How do I interpret my credit report? How does a lender?

Mar 142011
 

After 3 and a half years of credit repair, responsible credit use, and a perfect payment history, I have seen little change to my credit score. Even after pulling my free annual credit reports and my myFICO report, I am still perplexed and hope someone can give me a little insight (or as much as is possible given the proprietary nature of it all).

 

myFico gives these reasons:

 

1. You have a collection and a serious delinquency

 

It says I have 1 account over 60 days late or worse and have a number of collection. I do have 5 collections but the most recent is was over 3 years ago. I am currently waiting on a response to a PFD on this one. The others are literally months from falling off and I thought if they weren’t within 2 years they wouldn’t have such a negative impact? The serious delinquency is what I have a problem with and I will discuss this below.

 

2. You have a short credit history

 

The average age is 11 years, 7 months but the AAoA is 4 years and there isn’t anything I can do about that.

 

3. You have a recent collection

 

This is the same one mentioned above at 3 years, 1 month ago.  A very costly oversight on my part. OC wouldn’t let me PIF even though it was only 30 days late. But again, isn’t it old enough to not not be impacting my score so heavily?

 

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

 

But it says it was 6 years, 6 months ago! Is this what Eq considers recent???

 

 

But my main problem is Portfolio Recovery Assets. I had a vehicle repossessed almost 6 years ago and it looks like they may have bought the old “alleged” debt. On my CRs they are listed under “Accounts” with the rest of my open and closed accounts in good standing. This is the deliquency I believe myFICO is referring to. There are no others. Even though the description shows collections they are reporting a 120+ days late! Can they do that? None of the other collections report this way, they are all listed under the collections heading. Not to mention they are reporting a last payment which of course I’ve never sent them. And lastly they are calling themselves a “factoring company” and from what I understand that definition is reserved for companies who buy debt while it is still in good standing, not in default. Is this another shady tactic to confuse consumers? 

If you have gotten this far, well, thanks for taking the time. If I could sum it all up in 3 questions they would be:

1. Do you think the way in which Portfolio Recovery Associates are reporting could be what is keeping my score from going up? (It was a joint account and every month when the CA tacks on interest it and updates it actually drops my DH’s score…it’s happened repeatedly. Should a 5 yr old CO cause that?)

 

2. When a lender reviews my credit, does the almost 4 years of flawless credit count for more than the 3 years of irresponsibility before it?


2. When does a negative item become old enough to hurt your score less?

question about civil judgement issued by court

Jul 232010
 

hello everyone

 

I was reading through the forum and realized how helpful you guys are!

 

My question stems from a civil judgement issued to me regarding unpaid court fines.  I have every intention of paying the $700 i owe but just couldn’t come up with the money in time.  I fully understand that when i pay the amount, the civil judgement notice will remain on my CR for 7 years.  I was wondering if i can still apply to get my civil judgement vacated after i pay the full amount.  Someone had posted earlier that you couldn’t apply after you pay the amount, only before.  Also, I know that all civil judgements are issued by the court, but because this doesnt involve a second party(lender/creditor), would it be easier to vacate the judgement?  

 

I live in NYC.

 

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this entry

Score bump!

Jun 252010
 

I just have to say, I’m so glad this forum is here. After having formerly great credit and utterly destroying it in 6 months, I was just kind of waiting for it to improve over time. I found this forum, and have started sending out PFDs and GWs. A few weeks ago I applied for a card to start rebuilding – CapOne, $500 limit. 

 

It was reported to the credit bureaus….yesterday ScoreWatch alerted me my score had dropped from 551 to 544….and today it alerted me I jumped to 564. :)

 

Small step, but FINALLY. Thanks to everyone here for taking the time to give such great advice. I would seriously still be feeling lost without it. Still no responses to my GW or PFD requests, but I’ll keep at it!

Santander/Drive Financial

Apr 012010
 

I sent the following email letter to  Santander (formelry  Drive Financial) on 03092010

March 9, 2010 Regarding : XXXX Dear Sir or Madam I received the open credit lines from Drive Financial in 2003 that I would like to have revised in my credit files. I have had several months payments reported as late on my credit reports. If you review my file you will see that payments were made to Drive, but there was reportedly some type of internal computer issue when you converted from the old to the new system of billing. My account number changed at that time but I had not been made aware of that change and therefore my payments were not credited correctly, as they were being made. I am therefore requesting a “goodwill adjustment” and a reopening of the accounts and a positive credit rating by revising these two trade lines with an update of the information on all three major credit-reporting organizations. If what I am asking is too much, then any goodwill adjustment to the reporting bureaus would be most appreciated. Regardless of your decision— thank you for your consideration in reviewing this matter and taking the time to read this letter. Respectfully xxx

 

I recieved the follwoing response from them 03102010

Please contact Santander Consumer USA Credit Dispute Hotline at 214-237-3430 for further instruction on how to have your credit reporting inaccuracies verified.

 

today when I updated my credit report they reported 36 months of paid on time payments ! yeah!

Should I pay off this low balance student loan?

Jan 282010
 

Hi guys.  First of all, thanks for taking the time to help me out on this.

 

First, a little up front info here.  A couple of months ago, I paid off one of my student loans with the Department of Education.  I paid it off when the balance was just about at $500.  When this loan showed as paid off on my credit report, my score jumped by 39 points, I was psyched.

 

So now I just received my bonus from work ($800 after taxes).  I have a remaining balance on a Sallie Mae student loan of just under $600.  I also have about $6,000 in credit cards.  So here’s my big question here.  Interest aside (the student loan interest is significantly less than that of 2 of my 3 credit cards), in regards to getting my credit score higher, should I expect to see another large jump in credit score for paying off another student loan (of nearly the same duration as the last one) with a slightly larger balance?  If not, I may pay off a portion of the highest interest credit card I have.

 

Thanks guys.

 

Paul 

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