BiggerPockets

They do count, but I dont think its as severe as a bankruptcy. A bankruptcy is considered a public record and stays on your report for 10year where the student loan would be considered as an defaulted account which will stay for 7 years.

Many things factor into a credit score.
Here are a few basic details taken from my "Mysteries of Credit Score" handout.

Mysteries of Credit Score

• The Fair Isaac score FICO is specifically designed to represent whether the person will go 90-days late within the next two years of a specific date.
• Scores range from 300 to 850 for most mortgage model scores
• There are 50 Factor Codes. The 4 primary ones get listed. (Reasons that make the score)
• People are grouped into 10 different Profile Cards. Examples: new credit people - long history people -small credit amounts - large credit amounts - derogatory credit etc. #9 is 90-day profile & #10 is BK profile. Each profile is affected differently by reported activity. These are placed in five Activity Categories.

Activity Categories

#1 Payment History - 35% of the score is based on Payment history.
1. Recently --- 0-6 months Dramatic - 7-23 months hard hit - 24+ months still hit.
2. Frequency --- how many 30-day late in each time frame
3. Severity --- 60-day and 90-day late etc.

#2 Balances - 30% of the score is based on balances & ratios
• High balances on revolving accounts are bad for credit scores. Small balances are sometimes better than NO balances & having 3-5 revolving charge cards seems best.
• Over 50% total revolving debt to total revolving available credit limit reflects poorly on a credit score. 75% even more so.
• Be careful when closing accounts because ratios will rise.
• Also, individual revolving trade line ratios and balances are also used in the calculations.

Example- Visa1 Visa2 Visa3 Visa4
Limit ----- 5000 5000 5000 5000 ---- Total limit $20,000
Balance-- 4000 4000 0000 0000 ---- Total Balance $8000

Total Revolving Debt ratio is only 40% (8k/20k= 40%) Individuals at 20% (4k/20k=20%)
Closing Visa4 will raise the debt ratio to over 53% thereby lowering the score.

#3 Credit History 15% of the score is based on old trade lines VS. New trade lines
• Newer trade lines lower score

#4 Type of Credit 10% of score is based on the mix of credit type
• Looking for a good mix (revolving, installment, mortgage, etc)
• Finance company installment loans score adverse. (Levitz, HFC, 'Don't pay 'til May' etc.)

#5 Inquiries 10% - of score is based on the inquiries within last 12 months
• Mortgage and Auto inquiries have a 30-day buffer (not counted against)
• Rolling 2 week grouping used for prior months up to 12 months total. (count as one)
• 7-10 is the most inquiries that are used to calculate score. This is based on the Profile Card with the better profiles having more allowable inquiries thereby having less impact on the score.
• Cost is 5-15 points per inquiry, depending on the profile card and up to maximum of 10% or 10 inquiries.

Tony Baricevic
Mortgage and Equity Consultant

That does help a lot. Where can I find the rest of your credit book?

How much does a Bankruptcy factor into your score? Chapter 13 filed 11/2001 paid out in 9/2005

The BK factors a lot in your score. More so in the amount of lenders that will even look at your application as it will limit your options.

The score is affected a lot because once you have a BK you go on the BK card which gets affected a lot worse by any credit activity that a higher quality card. When you are on a higher card you miht get hit for 6 points when someone pulls your credit but this might be closer to 12 points on a lower card like 90-day lates or BK etc. This example would still cap out at the 10% overall maximum for the last 12 months. So a 700 FICO high grade card would take about 12 inquiries to max out while the BK lower card would take only 7 or 8 to max out but it would take the score down the same as a high card person. If that is about 85 points max the 755 FICO would go down to 680 which is still good to work with on most products. While the BK card would proably have a lower score to start, say 625 but lose the same 85 from only 7 inquiries to take the score down to 545!! This works the same for all credit activity, in that the BK card will get hit harder on the numbers which is tough since they are lower to start with.

If the BK was discharged 09/05 it will be a long time before it gets high but that is a good thing because it is that way so that the person takes it slower and gets a chance to learn to manage their finances unless of course they just had some misfortune of getting hit with an illness and a bunch of medical bills took them down. Still same results though.

However.... There are banks that will give you a mortgage 1 day after a BK has been discharged. I even think there are some that will do it before!! They would most likely want a bit of down payment and would have a higher rate no doubt.

Please post any other questions and I will try to answer as I clear off my plate overdue items that got backed up over the past couple of weeks :)

Tony

I pulled my credit reports from 2 of the bureaus last night.

The one report showed my one card has being closed/lost/stolen and then a new card as being opened - It's the same account with the same credit card company.

Should I report that to the credit bureau or is that normal business if the card is lost or stolen?

Also, it was a few years ago, so I can't exactly recall what happened (looking for paperwork on it). I think that my card was near expiration and the credit card company sent me out a new one, but I never received it, so they cancelled the existing one and made a new one.