DH just came in and brought the mail. Got my TU CR. TU score is 679! Not too shabby for what we've been through. A couple of things that I have questions about, though. Got some late pays on a mortgage from 6 years ago. That's the first thing that shows up, but it will drop off next July. Should I worry about it? Also, I had a NextCard Visa. Shows "Paying as Agreed" but 1 60-day late and 2 30-day lates. Don't remember why the 60-day... that was 7/2000. The 2 30's came about because of job loss. I called them... they offered hardship program. Thought I would never get that set up! Shows high balance being $316 over limit... that would have been due to late fees, overlimit fees, etc, some of which was supposed to be reversed when I got the account caught up again, but didn't happen because of them going out of business. Also shows cancelled by credit grantor 7/2001. I'm still paying on this with a long ways to go, but maybe DH will have some good holiday sales. This was a good CC for me... too bad they went belly up. If I could have gotten the money, I would have contacted them about a settlement... might still try it if I can get enough together. But what do I do about the tradeline? Anything? Dispute? There next thing that shows up is under the section that say "the following accounts are reported with no adverse information." I had a BofA CC. Let it go late (lates don't show) to get on their version of hardship which they called fixed payment. Got pretty upset with them at one point, but they made up for it by leaving my interest rate at 6% long after the one year fixed payment period was over. The problem is it says "Cancelled by credit grantor." Do I worry about that one? Or leave well enough alone? They will consider reopening the account at some point... about 6 more months, I think. I also have 6 hard inquiries. One will disappear next month. Two are associated with CC's. Two are from trying to buy a car a year ago that we decided against and the other one is from a CC that I applied for last December, but didn't get. Do I need to do anything with those? The only other problem on TU is the high balances, but we're working on that. Gotta get DH's stuff taken care of first, but hoping holiday sales will be enough to at least get all of mine under the 50% mark!
Welcome! You can dispute TU online. I would dispute all the late oays "paid as agreed". Dispute the closed by credit grantor, as closed by consumer. I don't know if that's available online. If you can't do it online then send a short letter. Getting inquiries off takes "an act of God", but since ya'll were in that business you may get them off. I would call them and you may get them deleted. I've tried no luck, but some people have had luck getting them off. If it doesn't work send a letter. I have had great luck disputing inquiries with EQ over the phone, but alot of people haven't. Inquiries only affect your score for 6 months, so they say. Read the top 2 posts over and over again. Charlie
Thanks, Charlie. I will try disputing. I do think the "closed by credit grantor" ought to be changed because when I talked to NextCard about the hardship program, I don't remember them telling me that my account would be closed. BofA, on the other hand, did say it would be closed if I decided to go ahead with their "fixed payment" program which I did. So, in reality, I am the one that closed the account, right? Same thing with NextCard if I had known closing the account was part of the deal. As for the lates, I guess there is no reason not to dispute. If I dispute on the mortgage and they are removed, it will stay on my record longer as a good account, right? I think I'm starting to figure some of this out! LOL I'll let you know what happens.
I would NOT dispute the mortgage lates that will be falling off next year. 1st, as old as they are, the negative impact on your score is very small. 2nd, disputing these types of things has a tendency to make it worse. It could come back with more lates, lates with unknown dates, lates with newer dates, thus keeping them on there longer. As I said, due to the fact that they will be off in less than a year, and the fact that they aren't affecting your score much, if at all, the risks I think outweigh the rewards on that one. As for the "closed by credit grantor", I would go along with Charlie on those.
