be OK if the report is reviewed manually. This might help depending on what type of loan you need.

[vanillabean]

Yes, various threads seem to indicate a cutoff of ~700. There's often a small scorecard drop when the judgment is gone, then the bright sky ahead.

Interestingly enough, this article doesn't mention "judgment" or "court" or "public record":

FICO reveals how common credit mistakes affect scores

It should be noted though that I have no personal experience below the FICO mean score of ~723. The following terms are like a drawer of tossed tax-related receipts to me:

30/60/90 day lates, negative accounts, bankruptcies, charge-offs, collections, public records, judgments, settlement, derogatories, charge-off, collection, liens, trade-off, short-sale, foreclosure

 

[Imhotrodcrazy]

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@jdogi wrote:

I know this restricts the pool of potential responders, but I'm wondering if those of you who have been so afflicted could share your highest score attained with a judgment reporting.  My report is completely clear of baddies (and has been for some time), with one exception, a pair of judgments (6yrs and 6.5yrs old).

My

AAoA: 5+yrs

Oldest: 16+yrs

Still, my FICO scores are stuck in the 690-700 range.  My utilization is enerally in the 10% to 20% range, but it doesn't seem to change these scores much.

I've pretty much resigned myself to this range for another year until the judgments are gone, but I'm interested in hearing other observations.

Anybody been able to get over 720?  750?

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I have a 4 and a half yr old Civil Judgment against me on  my TU and EQ reports.  Other than  that, all of my reports are spotless.  As you can see my TU Fico score is 729, and has been stuck there for about a year now.  I still continue to fight what I feel is a "wrongful" judgment against me.  More than likely it will remain on my reports for the remaining 2 and a half yrs.  Hopefully, when it drops I will see a substantial bump in those 2 reports. 

[jdogi]

Well, I now have my answer, at least to some degree.  My EQ report has always only listed the older of the two judgments and it just vanished today.  My EQ FICO just popped from 691 to 765.  The "filed date" just turned 7 years old, but I didn't pay it off until a year later.  I thought that the clock started ticking when it was satisfied.  I guess not.  Woohoo!

EDIT: I guess didn't really answer the question that I posted, but it did answer another fundamental question that I had.  AKA, where will I be once these bad marks are gone.

That 691 was just pulled two weeks ago and really nothing else has changed on the EQ report except for the judgment dropping off.  Geesh, it sure is nice to know where I stand without these public records weighing on my score.  I really wasn't sure if I my scores would stay the same, or jump to 800.  Now I know.  Finally!

I would like to thank everyone for their responses to this post and others...

...the academy...

...MyFico.com for hosting our fine community...

...and everyone else here that is so helpful...

...and I don't want to forget the little people...

...without them none of this would be possible...

In case you can't tell, this new development has me pretty geeked. ;-)

Many of you know first-hand how this works and how it feels when you're finally nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's been a long time in the making, but finally the mistakes of my past are nearly behind me.  Look out high achievers, here I come.

Background: At the depths of my credit nightmare, my scores were in the 530-540 range.  Loaded with collections and other assorted baddies.  That was probably 8 or 9 years ago, maybe longer.  It sure does take a long time to fix a mess like that.

[Booner72]

Congratulations!

[Anonymous]

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@jdogi wrote:

Well, I now have my answer, at least to some degree.  My EQ report has always only listed the older of the two judgments and it just vanished today.  My EQ FICO just popped from 691 to 765.  The "filed date" just turned 7 years old, but I didn't pay it off until a year later.  I thought that the clock started ticking when it was satisfied.  I guess not.  Woohoo!

EDIT: I guess didn't really answer the question that I posted, but it did answer another fundamental question that I had.  AKA, where will I be once these bad marks are gone.

That 691 was just pulled two weeks ago and really nothing else has changed on the EQ report except for the judgment dropping off.  Geesh, it sure is nice to know where I stand without these public records weighing on my score.  I really wasn't sure if I my scores would stay the same, or jump to 800.  Now I know.  Finally!

I would like to thank everyone for their responses to this post and others...

...the academy...

...MyFico.com for hosting our fine community...

...and everyone else here that is so helpful...

...and I don't want to forget the little people...

...without them none of this would be possible...

In case you can't tell, this new development has me pretty geeked. ;-)

Many of you know first-hand how this works and how it feels when you're finally nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's been a long time in the making, but finally the mistakes of my past are nearly behind me.  Look out high achievers, here I come.

Background: At the depths of my credit nightmare, my scores were in the 530-540 range.  Loaded with collections and other assorted baddies.  That was probably 8 or 9 years ago, maybe longer.  It sure does take a long time to fix a mess like that.

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Dude.  You are there!!!!

Congrations and a big woot-woot to you!!

[jdogi]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Dude.  You are there!!!!

Congrations and a big woot-woot to you!!

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Thanks!  I'm still only considering myself kinda/almost there.

I may (or may not) have also succesfully disputed the remaining judgment on my TU.  Which may (or may not) have raised that score from 690 to 750.  Since I may (or may not) have disputed a legitimate baddie, I don't want to say for certain. ;-)  If I did commit such a heinous act, I promise, it was an accident.

The problem is that even with two clean reports over 750, no manual review (mortgage) is going to miss that remaining judgment on EX.  So, aIthough I can probably work my way into a 760+ mid score over the next month (or two) via additional ageing, dropping INQs, and lower util, I'm still going to have that one BIG black eye for another year.

Perhaps I'll just decide not to build or buy for another year.  I bet I can be tickling 800 by then. :-)

Thanks again for sharing in my celebration.  I may only be 'kinda/almost' there, but it still feels damn good. 

[MattH]

Some years ago I was worried at the prospect of having a judgment on my credit history: in a lapse of attention behind the wheel I rear-ended the sister-in-law of a lawyer. Of course one should ALWAYS drive safely, and usually I am a safe driver, but if you DO rear-end somebody in stop-and-go traffic, do NOT hit somebody married to the brother of a lawyer! It took forever for her to settle with my insurance company, and for a while it looked like she would hold out for a trial. Her hubby's lawyer brother was a very tough negotiater and only settled a few days before I would have had to appear in court. As you can well imagine, I was very relieved to learn they finally reached agreement with my insurance company.

[poops]

This is a case where YMMV applies to the extreme... I had a Judgment fall off my EQ report last month after 7 years. I was expecting my EQ Score to jump. Instead, it dropped 13 pts, from 691 to 678. They only thing that changed on my report was an increase in utilization of approximately 4%. From 39% to 43%.