     Dani (Dani) | Tuesday, April 24, 2001 - 09:09 am 
Pulled my credit reports recently and noticed that my hometown bank was only reporting my auto and personal unsecured loan to one bureau. I contacted them about this and they said they only report to Equifax and that TransUnion and Experian are "to pull off the information from Equifax's report". The auto loan has been reporting 18 months for a 60 month loan and the personal loan is 22 months out of 24 months. Is there something I can do to get TransUnion and Experian to report these since the creditor will not? Thanks for your help in advance.
Dani |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Tuesday, April 24, 2001 - 09:39 am
As far as I know there is nothing you can do.
Every creditor should have to disclose PRIOR to application if/how they will report.
The bank has to PAY to report to every bureau, that's why they don't. |
| Don (Don) | Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 05:19 am
Although reporting to only one CB is generally a disadvantage when you are rebuilding your credit, there are benefits to this scenario. Whenever possible use their weakness to your advantage.
My credit union only reports Experian and TU. I have a car and a personal loan there. I also have a finance company loan. My credit union doesn't wish to consolidate my personal and my finance company loan for two reasons, too many inquires and debt to income ratio. That is their underwriting criteria and I really don't have a problem with that.
However, I did find out that one of my local banks only pulls a Equifax report. This will not be showing my loans with the CU and therefore improving my debt to income ratio.
In about two months I will be filling out a loan form from them to see if I can get rid of the finance company loan.
For the curious, the reason I am waiting two more months is that in January when I got the finance company loan, I asked them what my score was (Equifax/ Beacon). It was a 631. Then in March when Equifax let us order the reports I was at a 650. Last month, when I was at the courthouse, I noticed that my judgement is no longer on my county's database, I disputed my judgement with Equifax (as long as I already paid for the report, what the heck). I just got the results back and the judgment is gone.
Since I am a curious person and have a sense of humor, I thought i'd wait until May (two months from March, two months from Jan.) and reorder my score/ report again. I am curious to see any change. I'll also use this as an opportunity to dispute the BK and hopefully based on either that it also may no longer be on whatever database they'll search, or since it has been just over 9 years, they may be kind enough to take it off anyway, it cannot hurt.
Then when I get those results back (let's say late June), I'll see how that bank likes me with only a couple of 30 day lates (over 2 years old), but with a really nice debt to income ration and hopefully no public records. I have no qualms about using the CU's not reporting to my advantage. |
| Dani (Dani) | Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 07:41 am
Don,
Thanks for the advice. I was just concerned since I'm applying for a mortgage soon. I wanted the best possible FICO score and since the accounts were both pretty well established I thought it might help. Let us know when you repull your credit score. I'm curious on how much a deleted judgment and bankruptcy will increase your score. My guess is you could be hitting 700 or more. We may be able to crack this FICO code yet. Best of luck.
Dani |
| Don (Don) | Thursday, April 26, 2001 - 04:02 am
I seriously doubt I will be able to crack 700 for at least another year or two at best. I figure that means my biggest weakness will be the average age of my accounts will only be 2 years and I will still have about an 80% usage ratio on my credit cards.
When I look at it logically and say that 700 is, for all practical purposes, a median score for the nation, I cannot see FICO deeming that a person with only a 2 years average and is 80% has less risk than half the people. I think realistically i'll settle for about a 680 after those changes. Time and lower balances will have to do the rest.
But in the grand scheme of things, I am just trying to get rid of a 24% loan for a 14% loan with the benefit of tweaking fico by not having a finance company loan. Of course this will just offset the damage done to my average age of accounts.
I got the number for the bank's underwriting department and called. They do not have a 'minimum' fico score for an unsecured loan. They wouldn't tell me the details of their underwriting criteria, but I did get enough info out of them to know what it will take to get it approved.
I know that it would be best if all banks did report to all three agencies, especially when we are talking mortgages. But hey, if they are not going to then let's exploit them for a change.
Good luck house hunting... |
