Please help! I do not know how to proceed! I desperately need your expert advice!! I refinanced my home about a year ago, at that time my TRU score was 889 and my fico was incredibly high in the high 800's. I am now ready to sell that house, and pulled my credit report to ensure that my scores were still in line and they have all dropped dramatically. My TRU is now 741, Experian is 704 and my Equifax is 659! Median Score - 701. I am so confused - I do not know if I should dispute the AU accounts or what to do so that my credit score does not drop any farther by making deletions to these older lines of AU credit. Here is the scenario: I am an AU on an AMEX account that was opened 10/99 - the owner has xfered credit to this account so that the balance is now 20k - up 10k from last year. Another AU account -CHASE- has since had 1 30 day late Opened in 01/97 with a balance of 8k And I have 2 lates from 1997 that are legit- but never disputed - one 30 and one 60 day on my mortgage, however, these were also on last years reports. I have also opened a Home Depot account and it has a new 7k balance - not on last years report - opened 10/02 - which I can pay off and close today - if that would help? Now my delima is, with the exception of Peoples Bank where I was an AU, with a 4k limit-opened 11/96 & a Limited Express account opened in 06/91 where I am the Borrower with a $500 credit line- these are my oldest standing accounts. Obviously, I cannot afford to lose even 1 point on my credit score without losing my interest rate. Should I dispute the AU status? What liabilities do I have if I never signed anything on an AU account? Would it be worse if I had these deleted completely from my report - is that even possible? Should I not do anything at all and PRAY that I don't move down even 1 point between now and closing - probably 60 days out. Do I even have time to resolve these issues? I may be able to obtain paperwork on the Chase 30 day late showing that it was their error - I am still working on that ?? PLEASE HELP!! I am so lost! I do not know which way would be most beneficial - fight the AU status and lose my history, Pay off HD or do nothing at all. Any advice you can give would be SOOOO appreciated. Thank you in advance! -Lisa By the way all 3 bureaus show "proportion of balances to credit limit is too high" Revolving Balance is 34k - only 7k actually belongs to me - the borrower - not an AU - which again, I can pay off today if it will help. Thanks again!
In you situation, I think it would be best to not try and disupte anything at all. If you have any major changes in your report, it could knock you into a diffrent scoring bracket and your scores could go down. Also if the owner of those AU accounts adds more to their balance your score could go down. If it were me, I'd pay off as much as I could on my credit cards to get them down below 10% of the credit limit. Then start working on bumpage.
Even with the loss in points your score in high enough to get whatever you want, so don't sweat it right now.
Here's what I would do: 1) Absolutely pay off Home Depot; I don't think you should close it, because it will help you with credit utilization - a biggie. OTOH it contributes to your average age; but I don't know if closing it will "un-do" that (and even if it did, the benefit from helping your util. % would more than make up for it). 2) Take your two oldest lines (CLs at 4K and 500), see if they can raise the CL - but only if they can do it without an inquiry, or if the inquiry will show as an "account review" (soft) - get it in writing if possible. 3) If the 20K Amex or 8K Chase is at their limit, the most desirable thing would of course to pay them down at least below 50% - but if that's not an option, I would consider asking to be removed as AU... If it is already under 50% I wouldn't bother - but if over, that thing is absolutely *killing* your score on credit utilization. If you have 40K right now with 90% utilization, I'll bet that having 25K with 30% utilization will gain you 20 points at least - probably more. 4) I don't know about "disputes" putting you into a different class, but assuming that's possible, you could still take the "nice guy" approach with the creditors themselves, see if they will voluntarily change their reporting. I've had about 25% success with that - it helps if you are otherwise a good customer with them.
THANK YOU EVERYONE for your very specific timely advice. After reading a couple of the replies, I would like to add one more thing that I found on my credit report to the posting: It said that the DEBT/HIGH CREDIT 84%. Evidently that is extremely high? Even if I pay off the Home Depot account at 7k- that still leaves a VERY high percentage that I am responsible for as an AU. I was only an AU on the AMEX because it was a platinum account and has great travel benefits! I did not even know that I was an AU on the 30 day late Chase account! I again appreciate all the advice that is coming my way! -Lisa
