"Lost" card - score goes down?!

[Anonymous]

So, I had to request a new card from Bank of America yesterday, because our puppy got ahold of my wallet and rendered the old one unusable. I never use that card anyway. In fact, I have a negative balance. But today I got an alert that my FICO score had dropped 9 points due to my report of a "lost or stolen card." Seriously? I feel like I cannot win with these people!

[haulingthescoreup]

Get back with BofA and explain (again) that the card was not lost or stolen; it was eaten.

A simple replacement card for worn-out magnet strips or grievous puppy damage will not give you a new account number and a second card. They either reported this wrong first time through, or it's been miscoded. They can fix this. If the first person you speak to says this is the way it is, they're wrong. Politely escalate until you get someone with some sense.

[Tuscani]

Lost or stolen shouldn't drop your score.

Did another CC report that might have raised the utilization?

Message Edited by Tuscani on 02-01-2009 03:08 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, if the original was newish, and having a second TL reporting with the same opening date, it could have lowered the AAoA. It's happened before.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your feedback. I talked to BOA today and they said they need to investigate; they've never heard of such a thing happening.

The card is more than a year old. I hardly ever use it and I haven't used at all in more than six months.

I had enrolled in the Score Watcher program last month, so I got an alert about the score drop, as well as a detailed explanation as to why it happened. It specifically said that it was due to the report of the lost/or stolen card report. I just want to cry. It seems like no matter what I do, my score either goes down or stays the same. I'm beginning to wonder if I have an ex-boyfriend working at the credit reporting agencies who is trying to do me in.

[haulingthescoreup]

Score Watch can offer up some screwy explanations for score changes. They're often completely wrong.

If you still have your older EQ SW report, print it out and the current one, lay them side by side, and go through with a yellow highlighter. Pay special attention to dates, balances, and credit limits. You might discover a change there that you didn't notice first time through.

[Anonymous]

Same thing happened to me when I lost a card, BUT when the replacement card hit my report, it went back up. It looks like you lost an account until the new card shows up on your report.

[Anonymous]

I reported a lost BofA card two weeks ago out of the country. They closed that account immediately issued me a new card within 5 days. I also got a MyFico Alert (just yesterday). No change to my score at all. A side note though - TU report on TC showed the BofA account as lost/stolen but also deleted a JCP account at the same time!! MyFico TU report shows this error also - Oh well.