Possible understanding to my Equifax Score

[jazzyvar84]

So, my Equifax score has been a hundred points lower than my Experian and Transunion for over three years. This morning, just out of happenstance, a young man named David answered the phone at Equifax and he discovered a $30 bill from a dermatologist that has been reporting since 2016 late payments every month! He advised me that this was worse than having an account in collections because it was showing as a constant negative. Could this have been the reason for the hundred point difference? Also, I paid the account today. They sent in a request for deletion. Will this boost my credit? Also, I’m wondering if this type of reporting is legal? 🤔

My other scores hover around 630. What can I do to hit 700? I NEVER make late payments. Any HELP would be appreciated, as I want to purchase my first home in the very near future! THANK YOU!!!!

[Anonymous]

If that's your only negative account, no doubt your scores will increase, perhaps to the tune of 100 points since your most recent negative was last month or whatever due to its constant updating.  If the removal of those late payments would allow that CR to match your other to CRs, you'd expect your score from that bureau to be similar to your other 2 already clean scores.

[jazzyvar84]

Thank you for your response! What do you think could be holding me from hitting 700??? I don’t make any late payments.

[Remedios]

OP, a dermatologist or any physician would not be reporting a late payment.
If you have one, it's a collection account.

Also, where are you seeing this scoring discrepancy?
FICO 8 would ignore it scoring wise, because it's under $100.00

[Anonymous]

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@jazzyvar84 wrote:
Thank you for your response! What do you think could be holding me from hitting 700???

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Only 2 things can keep someone out of the 700s.

• Negative payment history
• High utilization

If you're saying you have no negatives on your report at all (report is clean) then only very high utilization would keep you out of the 700s.

[jazzyvar84]

Apparently, that is not true. For the past three years, the dermatologist was reporting the account as if it were installment payments, and that late payment ding was viciously striking me every month for the past year. The representative explained to me that it is not illegal to report like that, but doctors do not typically report that way. They never reported the account to collections; they still had the account and were reporting missed payments EVERY months for THREE AND A HALF YEARS!

[jazzyvar84]

I only have hospital bills in collections from some surgeries that I had. I could not afford to pay them all. I was told that medical collections don't affect your credit the way other accounts do. 

[Remedios]

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@jazzyvar84 wrote:

I only have hospital bills in collections from some surgeries that I had. I could not afford to pay them all. I was told that medical collections don't affect your credit the way other accounts do. 

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So, you have multiple unpaid collections accounts? 

You were told wrong, as it pertains to older scoring models, up to and including Fico 8 (unless under a $100.00)

Fico 9 penalizes unpaid medical collections a  bit less, and ignores paid ones for scoring purposes, but there is still a penalty. 

[FlaDude]

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@jazzyvar84 wrote:
So, my Equifax score has been a hundred points lower than my Experian and Transunion for over three years. This morning, just out of happenstance, a young man named David answered...

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No need to  chance getting somebody helpful on the phone, if you ever have unexplained differences in your scores, you should pull reports from all three bureaus and compare them closely. Even if you don't have score differences, it is a good idea to pull your full reports periodically to check them. By law you can get your reports from each bureau annually for free.

[jazzyvar84]

Thanks for your response. I have pulled my reports several times, but the way it was reporting, I missed it every time. I'm telling you, it was almost unnoticable.