Help raising husband's score.....

[Anonymous]

Hello again!  I am now trying to get my husband on the right track.  He has two items showing as collections.  One is paid and we have called asking for it to be deleted and we're waiting for an answer.  The second is showing as unknown, so we're getting on that tomorrow.  His biggest problem is our Home Equity LOC.  It is maxed out at $55k.  The only other credit he has open is a BBT card with $0 balance and $6500 limit, a Best Buy card with $0 balance and $600 limit, a Sheffield Installment Loan with $3174 balance and $4435 limit, a CareCredit card with $0 balance and $3000 limit.  What can we do to maximize his score?  The bank made him close the cards he paid off, and I'm assuming that hurt.  His score right now is 640.

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello again!  I am now trying to get my husband on the right track.  He has two items showing as collections.  One is paid and we have called asking for it to be deleted and we're waiting for an answer.  The second is showing as unknown, so we're getting on that tomorrow.  His biggest problem is our Home Equity LOC.  It is maxed out at $55k.  The only other credit he has open is a BBT card with $0 balance and $6500 limit, a Best Buy card with $0 balance and $600 limit, a Sheffield Installment Loan with $3174 balance and $4435 limit, a CareCredit card with $0 balance and $3000 limit.  What can we do to maximize his score?  The bank made him close the cards he paid off, and I'm assuming that hurt.  His score right now is 640.

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You have 2 choices pay down the HLOC or obtain more credit cards, the utilization of that LOC is killing you especially since its maxed out, getting it to 89% of its CL will get you some points anything 90% or greater is a big fico hit

[newstart2010]

Yeah paying down you lines are the best option right now aside from the collection.  Continue to pay on those as much as possible while investigating and working on the collection.  Once those are gone then apply for another credit line, or just pay off large chunks of the lines you have now.  Don't close anymore cards.  just put them in ice.

[Pway]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello again!  I am now trying to get my husband on the right track.  He has two items showing as collections.  His two collections accounts are causing his score to take a dip.  One is paid and we have called asking for it to be deleted and we're waiting for an answer.  The second is showing as unknown, so we're getting on that tomorrow.  His biggest problem is our Home Equity LOC.  It is maxed out at $55k.  HELOC is reporting as maxed out, another reason this could cause a dip in his scores.  The only other credit he has open is a BBT card with $0 balance and $6500 limit, a Best Buy card with $0 balance and $600 limit, a Sheffield Installment Loan with $3174 balance and $4435 limit,  (High utilization on this account as well) a CareCredit card with $0 balance and $3000 limit.  What can we do to maximize his score?  The bank made him close the cards he paid off, and I'm assuming that hurt.  His available credit has decreased since he was forced to close out one of his credit cards.  His score right now is 640.  I personally would work on getting those accounts paid down and watch his scores improve that way, and getting those collections accounts updated.  Good luck and I hope this helps.

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[RobertEG]

Installment loans do not have a % util, they have an amount remaining of the orig loan.

That is not included in your % util of revolving, and has a minor effect on your score.

Additionally, while the HLOC is a revolving line of credit, FICO scores HLOCs above a certain value, which I recall is approx 35K, under installment rather than revolving.

That may reduce the concern over the high balance on the HLOC.

Priority might be, after determinig the legitimacy of the unpaid collection, to put immediate funds into a PFD on that collection rather than into the HLOC.