This score is totally BS!!!!

[Anonymous]

I just checked my FICO score here - 647. This makes no sense to me!!!!!!!!! One of the credit unions that I have sends me my score monthly and at the end of March is was 654 and it was sitting at 654 for the last three months.  I am trying to get a mortgage and this is causing me great agida. The last baddies I had were two charge offs in 2008 (no prior lates but I offered BofA to settlements to make the cc's go away, which they took and then slapped me with charge offs). Aside from that I've not had any baddies, late payments, bks, foreclosures or anything since the late 90s. I have scrutinzed my reports and found no errors, with the exception of some balances not being updated. I recently paid off one credit card (from being maxed to a zero balance) and another card from 76% utilization to 25%. I also sold my husband's car and his loan went away with that sale....I just don't know what to do.....Never late on any  mortgage(s), car notes(s), student loans, all CC paid ontime every month. Last inquiry was Sept 2011 with about 10 over the last 2 years. HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS PLEASE!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Which credit bureau did you pull here and which one does your lender pull?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Which credit bureau did you pull here and which one does your lender pull?

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+1. There are a very small number of CUs and banks out there that provide a monthly FICO score as part of a service or benefit. The most popular one out there is PSECU.

[Anonymous]

I just pulled it via myfico.com. My CU is Digital Credit Union - they send me what they describe as an Equifax FICO score at the end of each month and is has been 654 for the last 3 months. One, I don't understand why it's so low to begin with and two, why it's even lower than it "supposedly" was at the end of March. Ive never had any foreclosures and bk's, and only the two charges off that I mentioned in my prior post and no other late payments to speak of since around 1995-1996 and those accounts are not even showing on the report anymore....

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

IThe last baddies I had were two charge offs in 2008 (no prior lates but I offered BofA to settlements to make the cc's go away, which they took and then slapped me with charge offs).

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This is most likely what is hurting you, that's, if it is still on your report.

Are both of them still there?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just pulled it via myfico.com. My CC is Digital Credit Union - they send me what they describe as an Equifax FICO score at the end of each month and is has been 654 for the last 3 months. One, I don't understand why it's so low to begin with and two, why it's even lower than it "supposedly" was at the end of March. Ive never had any foreclosures and bk's, and only the two charges off that I mentioned in my prior post and no other late payments to speak of since around 1995-1996 and those accounts are not even showing on the report anymore....

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Gotcha. It is the same version of EQ FICO between myFICO and DCU.

If I wanted to know, I would start by comparing the dates between the DCU pull and the date of your EQ FICO pull from here. Whenever a CC updates (once per month) or any other account like a loan, your FICO score can change higher or lower. I would zero in on that and see where your balances were the date DCU pulled your report in relation to your balances on your myFICO report. A 7 point change could easily be indicative of that. A baddie being added like a late, a collection, etc., would drop your score much more. I've had them drop my score by as much a 100+. In other words, you can rule that out. But I'd recheck those balances. Most, if not all, of your CCs will update your CRs with the balance you had on the statement date.

Aside from small changes in balances, also know that paying a CC down won't mean your CR will reflect that right away. As mentioned, CCs only update once per month. You paid down a lot of debt and I bet you'll see an improvement, but that paydown might not have been reflected in your score yet. In other words, if the balances are still low, you might see a nice gain. If your new balances aren't showing, you can ask your lender to do a rapid rescore to get the creditors to update sooner.

Another source for the 7 points could be the auto loan. If that disappeared completely, then there could be a loss of length of hsitory and/or impact to your Average age of Accounts which could produce a negative drop.

If the BofA accounts are still showing, try sending them a Goodwill letter, though I'd only do so if your lender take issue in them. I wouldn't rock the cradle if I didn't need to.

Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just checked my FICO score here - 647. This makes no sense to me!!!!!!!!! One of the credit unions that I have sends me my score monthly and at the end of March is was 654 and it was sitting at 654 for the last three months.  I am trying to get a mortgage and this is causing me great agida. The last baddies I had were two charge offs in 2008 (no prior lates but I offered BofA to settlements to make the cc's go away, which they took and then slapped me with charge offs). Aside from that I've not had any baddies, late payments, bks, foreclosures or anything since the late 90s. I have scrutinzed my reports and found no errors, with the exception of some balances not being updated. I recently paid off one credit card (from being maxed to a zero balance) and another card from 76% utilization to 25%. I also sold my husband's car and his loan went away with that sale....I just don't know what to do.....Never late on any  mortgage(s), car notes(s), student loans, all CC paid ontime every month. Last inquiry was Sept 2011 with about 10 over the last 2 years. HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS PLEASE!!!!!!

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Hello and welcome.

I will only add to what has already been offered that a 7 point swing either up or down is really nothing to be concerned about. Score changes are just part of the process. My scores are never static and I have no negatives and no inquiries.

[Anonymous]

I don't see agita often and it gave me a little giggle.

Charge-offs are pretty damaging to credit scores and BoA isn't known for goodwill. It's too late but really do some research here about the particular creditor before offering settlements. If you can't come up with enough results start a thread. I think almost everyone here would have advised against offering BoA anything less than the full amount. At least offering the full amount wouldn't have resulted in a CO.

As someone posted above; paying credit cards before statements cut might improve your utilization and score quite a bit. Also, some companies can be a little lazy with reporting. One of my Citi cards only updated bi-monthly for a while. Some places will update reported amounts as a courtesy if asked.

[GregB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just checked my FICO score here - 647. This makes no sense to me!!!!!!!!! One of the credit unions that I have sends me my score monthly and at the end of March is was 654 and it was sitting at 654 for the last three months.  I am trying to get a mortgage and this is causing me great agida. The last baddies I had were two charge offs in 2008 (no prior lates but I offered BofA to settlements to make the cc's go away, which they took and then slapped me with charge offs). Aside from that I've not had any baddies, late payments, bks, foreclosures or anything since the late 90s. I have scrutinzed my reports and found no errors, with the exception of some balances not being updated. I recently paid off one credit card (from being maxed to a zero balance) and another card from 76% utilization to 25%. I also sold my husband's car and his loan went away with that sale....I just don't know what to do.....Never late on any  mortgage(s), car notes(s), student loans, all CC paid ontime every month. Last inquiry was Sept 2011 with about 10 over the last 2 years. HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS PLEASE!!!!!!

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This was guaranteed to happen when you didn't pay the full amount. That will hurt a bunch until 2015. Paying down the CC will help a bit but you are stuck in a deragatory scoring buck until the major negatives are off your report. If the car was the only installment loan, you might have actually lost a couple points from paying that off - most likely had no effect on score.

Keep doing what you are doing and start looking for a house in 3 years. Only other alternative is to pay the higher costs associated with bad credit. You can try to GW BofA but even if you paid them the amount you shorted them and a bunch of interest since 2008, I think that will be difficult.

[mtrsprt]

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@MarineVietVet wrote:

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Hello and welcome.

I will only add to what has already been offered that a 7 point swing either up or down is really nothing to be concerned about.

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THIS...........     It could go back up 7 points within days.....

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