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Anyone know how much a "charge off" affects your overall credit score point wise? I'm getting ready to move in with my fiancee' who, for whatever reason" doesn't have cable.. Anyway, I ordered cable and they went through the normal account set up and found I had an old cable bill from a house six years ago for $111.00. After some digging around and the cable salespersons help I realized I had been out of that particular house for close to two months but my old roomie had stayed an extra month and a half and didn't pay the cable bill. So for all this time I've had this thing on my credit record but it never showed up on the credit information packet I receive every two months to let me know my credit score, open accounts etc.... So how many points does that actually shave off your overall credit score? five? ten? More? I have a pretty healthy credit score even with this now paid blight on my past record but I was just wondering exactly how much it affects your overall credit score.... Jeff Jones, do you know?
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"only dead fish swim with the stream..." Malcolm Muggeridge
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Re: For any of the financial wizards out there....
As far as I know...things like utility bills do not affect your credit score unless they go to collection. Thats why it did not show up on your credit information packet.It's never too late to become the person you always thought you would be. -
Re: For any of the financial wizards out there....
Not sure of the specifics, you may want a banker or a loan officer to clue you in on that. If I were you though I would request a 'Paid In Full' letter from said cable company so that you can immediately show that to whatever company you're trying to get credit from in the future.A good shower head and my right hand - the two best lovers that I ever had.Comment
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Re: For any of the financial wizards out there....
if it didn't go to collection, it probably doesn't affect your score one bit. CRAs use the information on your credit report to calculate your score. If it didn't go to collection and therefore didn't make its way into your credit report, it won't have any impact, regardless of how much it is or how long it's been floating in the ethers.
Assuming it isn't on any of your three reports, I'd leave it be.Comment
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Re: For any of the financial wizards out there....
Your ok, since the charge off is over 5 years old it might show on your credit for a couple more years, but it is not effecting your score at all by this point. This should not come up later either if you are looking to purchase or refinance a home. Lenders could care less after 5 years and if the charge of is less then $500 in most cases.
A couple helpful hints to improve your credit scores:
Just some basic info....
How to clean up your score
Pay your bills on time. Your payment history accounts for 35% of your total credit score, according to Fair Isaac, the company that compiles the scores that most lenders use. Another 30% of your score is based on how much you owe. Owing some money is fine, but if your balances are too large, lenders worry that you're overextended and won't be able to repay them.
About 15% of your score is based on how long you've had a credit history; the longer, the better. Avoid closing a lot of old accounts or opening several new ones, because that will lower the average age of your accounts. New credit makes up 10% of your score; lenders worry that you'll borrow too much money if you've recently opened a number of new accounts.
Finally, 10% of your score is based on your mix of credit cards, mortgages, installment loans and other debts. Lenders are most interested in your history of managing credit card debt.
Your credit score is based on information in your credit report, so it also helps to contact the three credit bureaus to make sure your reports are free of errors that could lower your score.Comment
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Re: For any of the financial wizards out there....
This is true for the most part except some states are now having the utility companies report to the credit bureaus every month. So far I have only seen this in Wisconsin - so all you cheese heads beware!Originally posted by threehillsComment
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