Increasing my Credit Score.

[Anonymous]

Hiyas, I am 21 yrs old and I recently got purchased a copy of my credit report and scores. My score has improved since my last check which is great. I've never missed a payment, ever and that good history is what is helping my score so much. I scored 573 on Transunion, 539 on Equifax, and 635 on Experian. Firstly can anyone tell me why my scores differ so much?? Now on my report I did find a $2,900.00 medical bill that wasn't supposed to be there. I contacted the company and mailed in the appropriate information to prove that I was not responsible for those charges. I am not sure how long it will take for this to be corrected on my report, buy my main concern is will it disappear from my report completely, or show paid. I assume it will help my score more to show paid, rather than falling off completely. And finally I am high on my credit card balance, so paying that down to about 10% is my goal. It's only 400 or so that I owe so that won't be tough. However I am wondering how many cards should I have. How many cards (if kept at low balances) are needed to give me a good score. I've read that having only 1 low limit card is hurtful to my score since it doesn't show lender confidence etc. If anyone can help answer my questions that'd be great. I really want to improve my score and keep a good score. I just can't seem to find out how many cards/loans is good and how many is too many.

[fused]

Hi and welcome to myfico forums! Please read the credit scoring 101 thread below and come back and fire away with your questions. Please be advised that I will be moving your post to the General Credit Issues Forum...you stand to gain more feedback there.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

fused

[SmartCookie]

If that medical bill is not yours, you need to dispute it to the CRAs 'not mine'.  It will look better paid, and even better deleted, but they cannot report it as paid or anything at all if it was not yours.

Never send in documents to prove something was not yours.  Things can get twisted, especially if you sent it to a CA.  Never speak to a CA on the phone... only CMRRR mail contact.

Keep the card reporting at UNDER 10%.

Yes, you should have a good card with a good limit.  Do your repair work first, then ask for a CLI on your current card and apply for a new and more prime card.

Read and post!

And welcome to the forum   

[Anonymous]

Well the medical bill was mine. The problem was I applied for charity care, was approved 100%, only to find out nearly a year later that the date on my charity care form was the day after my hopsital visit so none of my bills were covered. So I got everything corrected with the charity care office, now I just have to get the bills off of my credit report. I sent a copy of my charity care approval, now with the correct date to the collector (upon their request). So I should still dispute this online as well? Or should I wait to see if the collections agency will do anything (which they may not) before disputing.

[SmartCookie]

Again, never send in documents to a CA and don't discuss things verbally with them.

You need to see if you can fix this with the OC if they still own that debt that had the problem with the Charity billing.  That will make it much easier to have all of this removed from your CBRs.

If you can find that out it ASAP (tomorrow AM I guess) it will be helpful in figuring the easiest and best way to do this.