cece1960

I really have had enough.
I am a dedicated bill payer. I am very careful with on time payments and reasonable spending.

Last I heard, I had an "excellent" FICA score, which I worked very hard for after my divorce from first husbnad 19 years ago, which crushed our rating.

Last year I opened a credit card to get a big discount from a very well known online "store". I paid it in full, in fact I was a few $$ over paid. Since then I have received multiple emails with online statements, which I "knew" were just the small credit balance.

Finally, this am I decided to log on (mind you I get no statements mailed) and close the account to end the monthly spam. I have a balance that hasn't been paid since December!

Apparently, I purchased a few small items for Christmas from same store, and while I thought they charged my normal card that I submittted, it defaulted to their card!

I cleared the matter up but guess what? This one little $60 oversight just crushed my FICA score. I am now down 200 points from summer of last year!

Does anyone know how much "debt to income" affects the score? I cosigned on son's truck (the responsible one) end of last summer and if that is what trashed it I understand, and it will remedy itself when son refinances.

But if its this tiny little oversight...that makes my blood boil!

I have filed a protest on all three reporting agencies.

cessy68

Hi cece, I have been an indirect lender of 15 years and know all about credit. Your score WILL NOT drop 200 points from a small amount past due.....

Nor do debt to income ratios drop a score. Here is a list, of what WILL drop your score, (in my experience, and I have a LOT of experience in getting people 'bought', - that is the term in getting people loans, and argueing their credit scores)......

1.) If all of your balances are high, this is the NUMBER 1 thing that will drop your score. EVEN MORE THAN LATE PAYMENTS............ here is the reason why.... Statistically, when people pay late, but pay, and don't have very high balances, or closed accounts, they are just 'slow credit' people....... However, when people have good credit, and they have a lot of credit out there, it can reach a point where they have legit reasons to go bankrupt, and it fields the computers as high high risk.... (anotherwords, say you have a 200,000 mortgage, plus a car loan for you and your son, and say 5 credit cards.- then lets say, all your cards have a 5,000 max limit, and they are being paid on time, but balances are around 3500 each, or 4,000 each.) technically you could say, "hey I'm going to get as much as I can with my good credit, and walk away.) this is unfortunate, but the statistcs show this happens much more than people with 'slow' credit..... so it makes your score drop HUGE!!

2.) if you co-signed for ANYTHING--- if there are late payments, they WILL show on your credit

3.) If there are any chargeoffs, or leins, (that you may not even know about) --- say medical bills that your insurance didn't cover, and you didn't realize you owed, (can go as a charge off or lein)- I've seen alot of that---- impacts your credit HUGE!!

Those are the biggies.

The only time debt to income comes into play, is when you are actually applying for the loan itself. Say if on your credit app, you put that you make 50,000 per year, and your bills (as reflected in your credit report) show that your payments each month equal 4,000 per month, the computer will 'kick' the app and decline it due to obvious payment to income guidelines, but this has nothing to do with your score.

Hope this helps.
Take care, any more questions, please ask,
love,
cess

cece1960

Thanks Cessy.
I'm still confused. Could it be because the cc company closed the account for none payment (because I didn't know I had a payment?) And when it shows paid might it bounce back up?

I don't have high balances on any accounts, but I was automatically given high limits. Could this be the reason? I think the jump occurred since last summer.

This is so confusing...and the best part? I PAY my bills! That's why they jumped my credit limit. And now it could hurt me?

Geeeeeez

marle

Cece, If you want to see a copy of your credit report, go to AnnualCreditReport.com. It is free to use once a year and you can see all three credit bureaus. That might help you to understand what is going on. Hugs, Marle

cece1960

I did. Thats where I contested. I have a mile long spotless record aside from this one charge. Go figure.

greeteachday

I know little about how the scores go way up or way down, but my money (or should I say my CS) is on this. I suspect with computer coding, the amount that accidentally wasn't paid isn't the issue. The black box that figures out scores is probably reading "account closed for nonpay" and adjusting from there. I also suspect if you can get the company to change that code, it will help a lot. Let us know what you find out.

cessy68

Hi Cece, when it shows 'paid' it will not automatically make the score 'jump' back up, (besides, like I said, one unpaid small balance won't affect your score that drastically).

When you dispute it , and win, it will be removed, and thats all the better, and yet again, this will only affect your score a little, not 200 or so points.

also, I know it's confusing, but even if you pay your bills, the score can go down because of high limits-- because you are at 'risk' for charging them up, and then going bankrupt.... (i know this sucks, but as I said earlier, but the lending industry has solid stats on how often this happens and it drastically can affect your score) best thing is to close them if you don't need them,you could always reopen them later.

Hope this clairifies things........

Love,
Cess