Why is my credit score so low?

Question

I have a credit score of 435!!! YIKES!! It was 470 last July and that was right before I paid off only one of four delinquent accounts. One was a car repo. I had in Nov. 2005 which has since been paid off (now over a year and a half ago). My credit score doesn't even say repossession anymore. It just says, "paid profit and loss"-don't know what that means exactly. Two other things are accounts for late payments of under 300 dollars. So, why is my score this low? Really, it's ridiculous!! I have had numerous people check my score for a personal loan and am wondering if that did it. I'm talking maybe 10 banks, I applied with online.

Oh yea, I'm also 26 yrs old. Does this matter in that maybe I never had credit history?

Answer 1

You have a low credit score because you have so many delinquent accounts. To have a decent credit score, you should have zero delinquent accounts. It also is probably hurting your score that you 10 banks turned you down for a personal loan.

The fact that you are somewhat young is probably not affecting things here. You don't have a lack of credit history. You have credit history, it's just terrible credit history.

Answer 2

Here's the bad news. The credit history you do have is not real stellar. Activity that occurs in the last 12 months carries the heaviest weight. So your late payment on top of your repo isn't helping. Do you have any other good credit that should be on the credit report but isn't ? If so, you can write the credit bureaus to have that added. You may be able to dispute the older entires if you believe they are in correct.

Answer 3

Yes you paid it off, but it will remain on your history for 7 years. Next applying with all those banks, you take a 5-10 point hit with every application, or request for your score.