"You recently missed a payment..." - how recently?

[Anonymous]

My mortgage FICO from two of the bureaus comes with the message:

    You recently missed a payment or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report.

My payment history is 100% clean for the last three years plus.  Prior to that, some seriously adverse events, including credit card charge-offs and mortgage delinquencies, are on the report.

Is that recent enough to trigger this message for the mortgage FICO versions?  Or should I assume that some derogatory status has been given a more recent date, perhaps as the result of a dispute-related update?

Any insight is appreciated.

[medicgrrl]

"or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report."

Based on your post it's more likely the above part of the comment it's referring to.

[Anonymous]

This happens a lot in English and likely other languages.  The text of the reason code is:

    You recently missed a payment or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report.

A natural way to read that is that recently is intended modify both missed a payment and had a derogatory indicator reported.   

If I received an email from the electric company that began: "You recently gave us a call or wrote us a letter...." I'd assume that they meant either a recent phone call or a recent letter.  I'd be surprised that they meant a recent phone call or a letter written any time in the last six years.

It's possible that the intent of the reason code is that the word recently only modifies payment and that the other thing could have happened six years ago, but if so the text of the reason code is badly worded.  But FICO has done that before with their reason codes, so it wouldn't surprise me.

[Anonymous]

Point well taken; I may have parsed the comment wrong.

[Anonymous]

Thanks; that is perfectly plausible. 

If I were writing the text for the reason codes and intended to convey that meaning -- and I recall reading recently that "FICO has worked closely with the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in developing the statements associated with these score factor reason codes", so go figure -- I would have phrased it, You recently missed a payment or have a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report ....

And FICO, would you like to buy a comma?

[Anonymous]

I get the same reason code with a late payment that is 4.5 years old or so.

[medicgrrl]

The other thing to consider is that if you don't have a perfect FICO score then it will indicate why.  Even though your derogs are old, they are still affecting your score.  Those derogs are affecting it more than other items that aren't listed under "negatives".  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This happens a lot in English and likely other languages.  The text of the reason code is:

    You recently missed a payment or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report.

A natural way to read that is that recently is intended modify both missed a payment and had a derogatory indicator reported.   

If I received an email from the electric company that began: "You recently gave us a call or wrote us a letter...." I'd assume that they meant either a recent phone call or a recent letter.  I'd be surprised that they meant a recent phone call or a letter written any time in the last six years.

It's possible that the intent of the reason code is that the word recently only modifies payment and that the other thing could have happened six years ago, but if so the text of the reason code is badly worded.  But FICO has done that before with their reason codes, so it wouldn't surprise me.

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+1

You recently missed a payment, or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report.

Would be better

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I get the same reason code with a late payment that is 4.5 years old or so.

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Which bureau and model?  Would be interesting to see if can isolate that.

You recently missed a payment or had a derogatory indicator reported on your credit report

30D from 10/15: TU 04, TU FICO 8 Industry Options (and probably classic too) and FICO 9.  Pulled recently so <2 years, go figure.

You have missed payments or derogatory indicators on your credit accounts.

60D from 08/10: EX 98, EX 04 (another 04 model), from a report 06/15 so <5 years old. Also have it for FICO 2 from a 1/15 pull, that's as early as my additional score versions get unfortunately.  

Never had it on my EQ reason codes, guess EQ hates other things more.

[Anonymous]

Actually, funny you say that, because it's EQ that gives me the most similar code to that.  FICO 08 scores are what I'm looking at and the reason codes are from CCT.

On EQ, the only negative thing hurting my score is "bad payment history" which is a 60 day late from either 2.3 years ago OR 4.5 years ago.  The 2.3 year old one has vanished and returned, but even when it was gone I still had "bad payment history" as a negative with the other 4.5 year old 60 day late on another account.

On EX, I get "serious delinquency" and "few current accounts" as my 2 negatives.  All EX is seeing a 2.3 year old 90 day late (same as the 60, just reported as 90 on this bureau)

On TU, I only get "serious delinquency" when I have that 2.3 year old 60 day late but on a second account also a 5.1 year old 120 day late and a 4.8 year old 30 day late.