No Fico Score???!

[panther]

ok here is my story, this is my first time posting here been reading thru lots of good info the last few days now im ready to post.

if you can believe it or not i have had a credit score of a big fat zero for all three bureaus from like age 18 to 28 ( i will be 29 in a month) and not even known it was a zero.

After dating my current girlfriend for 2 years who has good credit and a score over 710 i decided to pull my report and get my **** together so if we get married we can buy a house together, the apartment we have now is in her name although i pay 70 percent of rent and all bills combined.

So anyway i moved to a new position in sales at my job at Verizon Wireless which i have been doing good at since i been in that position and decided to start paying off all my debt. In the last 4 weeks i have settled with or paid in full almost 7000 worth of old collection accounts ranging from 2 years to 6 years ago. ( i settled with the big ones so i actually only paid about 3700 out of pocket) Also i got a secured 500 credit card from my credit union. this posted as of march 31st 2005 and i pulled my report this week and guess what? My equifax score went from zero to 566, experian went directly to 575 and transunion to 606! Whats really surprising is that it went to that before the all stuff i paid even shown up paid or deleted yet!! only ONE big one for 2800 from sprint reported VERY quickly and showing up on all three reports. So so far only two things that has shown up was that bill plus the credit card which shows pays on time or current even though its been open less than a month. SO those two things brought my score from zero to 600 already?? Does this seem right? I am anxiously awaitng the end of april when all the other things i paid show as paid or deleted in some cases? can i hope on it shooting up to 650 or was that just the big initial jump and now it will be incremental steps?

Lastly i just WAISTED 50 dollars this mornin paying for the suze fico kit deluxe just for it to tell me i have NO computed fico score yet!!? I am tryin to call them tommorow to see if i can get a refund or something. Apparently you have to have six months of activity before you get a fico score?? Didnt know you can have three scores from the bureaus but NO fico score... can someone help me shed light on my situation.

Also sorry for the very long post i just wanted to get it all out and explain what happened from the start.

I posted this in the credit burea form too cause i didnt know if i was to put it in here first and would like a good amount of responses/help

[divemedic]

It isn't that you have never had a score, but FICO will give you a zero, if there has been no activity in your file in the past 6 months.

[panther]

It isn't that you have never had a score, but FICO will give you a zero, if there has been no activity in your file in the past 6 months.

ok but if i was to apply for a house or something before six months will they look at my individual scores and my reports to see i am now debt free and maybe approve me with a half decent or higher rate or just say he has no fico score and deny me?

[pursuit]

dive...kind of ironic isn't it...he works at verizon. no offense panther

[panther]

dive...kind of ironic isn't it...he works at verizon. no offense panther

I have seen a few post the last few days about how some of you feel about sprint and verizon but i dont work for the financial services or collection parts of verizon. Im in sales, i help the customer pick out the phone they want and plan, sign them up program their phone and thats it.

[pursuit]

Hey panther, can you hear me now?

Most people have to work. no disprespect. Every company has a fan base.

[panther]

I am not sure if i should get some of the ones that i paid deleted? I have seen confilicting reports on here of people whos score went down after it got deleted cause the credit history was shortened which lowered the score. So in my case since it was old things between 2 to 6 years isnt it better to leave it there saying paid or settled in full rather than delete it? im confused as to which action is best to raise or lower the score.

[panther]

Hey panther, can you hear me now?

Most people have to work. no disprespect. Every company has a fan base.

no but can you read me now! Sorry im not working for one of your fan base companies

[divemedic]

A charge off is a charge off, even when paid. FICO looks at a charge off or collection, whether paid or not, the same. The fact that the charge off or collection happened at all is considered to be more important than what you did about it.

Look at what FICO has to say about my only paid collection: (I paid this 4 years ago, before I knew better. It is my #1 negative remark)

You have 1 collections assigned. Approximately 14% of the U.S. population has a collection on their credit report. Click here to review your Negative Items.

The score evaluates whenever there is derogatory public record or collection agency reference on your credit bureau report. Studies reveal that consumers with previous late payments are much more likely to miss payments in the future. However, as these items age and fall off the credit bureau report, their impact on the score will gradually decrease. (Most derogatory public records and collection items stay on your report for no more than seven years; there are other items that could remain longer.)

There is no "quick fix" to improve the score if the derogatory public record or collection item on your credit bureau report is valid. Keep in mind that satisfying or paying off the collection item or derogatory public record will not remove this information from your credit bureau report. The fact that it occurred is still predictive of future repayment risk, so it will still be considered by the score.

[panther]

Ok thanks dive, but what about all the stuff i am reading on here and on the net about DV to get it deleted even after its paid? is that better to do? So its like it never happened

[divemedic]

It is easier to get a delete if you haven't paid. That is why I am still stuck with a 4 year old paid collection.

