PFD and dropped, but score went down

[Anonymous]

Hey all, got a quick question regarding a dispute and my score.  I recently PFD an account of mine that went into collections about 2 months ago, thus it was very fresh and dropped my score 60 points.  I just checked today, and it finally dropped off, but my score actually went down.  I recently had two hard pulls for a credit check (My own stupid fault) and I understand that it brings you down a bit, but shouldn't the fact that I had a recent account that went to collections wiped off my report have raised my score at least some?  Checking my alerts show no other activity which would have brought my score down, just those two hard pulls.  Does it take a little time before the item that dropped is accurately reflected in your score?  My apologies but I am extremely new to this and only recently began the quest towards clean credit.  In the end Im still happy, because I only have a few baddies now that I need to work on, but it would be nice to actually start climbing up the chain rather than staying the same or even losing a few points.  Thanks in advance!

B 

[cobaltnv]

smiley,

  Couple of comments. First where was this score from? If it is a FAKO you can never tell what they are going to do. If it is a true FICO score there are a couple of possibilities.

You mentioned a dispute. Had you disputed this collection? If so that could be related to this. An account in dispute is not utilized in your score calculation (from what I understand). So if this account had been in dispute you already saw the score increase for having it removed. So that might explain why you did not see a score increase--as for why the score fell that is harder to say. Depending on the size of the drop it could be the inquiries you mentioned. Did you check your report or just the alerts? Alerts from credit monitoring services do not give you a complete picture of your report so other things could be occurring.

Congrats on the PFD--keep up the good work! 

[Anonymous]

My mistake, that was an error.  I actually was looking at the wrong collection entirely Anyways, the score would be FAKO I believe, since it was from freecreditreport.com.  The account in question was something I disputed on the experian website that freecreditreport.com linked me to.  I checked on Experian today, and saw that it was dropped from my report and I had no new information.  That is when I went back to freecreditreport.com and checked to see if I had any change to my score, and I did.  It was was a -9 to Experian due to the two hard pulls.  I understand that part, Im going to avoid any more hard pulls for awhile, but I thought that I would see a decent increase since the account was dropped.  Are you saying that the FAKO is not very accurate? And I should order from experian themselves? Im sorry for all the questions, but again Im very new at this.  I really want things to improve, I just graduated from my university, and I'd like to be able to take out a loan for a home in 3 years, and I know how important good credit is in the equation.  Again, thanks in advanced, all info is appreciated.

B 

[cobaltnv]

Smiley,

   FAKO scores are, in general, not very accurate. Almost all lenders use FICO scores. Since lenders do not use FAKO scores and they do not track FICO scores at all it is best to just avoid paying for non-FICO scores all together. As of yesterday you cannot get your EX FICO score. You can obtain you TransUnion and Equifax FICO score from here (be sure to google "myfico discount codes"). You are definitely on the right track as far as getting your credit in order. Spend some time on these boards and you will lear a great deal. 

If you have not already done so I would suggest reading some of the threads posted a the top of the main page in the "helpful threads" post.

Cheers 

[llecs]

You could also lose some points if it was an OC that dropped off. DW had an unpaid CO w/ Verizon drop off and it dropped her score a little. It was her second or third oldest TL and its removal dropped her AAoA. It was measured by pulling her FICOs the day before and after it was removed.