Credit Score will not go up

[ldohve]

My husband and I are trying to buy a home. We have been working on this for at least a year. We had some medical accounts that went to collection and are on my husbands credit report. We paid every single one up as of Feb.. 2010. A year ago, the only positive was our car loan which we have had for a couple years. We have never missed a payment and always on time. So, our loan officer told us to get a credit card. On Jan. 2010 we got a credit card from our credit union with a limit of 200.00. After months with that, our credit score never went up. So, we were told to get another one in June. We got one from first premiere with a limit of 200.00. Still no help. We then got a revolving loan from our credit union and pay on time and never missed a payment. Still not a whole lot of improvement. With the credit cards we use them to fill the gas tank and then pay them off after they report to the credit bureau, one reports on the 14th and the other the first week of the month. We started with FICCO in June 2010. At that time my husbands credit score was 589 an it is now 600. We are just using my husbands credit score because mine has some issues. What can we do to get my husbands score up? We have done everything our loan officer said, but the score is not improving much.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Hi Idohve,

When you say that you paid the medical collections did you PFD or just pay them? If you did not PFD the amount of negatives is outweighing the positive. Try sending them GW letters.

Jeni

[JM-AM]

Only use 1 CC and leave the other with a 0 Balance. When you use that CC only leave $1.50 to report (<9%). Once it is reported on the statement and printed then pay in full as not to have interest. 

This will help your scores some as you will be keeping your UTIL down.

[MarineVietVet]

---

@ldohve wrote:

My husband and I are trying to buy a home. We have been working on this for at least a year. We had some medical accounts that went to collection and are on my husbands credit report. We paid every single one up as of Feb.. 2010. A year ago, the only positive was our car loan which we have had for a couple years. We have never missed a payment and always on time. So, our loan officer told us to get a credit card. On Jan. 2010 we got a credit card from our credit union with a limit of 200.00. After months with that, our credit score never went up. So, we were told to get another one in June. We got one from first premiere with a limit of 200.00. Still no help. We then got a revolving loan from our credit union and pay on time and never missed a payment. Still not a whole lot of improvement. With the credit cards we use them to fill the gas tank and then pay them off after they report to the credit bureau, one reports on the 14th and the other the first week of the month. We started with FICCO in June 2010. At that time my husbands credit score was 589 an it is now 600. We are just using my husbands credit score because mine has some issues. What can we do to get my husbands score up? We have done everything our loan officer said, but the score is not improving much.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

---

Hello and welcome to myFICO.

Revolving credit utilization is 30% of your total score and so it's very important to mange it correctly especially if you are trying to raise your score quickly. You say you don't miss a payment on your cards and you always pay in full and all that is good but the amount of utilization that is reported each month (both overall and for each individual revolving account) is calculated by what is reported on your statement.

For example if your credit limit is $200 and you make charges on the card during the month and the statement balance is $150 then your utilization on that card will be shown as 75% ($150/$200) which is very high. Having low utilization report each and every month is the key.

Here is an approach that seems to work for many people. No matter how many revolving accounts you have try (and I know it can't always be done each and every month) to have only one of your cards report a small (less than 9% of it's credit limit) on it's monthly statement and then PIF (Pay in full) before the due date to avoid any interest charges. On any other cards always have them report a zero balance on their statements. That doesn't mean you can't use them during the month it just means you need to time your payments so that the desired zero balance is achieved each month a few days before the statement posts.

Getting and keeping your uilization low is the fastest way to raise your score.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[ldohve]

Hi:

Thank you for the imformation. We were under the impression, from our lender, that we needed to use both cards each month. So, if we leave one card at a zero balance and keep the other one under 9% how long do you think it will take to go from 600 to 620 points? Our lender said we need to reach 620 before we can get a house loan.

Thank you for your help?

ldohve

[ldohve]

Hi Jeni,

I am new at this, so this may sound dumb, but what does PFD and GW stand for?

Thanks for your help.

ldohve

[JM-AM]

---

@ldohve wrote:

Hi Jeni,

I am new at this, so this may sound dumb, but what does PFD and GW stand for?

Thanks for your help.

ldohve

---

PFD = Pay for delete

GW = Good Will Letter

[BungalowMo]

Greetings Idohve!

PFD is Pay For Delete  and GW is short for what we call a Good Will letter.

If you have paid baddies on your reports, you want to write them a GW letter.  I always used this template below with great results:

Date

Your full name

Full street address

Good daytime ph# (cell is best...work # worst)

Re: acct # (this can be the acct # of the Collection agency (aka CA) or the original creditor (aka OC) whomever you're wrtiting to

Dear XXXXXX

I know you're a busy (wo)man, so I will be brief.  Back in (time frame of missed pmts) I was.....explain circumstances.

(these sections here -above & below- are short paragraphs. 2 or 3 sentences tops)

I was very relieved and proud of myself when I finally got this debt paid in full.... short mention of payment to them

Fast forward to today, I find myself in a much more responsible place and better financial situation.  I am finally financially able to

buy a home for myself and my family, but my past disgressions may be keeping me from making this a reality. 

So now I come to you with a favor.  It would mean so much if I could get these past bad notations removed from my reports early. 

I know it's asking a lot, but I have so learned the importance of taking care of my finances and I am, and have been up to date on

all of my accounts for (how long).

I want to thank you for your time and consideration rewgarding my request.

Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

Idohve

Change up the wording & keep it short, sincere & personalized to your situation.  I always search online for the CEO or CFO names of the companies & email them directly.  Best results I've ever had!!

Good luck & come back if you need a hand!

[MarineVietVet]

---

@ldohve wrote:

Hi:

Thank you for the imformation. We were under the impression, from our lender, that we needed to use both cards each month. So, if we leave one card at a zero balance and keep the other one under 9% how long do you think it will take to go from 600 to 620 points? Our lender said we need to reach 620 before we can get a house loan.

Thank you for your help?

ldohve

---

As I said you can use both cards as much as you want but only let one report a small balance. Your LO is less than correct in their advice if they mean let both report a balance.

What was the utilization reported last month? Both overall and individual.

Here is a handy list of Abbreviations.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the information. We were under the impression, from our lender, that we needed to use both cards each month. So, if we leave one card at a zero balance and keep the other one under 9% how long do you think it will take to go from 600 to 620 points? Our lender said we need to reach 620 before we can get a house loan.

---

As you will quickly learn, most lenders don't know anything about FICO scores or how to improve them. These people here will help you, just listen to them. My score just raised 52 points this week be GW'ing (good will letter) from a medical collections. Go me!

Seriously, I had quite a few lenders try and tell me what was bringing my score down but they were wrong. These myFICO people are the best!

Good luck. You're on the right page. Be patient and it will get better.

Jeni