Try to get it removed in this order:

-without paying, through DV (most effective, easiest)

-By a pay for delete (this is harder, many CA's will not deal)

-Try to remove paid collection (by far the most difficult)

[panther]

It is easier to get a delete if you haven't paid. That is why I am still stuck with a 4 year old paid collection.

Try to get it removed in this order:

-without paying, through DV (most effective, easiest)

-By a pay for delete (this is harder, many CA's will not deal)

-Try to remove paid collection (by far the most difficult)

Ok i got you, i should have found this forum before paying out thousands of dollars in the last two weeks. But point is my score still went from zero to 608 so i am wondering if its ALL cause of the new secured card being the only thing there that is new within the last 22 months or so or did the 2800 dollar sprint collection bill from 4 years ago being paid now help the score. cause there is 2 more collections on my report negative, one is a 384 dentist bill from 1998 which i think will fall off this summer and a cable bill from 3 years ago for 164 dollars. Should i pay these or just dispute them in hopes of a deletion. wish they would release the credit scoring computing methods so we can figure out whats best to do...

[divemedic]

Dispute. Paid collections do nothing for you.

[SevenBagels]

Hi Panther,

I experienced the same as you. Once my negs were deleted with Equifax, my score dropped from 620 to 0.

For a mortgage, lenders usualy pull from all three bureaus and make an average. You will be better off waiting the 6 months and see what your score will be then.

I was quite desappointed when I found out about it but a clear fresh start is better than carrying old bagages.

[Ahntara]

Your score went from 0 to 608 because you added some open, ongoing accounts to your file. It is very important to have open accounts adding points to the score, especially when you have derogatory info causing deductions.

The factors that impact the score are not the status (paid or unpaid) or the amount owing (or paid off) but WHEN the accounts were last reported. So, if these accounts you just settled hadn't been updated in a few years and you pay them, BAM, they get updated to NOW, tanking your score. The reason for this is that HISTORY accounts for 35% of the scoring model. 35% iof 850 is a lot! This is the reason that paying off older collections does not necessarily help your score and may UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, hurt your score.

Conversely, if they were being currently updated, settling them does your score no harm. Without details about the before and after it is hard to tell at this point.

Don't feel bad. Everybody has to start somewhere. You are starting here. Work towards deletion. Every one that comes off will improve your score. As they age (especially after 12 months from last update) their impact on your score will decrease. The likelihood of them getting removed during CRA disputes increases also.

Mortgage lenders typically pull all three scores and use the mid-score. This is whatever score is in the middle, not an average of three. This is an important distincition. You can get 100% financing with 560 mid-score. You can get 95% LTV financiing in the 500's. Lenders are relaxing their requirments each month. Keep working towards your goal, you will get there.

[panther]

wow, thanks for the info guys, thats kind of depressing to know that after kickin out that money i may have actually HURT my score!

I could have used that money and opend up two more secured credit card accounts... If those 3 i paid end up droppin my score a whole lot i might try to make a deal with the devil(collection company) and offer a extra 100 or so to have them delete it completely if they can and will that is... it would be worth it if my score drops instead of increases.... I will see at the start of May what happens cause the last two or 3 i paid this month will get updated at the end of this month. Luckily the 100 hospital one said they will delete it if i paid in full which i did so that one should go away and the last two i have i am negotiating a deletion, they want 75 percent of the amount i said 60 but they might take it since this account is from 1998 and will fall off this year or next anyway and they know i can just wait them out if i want to and i am disputing the other one. so out of six total deliquent old collections, three will be deleted, 3 will be paid settled in full and we will just see if those i paid end up hurting me more than helping me... It almost seems like a catch twenttwo cause if i have the old ones deleted i could drop because its from a long time ago and i will lose history points or i pay them and i could lose points too! Credit is confusing and twisted sometimes....

[Ahntara]

"Credit is confusing and twisted sometimes..."

That is why it is so important to educate yourself before you begin your credit repair journey and tailor your actions to what will help you achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

[breathing_easier]

wow, thanks for the info guys, thats kind of depressing to know that after kickin out that money i may have actually HURT my score!

I did the same thing, panther, back in 2002. Hadn't yet found this board, or any of the other credit boards, and was doing the head-in-sand thing. Paid tens of thousands of dollars to CAs and a few OCs and ended up with the same trashed FICO scores as if I hadn't paid a dime. I still would have settled my debts, but would have gone about it in an entirely different way if I had educated myself first. Worst part was that I let a third party, who definitely did not have my best interests at heart, negotiate the settlements. Live and learn, though. Perhaps our posts about what not to do will help others down the line.