I could not figure out why my client's Beacon score listed late payments 0 months ago and a delinquent balance.

There were a bunch of collections with balances NOT reported as included in the filing, but nothing added up to the Beacon delinquent balance.

I finally noticed that the balance of a reaffirmed credit card matched. No late payments are reported for this account, and no past due balance.

The only derog is "REAFFIRMATION OF DEBT"

I checked the Beacon detail, no lates whatsoever, no other derogs, and it states: "Current status: Pays account as agreed"

BTW, the score is 516, over a year after filing Ch. 7.

Experian lists this account in the "Accounts in Good Standing" section of their report, with the following derogatory notations:

"Status: Reaffirmation of debt/Never late."

"Account History: Discharged Through BK Ch 7, 11, or 12 10/14/2002 to 10/14/2002 Paying debt previously in Bankruptcy 10/14/2002"

The account is AGED as of the month of the discharge, and the balance is also reported as of the discharge date.

"Last Reported: 09/2001"

How can that be? So, was this account discharged? Or was it reaffirmed?

And how does Fair Isaac rate those notations?

Since apparently people don't understand what this means:

1) The account is reaffirmed
2) The consumer makes all payments on time
3) The Beacon score is 516 because apparently Fair Isaac rates the notation "reaffirmed" as CURRENTLY DELINQUENT

This is not the CRAs' fault, it's not the creditor's fault, everything is ACCURATE and there's nobody to sue except Fair Isaac. Apparently it's another bug in their fraudware.

So, I recommend you do NOT reaffirm unless you get the WRITTEN promise from the creditor to report the account as "paid as agreed" as long as it's paid on time and to NOT report the account as reaffirmed.

Since they probably have no idea why, I recommend you give them a printout of this thread if you are considering a reaffirmation.

I would NEVER reaffirm a SECURED account. It's *my* opinion that as long as the account is CURRENT, they can not foreclose or repo.

If you're worried about not being able to make the payments and avoiding repos by reaffirming, I'd say you should just hand them the keys, or don't waste your time to even try to work on your credit. Just ONE 30 day late after bk is an extremely serious derog, it shows that even after the discharge you can't manage your finances.

I have since learned that cars can be repo'd even BEFORE they're 30 days late, and MANY creditors WILL repo within a few weeks of the due date with NO letter and no phone call. And yes, it's legal in most states.