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Hi everyone!
New to the forum here I want to first tell everyone here what a great community this is! Very informative and helpful.
Now, I'm hoping anyone can help me with my particular situation (I really would appreciate it and I apologize my ignorance before hand!)
A quick rundown of facts to help everyone understand my situation:
I've been struggling to increase my Experian credit score despite always paying my credit cards at the end of each week after missing my payment once 3 years ago and experiencing a massive drop in score. My score 3 years ago was "Exceptional". then went to "Very Good" after that missed payment and for the last year have been up and down between "Good". I really don't know why it's been hard to get it back up. Since then despite all my efforts to be good, my score has not gone back to "Very Good".
What puzzles me most is why my Experian score is so much lower than my Equifax and TransUnion reports.
After reseraching and requesting a detail report on all 3 bureaus I noticed that the only difference between all these reports is that the Experian report is reporting a credit card account of 32 years that my mother had assigned me as an authorized user when I was back in college (mind you I'm 32 years old now so this card is old as me). Unfortunately, she paid off this CC and closed it back in 2015. The other two bureaus don't have this on their file. Now, I've heard that by closing an account, your credit score takes a hit. Suprisingsly, only Experian seems to have this card on their file and the rest don't. I called my bank which handled that card and they confirmed this and offered me to remove this report off their file and report it back to Experian (as I was only an authorized user). However, I'm not really sure if that will help me any way get my score up OR bringing it down even more...
I'm very keen on applying for an AMEX Platinum card however due to my 722 score, I'm certain they'll decline me.
Any thoughts on how to improve my credit score and if I should proceed to eliminate that 32 year credit card account (now closed) off my file?
I really would appreciate the insight!
Thanks!
Hi and welcome to the forums
Having that card on EX is helping you. Closed card continues to contribute to AAoA for up to 10 years after it's closed. I would not remove it, unless that card also have lates or any negatives.
Amex has very reliable prequal page, check it out and see what happens.
Also, just to confirm, your TU and EX scores are true Fico scores?
Thank you so much for the insight! No, that credit account doesn't have any late payments from what I see. And yes, they are true FICO scores. Not sure why the disparity between them though.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for the insight! No, that credit account doesn't have any late payments from what I see. And yes, they are true FICO scores. Not sure why the disparity between them though.
It is a rather large disparity. You may want to look over your reports again, line by line and see if anything else is different.
In addition, if that's your only late, why not try GW deletion?
Look over this thread and see if it's something you'd be interested in
Takes a bit of work, but if it works out, party time. I'd seriously consider it
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for the insight! No, that credit account doesn't have any late payments from what I see. And yes, they are true FICO scores. Not sure why the disparity between them though.
It is a rather large disparity. You may want to look over your reports again, line by line and see if anything else is different.
In addition, if that's your only late, why not try GW deletion?
Look over this thread and see if it's something you'd be interested in
Takes a bit of work, but if it works out, party time. I'd seriously consider it
That's awesome! Never knew about that. Will give that a go and hopefully then as you say.. party time.. lol
Do you think it might be worthwhile trying to apply for an AMEX Platinum Card? I friend who has it referred me to it so I wasn't sure if that would help me in any way. Then again if I try and get declined... down goes my score for nothing.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for the insight! No, that credit account doesn't have any late payments from what I see. And yes, they are true FICO scores. Not sure why the disparity between them though.
It is a rather large disparity. You may want to look over your reports again, line by line and see if anything else is different.
In addition, if that's your only late, why not try GW deletion?
Look over this thread and see if it's something you'd be interested in
Takes a bit of work, but if it works out, party time. I'd seriously consider it
That's awesome! Never knew about that. Will give that a go and hopefully then as you say.. party time.. lol
Do you think it might be worthwhile trying to apply for an AMEX Platinum Card. I friend who has it referred me to it so I wasn't sure if that help in any way. Then again if I try and get declined... down goes my score for nothing.
If Platinum is a good fit for you, go for it. It's just one HP (usually).
I personally believe you'd get approved, but as everything else credit related, YMMV.
As suggested go to the American Express site and check the prequalification link. It will tell you which Amex cards you are approved for without a hit to your credit. Personally unless you plan to do a lot of traveling and taking advantage of all the benefits the $550 annual fee on the platinum is hard to offset. While you are on the site look over all the cards. Use the card comparison tool. Amex has a wide range of cards and I’m willing to bet, outside of the status thing, you will find several cards much more suited to your needs. Good luck. Here is the link,
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers
@Anonymous wrote:As suggested go to the American Express site and check the prequalification link. It will tell you which Amex cards you are approved for without a hit to your credit. Personally unless you plan to do a lot of traveling and taking advantage of all the benefits the $550 annual fee on the platinum is hard to offset. While you are on the site look over all the cards. Use the card comparison tool. Amex has a wide range of cards and I’m willing to bet, outside of the status thing, you will find several cards much more suited to your needs. Good luck. Here is the link,
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/check-for-offers
Thanks Morpho! I do travel a lot and frequently go out to dine so the Platinum benefits seem to best suit me. However, I did try to check the prequalification site and unfortunately did not pre-qualify for the Platinum (I only qualified for the AMEX Blue).
I'm a bit surprised how my score took a dip from one negative payment from Exceptional to Good and now I'm in this hole.
I'm hopeful I can turn this around!
@Remedios wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you so much for the insight! No, that credit account doesn't have any late payments from what I see. And yes, they are true FICO scores. Not sure why the disparity between them though.
It is a rather large disparity. You may want to look over your reports again, line by line and see if anything else is different.
That's the kind of difference I would expect if the late is only reporting to EX. What is the late showing as? 30 day, 60 day? Note that late payments under 30 days aren't reported to the CBs, even though the CC company might charge a late fee. As already suggested, I would expect that AU account to help your score rather than hurt it, unless it has lates reported. A complete report should tell you that.
@Anonymous I've asked your thread be moved to scoring forum, so those who have particular interest in all matters scoring related can help you with that part of your question.
I hope you can get to the bottom of it and I hope to see the approval thread from you, also.