Credit Score will NOT go up

[who291]

I do not know what else to do...

Credit score is stuck at 600-640 depending on which score.

I only got my personal credit cards about 9 months ago, before then I was just a user on my parents accounts and had a debit card.

I also got a car loan around 6 months ago and got stuck with 8% (best I could do)

Only negative info on my report:

-Failed to pay $300 (because of my a-hole brother) on a verizon account 3-4 years ago

-Failed to pay $25 from an ATT account 5 or so years ago

So when I noticed my Credit Score was low I applied for a few credit cards and was accepted by the following:

-Chase Milage Plus Explorer ($5k CL, recently raised to $7k)

-Capital One Master Card ($1000CL, raised to $1500k)

-Chase Freedom ( $1000CL, raised to $2k)

I have not missed a payment on ANYTHING since the verizon fiasco3-4 years ago.

Keep a ZERO balance on all cards and have a very decent income for my age (24)

**bleep** am I doing wrong!?!? I don't really NEED the higher credit score for anything right now, but I really want to improve it so what can I do!?

[09Lexie]

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@who291 wrote:

I do not know what else to do...

Credit score is stuck at 600-640 depending on which score.

I only got my personal credit cards about 9 months ago, before then I was just a user on my parents accounts and had a debit card.

I also got a car loan around 6 months ago and got stuck with 8% (best I could do)

Only negative info on my report:

-Failed to pay $300 (because of my a-hole brother) on a verizon account 3-4 years ago

-Failed to pay $25 from an ATT account 5 or so years ago

So when I noticed my Credit Score was low I applied for a few credit cards and was accepted by the following:

-Chase Milage Plus Explorer ($5k CL, recently raised to $7k)

-Capital One Master Card ($1000CL, raised to $1500k)

-Chase Freedom ( $1000CL, raised to $2k)

I have not missed a payment on ANYTHING since the verizon fiasco3-4 years ago.

Keep a ZERO balance on all cards and have a very decent income for my age (24)

**bleep** am I doing wrong!?!? I don't really NEED the higher credit score for anything right now, but I really want to improve it so what can I do!?

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Welcome to the forum.  If your cc's are reporting a zero balance  FICO has no way of scoring your pyt history. Let one cc report a balance of 1-9%; write GW letters to Verizon and Att.  Remember, you don't have to carry a valance, only let a cc report a balance. 

[Kennie02]

If you want to see a jump in your score, you need to get rid of those baddies on ur CR. You are going to have to PFD or get rid of them some how.

[who291]

Thank you both very much. I was under the impression that once it was "failed to pay" there was no way to get it removed. But I will send them letters and see if they will agree to take it off for a full payment.

Also I did leave a balance on 2 of the cards for a while at the beginning since they were 0%, hoping that would help, still nothing. My Score actually went down a couple of points from the inqueries for the cards and auto loan and still has not recovered from that even.

I had no idea that a couple of bad marks for such a small amount would hurt my score so much!

[fishbjc]

If your credit is fairly new, that may cause a few points.

As for those two collections, they will hurt you for about 7-7.5 years.

Keep writing goodwill letters to see if they can be removed.

Was the verizon account fraud?

[who291]

No, Verizon was completely my fault. It was just a miscommunication between me and my brother. I got him a wifi card and I thought he was paying it and he thought I was paying it. I had moved so bills were going to the wrong address and it wasn't until I checked my credit score years later that I realized what had happened.

So is my credit score pretty much stuck under 700 until I get these removed or time is up on them?

I will defenitely start sending letters and see if that will get me anywhere. 

Thanks again for all the help everyone!

[takeshi74]

Derogs are always a major bottleneck and should be addressed first.  Definitely visit the Rebuilding subofurm.