Why hasnt my credit score risen?

Question

A year ago I purchased my first home. I am a subprime buyer and because of that I have made sure every single mortgage payment is on time. But one year later pulled my score and it has hardly risen at all! I still have a few items on my credit report but they are years old and total only about $700. Why hasnt my score risen? What can I do to increase the score because in one year my 2 year ARM is up and I want to refinance at a better rate.

Answer 1

We need additional details. You state you are a sub-prime buyer: that means your FICO credit score was at 625 or below at the time you mortgaged the property, well below average (FICO 673 - 723, depending on the survey). What is the status (paid off, charged off, settled, etc.) of each known delinquency, if any? All credit balances and limits (or original installment loan balances)? Give dates of first delinquency and amounts.

Do not purchase credit scores unless they are genuine Fair Isaac (FICO) scores, complete with the gold seal icon. Genuine FICOs are the only ones most lenders use, and close substitutes can be misleading: the substitutes, sold at times by the Credit Reporting Agencies, are derisively referred to as FAKO scores.

Genuine FICO scores cost more, but if you search the web for the discount code, you can save up to 20%. Clean your reports up first, work on all 3 at the same time, wait 2 months for all the data entry to go through, and then pay to find out your new scores.

It is not enough to stop and/or remove bad behavior from your credit reports. You must build good behavior, too. Good for you for making those ontime payments on your mortgage loan without a miss. You can do more:

If you have no open credit card at all, and you've been denied unsecured (prime) credit cards, you might try a secured credit card from Orchard Bank (it has the fewest and lowest fees) or a semi-secured card from Bank of America ($99 security deposit for a $500 credit limit)

Before you sign the application (or click Submit), call the credit card issuer and ask them, "Which of the credit reporting agencies do you report to?" If they don't answer, "All 3, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion" then find another card. You need to develop history at all 3 agencies.

Note: With a secured credit card, you still must make a payment on time every time. Do not assume that the bank will use your security deposit to cover your bill. It's about YOU acting responsibly and paying on time month after month.

As you build ontime payment history without a miss, you'll boost the 35% of your score that concerns payment history. If you open a new credit card, make one small NECESSARY purchase (gasoline, groceries, a utility bill on auto-pay through the credit card) each month and pay it off in full each month. To score max points, you do NOT need to carry a balance and thus pay finance charges. Just keep making that new purchase, waiting for the billing period to close and paying it off in full the next month before the due date.

If your credit card is secured, you can just pay the start-up fees the first month. After 6 consecutive ontime payments-in-full for 6 consecutive months, ask to have your card converted to unsecured, have your security deposit returned with interest, and have your annual fee waived. If the company refuses, try again at 9 months and 12 months. The company may convert you to unsecured automatically. If your card goes unsecured and you have no more fees charged to it, leave it open.

30% of your score is credit utilization: how much of your credit limit is used up by your balance? On each revolving account, you need to keep your balance below 30% of your credit limit, or you will hurt your FICO score. For example, if you have a $200 credit limit, you must not have a balance higher than $60, which is 30% of $200. Do NOT close a paid off cc account. They also look at total utilization: they total up all your balances, and all your credit limits. That total percentage utilization must be kept below 30% of total credit limits. Close that paid off account, and you'll take away $0 in total balance, but you'll take away $$$ in credit limit, and up goes your total utilization.

10% of your FICO score is credit mix: what types of credit accounts do you have listed as open? The good types of credit are: mortgage, secured auto loan, department store card (Macy's, Home Depot, etc.) and major cc (V, MC, AmEx, Disc). Ideally you want to show good behavior in one open account of each good type. The bad types are: payday loans, personal finance loans used for purposes of getting cash advances, checking account overdraft loans and secured, sub-prime credit cards. One exception: if you have no open credit card, and you can't get a prime credit card, a secured card is ok. The point: you need to build good history, not just prevent the bad. But if you open more than two accounts of each type, or keep balances on more than about 6 accounts, you will lose points for too many open accounts or too many accounts having positive balances.

15% of your FICO score is for length of credit history, the longer, the better. The average credit user has an oldest open account that has been open for 14 years. Where do you fit on this scale? They also score you on the average length of time all your open accounts have been open. So if you close a paid off account, you'll hurt your score because (1) you lose an old account and (2) the average age of your accounts could go down.

Do not assume that you have no credit history at all. You could have unknown identity theft or file merging issues (someone else's history in your credit history because of mistaken identity, especially if you are a "Jr"). Dispute derogatory but false information on your credit reports. Get one free credit report per year from each of the 3 major Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs) at

http://www.annualcreditreport.com

The above site is endorsed by the US Federal Trade Commission. See source, below.

Lastly, read the prepayment penalty terms of your mortgage contract carefully, and figure out how much it will cost you if you want to refinance. Know the waiting period before the prepayment penalties expire.

I have no legal or financial interest in any of the firms mentioned, above.

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Answer 2

Each lender will give you a different credit score because each lender is looking for different things. If you are a sub-prime buyer then your credit score has jumped purely because you now have a mortgage, as long as you have never missed a payment. Check out themoneypages.com for advice on how to advance your credit score and good credit practice (just type credit check into the search bar). Each way you will have got adverse credit in the past though has a different time to clear, so even though your score may have increased in one area for one lender, it will still be taking into account those things which impacted upon it in the past - e.g. missed and late payments will stay on your credit report for 36 months and will be erased after this period if you show that you consistently made on time payments, an IVA will stay for a lot lot longer. Hope this helps. Best thing to do is always to speak to a mortgage adviser, and find a sub prime broker who really puts your needs first - they'll then be able to advise you on the best one for you, past history fully taken into account, rather than purely getting you to sign up for the best one for them (i.e. commission based). Independent advice is priceless, don;t go to someone affiliated with someone else (i.e. a broker who works for a particular bank because you know exactly who they are biased towards...). Hope this helps you!

Answer 3

Credit scores improve through a variety of factors. First is your payment history, a record of making payments on time will help build up your score, one late payment stays on your report for YEARS. Paying off debts is also in your best interest because the less of your available credit used the better it reflects on you, ideally, loan and credit card balances should be 30% or less of the total credit line. Next, the longer you have accounts (including paid off loans) and credit history, the better it is for your score. Settling outstanding accounts is extremely important.

Answer 4

First, go to http://www.myfico.com/12 and pull your credit score....the difference with this site is it gives you a detailed analysis of your score, what's hurting it and what you can do.

Dispute those negative items and try to get them deleted. If that doesn't work, negotiate a settlement with the creditor (it's only $700!) and pay it off....but demand that once paid they DELETE the entry from your credit report. Get this agreement IN WRITING.

Then work from the other end....you need to find ways to improve your score by "tweeking" your credit habits. Take a look at http://www.lifeafterbankruptcy.com . They recently posted a couple of newsletters detailing how people can recover from BK and fix their credit. These same ideas apply to anyone who wants to improve their scores.

Answer 5

I will tell you I joined Identity Guard and within a few months I am squeky clean. They truly are great, I think you get the fir 2-3 months free and then it is only $12.90 a month and their phone cusomer service is what got my credit all fixed up, they actually answer the phone, you don't have to push 1, then 4, then , then 6 and they will stay with you on the 1-800 # until you are staisfied. I highly recommend them. Do a search for Identity Guard.They are great. Avoid others tho.

Answer 6

Having a good credit rating, helps a consumer get a loan or credit at better rates and for larger amounts.To know "How to improve credit rating, credit score" plz follow link-

http://www.acreditlibrary.com/improvecredit.html