Credit Score Question?

Question

I have disputed my credit report and had many/most negative items removed. I have many accounts in good standing, onlly a couple of collection items, but they're over 2 years old. I mean, I've had like 10 things deleted from my credit I have 21 accounts 'in good standing' and only like 4 delinquent accounts (over 4 years old). Why isn't my score going up at all????? What am I doing wrong?? I have paid all of my bills on time for the past 2 1/2 years yet still my credit will not raise.

Credit Score on Equifax - 580s
Transunion - 631
Equifax - 613

Sorry Experian is the 613 i listed equifax twice

Answer 1

1. It depends on how you receive the notice of your credit score, but some scores come with the reasons your score is not higher. Look at the following list of "FICO reasons" and if your score notice has some of these reasons, please share the reasons with us.

http://loan.yahoo.com/c/score6.html

2. Over time, some delinquencies, such as a single 30-day late payment, more quickly lose their power to drop your score. Collection items are slow to lose their power to damage your score. You have to serve your seven years before they will drop off your report.

3. You wrote, "I have paid all of my bills on time for the past 2 1/2 years". We need more information: Exactly how many of these accounts are credit card and other revolving accounts? Are you paying the minimum on these accounts, or are you paying them off in full each month? 30% of your FICO score involves credit utilization: Each account's balance is what percentage of the credit limit for the account? You will hurt your score if any account has a balance that is more than 30% of the account's credit limit. For example, if you have an account that has a $7,000 credit limit, you will hurt your FICO score if your balance is more than $2,100, which is 30% of the $7,000 limit.

4. We can work with you better if you write exact facts and check what you've written for consistency. In a court of law, no one would take you seriously for saying "like" 4 delinquent accounts. Read from all 3 of your credit reports: For each Credit Reporting Agency (CRA), exactly how many delinquent accounts, exactly what type of delinquency on each account, exactly what month and year was the delinquency committed? Note that in one sentence you wrote that your collection items (which are delinquencies) are "over 2 years old", but in the next, your delinquencies are "over 4 years old." After you've read the data from all 3 reports, note whether there is any discrepancy between each creditor's trade line on one report vs. another.

Edit your additional details if necessary: two Equifax scores, but no Experian score?

5. 10% of your score is credit mix: what type of accounts do you have? The good types of credit are mortgage, secured auto loan, major credit card (MC, V, AmEx, Disc), and store cards (Home Depot, Macy's). The bad types of credit are payday loans; non-secured, personal finance loans (non-credit-card) for cash advances; and overdraft loans. Given that these bad types of credit have the highest interest rates, they should be paid off first, and because they are derogatory types of credit, closed. Ideally, you should have at least one open account of each type of good credit. If you've recently closed the last in-good-standing account in any of the 4 good types, you have hurt your score.

6. 15% of your credit score is length of credit history. The 2 biggest factors: (a) how old is your oldest open account? (the older, the better) (b) what is the average age of all your open accounts? (the older the average, the better) Fact: credit users have an oldest open account that is on average, 14 years old. 1 in 4 has an account that is 20 years old. If you've been opening and closing accounts, refinancing long-open installment loans and mortgages, or adding accounts to or deleting them from your credit reports, you have affected these two averages and your scores. Leave your major cc and store cc accounts open, even after paying them off.

Please vote: Did this help?

Answer 2

ANY collection or negative items will drag down your score.

Dispute the collection accounts, once you get those off make sure you have just one or two credit cards/accounts open with or without a balance.

Lenders don't like when one 10 cards with $5000 available credit lines unused.

Dispute all hard inquires.

Close all unused or unneeded cards/accounts.

Answer 3

Here's the real scoop. You have to either get the collections removed somehow or wait the 7 years it takes for them to fall off your report. They are killing your score. It doesn't matter if you have 400 accounts in good standing. When they fall off, you want to have less than 25% of your credit being used. If you have 10000 of credit, use no more than 2500. Make all payments on time. This is the real info. Any of the "magic" credit repair places are generally ripoffs.

Answer 4

I could be wrong, but I don't think your score will change until you've take out a new loan or new charge card and remained in good standing with those ones. I'll check it out and be back.....

http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Ways-To-Raise-Credit-Score&id=17788
http://ezinearticles.com/?Clean-Credit-Report:-Easily-Raise-Your-Credit-Score-100-Points&id=9910
http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/ImproveYourScore.aspx

In a nutshell, here is some info from http://www.experian.com/credit_score_basics/improve_credit_score.html

How long does it take to rebuild scores?
Actually, you don’t rebuild scores. You rebuild your credit history, which is then reflected by credit scores. The length of time to rebuild your credit history after a negative change depends on the reason behind the change. Most negative changes in scores are due to the addition of a negative element to your credit report such as a delinquency or collection account.. These new elements will continue to affect your scores until they reach a certain age. Delinquencies remain on your credit report for seven years. Most public record items remain on your credit report for seven years, although some bankruptcies may remain for 10 years and unpaid tax liens remain for 15 years. Inquiries remain on your report for two years.

Answer 5

It takes time. You said you've still got two accounts in collections. That's probably dragging your score way down. The fact that they are 2 years old is irrelevant.