learning a ton here!!!

[Anonymous]

for instance I'm paying my card off and not using it through the end of the month..... never knew a balance at EOM hurt me even though I pay it off to zero every due date

I did just (November) get a CA which is total bogus.... I submitted a dispute to all 3 CRA's but I gather it can take more than 30 days for a decision and who knows how it will come out

how long until  the impact of that CA (if it stays on) starts to dimminish?

I know it falls off after 7 years.....

But will it start hurt me less in months?........years?

It knocked me to 686......

Plus I refi'd 18 months ago so that account shows only being 18 months old even though I've been paying that same bank for the same house for 12+...... can the bank change the way they report he "age" of that account?

Our local rates were to 4.5% a couple weeks ago and if they drop that far again I want to re-fi

I need to get to 700 from 686 to make it reasonable

[fused]

A collection does the most damage to scores if they're less than 2 years old. As they age they have less of an affect on scores.

You can ask you lender to delete the older mortgage TL, but they are not obligated to do so.

Can you clarify your CC situation? how many cards, what are their CLs and reporting balances? I'm sure we can find 14+ points somewhere.

[Anonymous]

well I had 2 Bank of America CC's........... one I never asked for they just kept sending it to me and I kept cutting it up and tossing it......... last week I had them close that account........ hope that won't hurt me

I had an $11,000 limit on the other one and I pay it completely off every month but last month on 12/31 I had a $1950 balance

I also have a joint American Express and I probably owed 300 at the end of the month on a credit limit of $11,800

Zero negatives except this one CA......... every other account says "never late"....... even accounts that are closed

I'm thinking the one thing I can do is pay everything to zero monday and not use my cards

What is a TL???

no other loans still open, no consumer credit, no car loans (paid one off about 4 years ago) no HELOC (paid one off 18 months ago) no nothing really

just my mortgage, 2 CC's open never EVER a late payment, and the one collection action from a cell phone company

[fused]

A TL = trade line. A trade is an account on your credit reports, a CC, loan, line of credit, mortgage, even CO (including foreclosures, repos,and short sales). Public records and collections are not trade lines.

I bet if you pay the BoA card down so it reports less than 1% util you will get your 14 points.

Amex doesn't allow joint accounts, might you be an AU instead.

How old is your collection?When was the DOFD?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info!!!

Our Amex is a Costco Membership type card and it reports my wifes and mine purchases seperately but we get ONE bill and make one payment. But I'm going to pay it tommorow and not use it for a couple weeks!!!

The DOFD ......... well I closed the cell phone account but they kept billing me......I didn't pay the bill EOM April, May, June, July, then they added a $350 early termination fee turned it over to collections and it was reported to the CRA's in November

I have a registered mail reciept terminating in March and a copy of the contract which I sent to the CRA's to dispute but I hear those disputes are crapshoots.....

So I'm guessing the DOFD is November?

[Anonymous]

OK a couple more fine tuning questions

I have an old HELOC that is closed but the credit union never reported it closed

It last reported in 6/07 but it still has a $37,000 balance under "recent activity"

Is this dragging me down?

Also I'm an "authorized user" on my wife's CC. Does that EOM balance count against me?

Thanks!!!!