Why such a big difference?

[AshCas]

I have a 701 on EQ, and a 656 on TU. 

There is only 1 negative on both reports (a paid CA from 2008).  The only difference is I have one credit card that does not report to EQ - the util is reporting at 17% right now, but I just paid it down to 3% at the statement cut off date, so it should be reporting the lower balance sometime this week. 

Could that one credit card cause my TU score to be so much lower than EQ?  My payment history on EQ is rated as "good", while on TU it say's it's "Not Good". I'm just trying to understand..

[pizzadude]

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@AshCas wrote:

I have a 701 on EQ, and a 656 on TU. 

There is only 1 negative on both reports (a paid CA from 2008).  The only difference is I have one credit card that does not report to EQ - the util is reporting at 17% right now, but I just paid it down to 3% at the statement cut off date, so it should be reporting the lower balance sometime this week. 

Could that one credit card cause my TU score to be so much lower than EQ?  My payment history on EQ is rated as "good", while on TU it say's it's "Not Good". I'm just trying to understand..

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It's possible that the card could be contributing to the difference, both the age of this account and the balance would affect your FICO score.

Do you happen to have an AMEX charge card ?  The balance from that is also factored in the TU98 FICO version, but is ignored by EQ.

[AshCas]

I dont have an Amex.

On my TU report, under "Understanding your score"  one of the reasons under "Hurting your score" is "Recent Missed Payment".  I dont have ANY missed payments on my report though!  I went thru each account to see if there was a mistake, and nope - no missed payments.

The CA account from 2008 was paid earlier this year - could they possibly have listed that as a missed payment somehow?  I'm so confused...and annoyed....

[pizzadude]

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@AshCas wrote:

I dont have an Amex.

On my TU report, under "Understanding your score"  one of the reasons under "Hurting your score" is "Recent Missed Payment".  I dont have ANY missed payments on my report though!  I went thru each account to see if there was a mistake, and nope - no missed payments.

The CA account from 2008 was paid earlier this year - could they possibly have listed that as a missed payment somehow?  I'm so confused...and annoyed....

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I'm guessing that the date of last activity ( the payment this year ) is causing this scoring message to appear.....Does the EQ report also show that it was paid in 2012 as well ?

[AshCas]

You're right!  EQ isn't listing the DOLA - only TU is. I dont understand how paying off the CA counts as a recent Derog though.

I thought FICO scored off of DOFD.  Oh well....at least I know what it is now...

Banks aren't going to see this as a recent CA are they?  The DOFD is still listed as 2007.  We're applying for a mortgage soon...

[pizzadude]

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@AshCas wrote:

You're right!  EQ isn't listing the DOLA - only TU is. I dont understand how paying off the CA counts as a recent Derog though.

I thought FICO scored off of DOFD.  Oh well....at least I know what it is now...

Banks aren't going to see this as a recent CA are they?  The DOFD is still listed as 2007.  We're applying for a mortgage soon...

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Unfortunately I think that what happened is when the date of last activity is updated like this, it is viewed as "recent" and your FICO score gets hit.

Anyone looking at your reports will be able to see that it isn't actually a recent collection though.

[RobertEG]

The non-reporting CC could additionally have impact beyond AAoA and % util.

If you have no other revolving, or only one other, it might affect your scoring in number of revolving, and thus mix of credit.  FICO scores heavily on showing of effective use of revolving, and presence of what else is there could be a factor.

As for scoring of collections based on DOFD or DOLA, logic would lead one to believe that they should be scored based on length of time from DOFD, but I have seen numerous posts asserting that update of a DOLA has resulted in a decrease in score.    I am not aware of a clear statement from Fair Isaac as to how the age of a collection is scored, but anecdotal evidence from others would seem to imply the illogical, at least in my view, conclusion that DOLAs can affect their scoring.

Perhaps someone is aware of a clear statement from Fair Isaace on that issue.......... I have never seen one......

[AshCas]

Thanks RobertEG. I'm going to pull my TU again when the balance updates to see what it is. I called FICO to ask about th DOLA. Turns out that the CA updating the DOLA to 5/2012 has the same effect on my score as a recent late payment would have. Completely ridiculous if you ask me. How is paying off a CA considered a negative?! Ugh...

[MarineVietVet]

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@RobertEG wrote:

The non-reporting CC could additionally have impact beyond AAoA and % util.

If you have no other revolving, or only one other, it might affect your scoring in number of revolving, and thus mix of credit.  FICO scores heavily on showing of effective use of revolving, and presence of what else is there could be a factor.

As for scoring of collections based on DOFD or DOLA, logic would lead one to believe that they should be scored based on length of time from DOFD, but I have seen numerous posts asserting that update of a DOLA has resulted in a decrease in score.    I am not aware of a clear statement from Fair Isaac as to how the age of a collection is scored, but anecdotal evidence from others would seem to imply the illogical, at least in my view, conclusion that DOLAs can affect their scoring.

Perhaps someone is aware of a clear statement from Fair Isaace on that issue.......... I have never seen one......

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I have posted numerous times that the former administrator of this site told me (and others) that a collection is supposed to be scored from the date of assignment and no other date. I use the words supposed to because the CA's and CRA's have to do their job correctly and do the proper coding.

I have seen other opinions about whether the DoLA can influence scoring by making the account appear more recent but all I can do if offer what I was told.