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Help in increasing score

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Anonymous
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Help in increasing score

Hello all,
 
I have been lurking here for a couple of weeks. I am interested in getting some opinions from everyone on how to raise my wife's and my score.
 
Background, LOML and I did a lousy job of managing fiancies until about 3 years ago. Now everything is paid off, except for one large CC which has 9K left on it. The account was never deliquent but the total is high. No other CC debt aside from that. In the past 12 months we paid off two cars, neither account ever deliquent. Both of our scores are now in the 650's. We worked really hard over the last year to get them up and we saw lots of improvement quickly. Now things have staggered and stalled out. So now I am wondering what I can do to keep them moving up.
 
There are several baddies that have been paid off. All baddies have been paid. I don't think I can try a PFD at this point because one they are paid off and two the reason they were bad to begin with was our own fault not some bad event as most PFD examples have. Additionally most should age off in the next 12 months (except for maybe one or two which will age off in two years or so). We are hoping to buy a house in the next 12-15 months. So now my questions.
 
Aside from trying get rid of the baddies and keep paying off the one CC with 9K what else could we do?
We each have one open CC with a very low credit limit. Should we try to each get a second CC?
 
We have been very proactive about getting our financial situation straight and want to keep moving forward in terms of improving. I am still pretty disappointed with our scores and credit histories.
 
Thoughts are appreciated.
 
Thanks!
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1 REPLY 1
SmartCookie
Valued Contributor

Re: Help in increasing score

Hi and welcome!  Glad you delurked.  Did you read the Start Here?   http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654
 
I would call the CC co's of the open accounts today and ask them for a reduction of the interest and also see if they can give you  CLIs without a hard INQ.  That will reduce your UTI (you want that at or below 9% of your total available credit) and help your score very easily if so.
 
Correct, you cannot PFD a paid old account as PFD means Pay For Delete.  The time to do it is before you have paid.  You can however get GW letters out to see if they will delete derogs or remove the TL.  It is not guaranteed, but it is important that you do.  If you don't get the response you want, keep at it, moving up the chain of people there.  Be nice, they do not owe you, but keep at it as the earliest you are saying anything will drop on its own is in a full year.
 
Once the baddies are as good as you can get them and your 9k is paid down some you might want to consider a big CLI on your current cards even if you will take a hard INQ.  Keep these cards though as they are your only, and oldest.  Hopefully you don't have an annual fee.  That might also be the time to apply for additional CCs and you might also want to mix your credit up some and see if you can get a line of credit at your bank... overdraft etc.   
 
G'luck!
EQ 787 EX 781 TU 737 11/17/07 *** I am not an attorney. If I was, I might not clip coupons. If you want legal advice, consult an attorney. If you want my personal opinion, feel free to consider my posts***
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