Is my score gonna climb or stay where it is at?

[Anonymous]

Did my credit score hit its plateau based on whats in my credit report? Only upcoming change to my report is when my new Amex starts reporting which increases my avail credit to about $8k total from $7k total. Im done having inquiries for the time being until i decide to refinance my car. I iced a couple of cards for a while now (wont let them go inactive, but have been several months since used). Ive been using my venture one card for all charges and pay on it so when my last statement cut it only showed $15. Needless to say thats <1% Utilization. When it reports on the 22nd it will be $0 and i wont have any revolving balances reporting until amex reports. So am i basically looking at very very small increases credit score wise every once in a while as my cards age and my auto loan principal goes down and my baddies age off my report? Feels like im at a plateau after bumping my scores like 100 pts in the past 6 months.... Any info about if im doing something wrong or could be doing something better to get closer to that 700 precipice would greatly be appreciated!!! Thanks =)

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When it reports on the 22nd it will be $0 and i wont have any revolving balances reporting until amex reports.

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Why would you let it report $0 and have 0% UTIL across the board? Having a 0% UTIL can lower your score - you need to ensure that one of your cards reports a 1-10% UTIL when the statement is cut. You said it yourself, you have made some big score jumps and now it's going to be going up very slowly, reporting a 0% UTIL will most likely hurt your score.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm. i didnt think having 0% was bad. So i guess ill make a purchase before the statement cuts. But, i mean, thanks for helping me not lose points, but i take it that its not gonna continue to build any correct? 

[EW800]

I agree that you need to have at least one revolving account report a small balance. I recently had all cards report $0 for a few days and took an 10 to 15 or so point hit to each report. Thankfully, as soon as another card began to report I got all points back.

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hmmm. i didnt think having 0% was bad. So i guess ill make a purchase before the statement cuts. But, i mean, thanks for helping me not lose points, but i take it that its not gonna continue to build any correct? 

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It depends, is there anything left on your report to "fix"?

--Payment History: do you have any late payments, any judgements, anything missed payments, any anything at all in this realm?

--Utililizastion: if you are already below 10% and have been for some you're not going to gain anything big here. Your only potential in terms of large scroe changes here is negative changes i.e. raise your UTIL too high and you'll start loosing points; have your UTIL at 0%, again, loosing points

--Installment Loans: do you have any? Installment loans help your score becuase it adds diversification to your credit profile. And, no, you don't want to get an installment loan, just to gain points (although some have gone this far - if you could get a 0% interest loan for say 6 months it could help, but this is going a bit far in my opinion)

---don't apply for any new credit as you will get credit inquiries and thy will hurt your score (this is not black and white though, if you have very little credit then you may want to consider getting additional credit now, it will hurt you now but it will help in the future, some may say different on here but ask them home much credit them have My approach was to get 6 high quality cards (Barclays, AMEX, Discover, a Credit Union card, etc) and then let them start to age (see next point)

---AAoA: Average Age of Accounts - important, you need to have a good, long history and every new card you get brings that long history down, it pulls your average age down. Again, I felt that I would just do a spree for 5 or 6 high quality cards and then no more applying. For AAoA - you can only hurt yourself by adding new cards

So if there is nothing much you can do in the above points then the only thing is time, over time, you will gain AAoA, you will gain more good payment history, and you will gain points

[Anonymous]

Payment History: I do have a couple charge offs. Tried disputing to no avail. So i have about 2 more years on those but i fugure the damage has already been done. Nothing left but to age off which ive read wont give me a huge advantage score wise when they are gone. Only exception to this is a collection that will come off next year that was put on less then 3 years ago. Since it didnt age 7 years and will come off only 4 years after originally on, i do hope to see a little point increase there.

Utilization: I dont spend what i dont have in the bank. I will make sure to not let anything report completely ZERO (on one card), but i def wont run up a reported CC bill.

Installment Loan: I have a car balance at 5.99% for almost a year now. Im at $18,174/ 20,700ish. Obviously as i bring that principal balance down my score will slowly creep up. I definatley wont be taking out any other installment loans unless its a auto refinance when i can at LEAST get a 3.99% APR. Otherwise my next loan is a mortgage. Which by then my credit score wont be AS important to consistently work on as hard as i am now.

Inquiries: Besides for when i decide to shop for refi, im done applying for credit. I reached my goal of having an AMEX. Gardening all my cards for now. Surprisingly even with 8 accounts in good standing, i didnt lose any points on EX.

AAoA: Work in progress obviosuly. Ill be happy to see my charge offs go away, but it will also lower my AAoA when they do go afaik. WOMP WOMP

Time and patience it is. I was hoping to have a score in the 700s by mid 2016 or early 2017. 

Currently Im TU 665  EQ 659  EX 659. All are Fico 8. 

I didnt bother with credit for years when i messed it up (2010ish). Got a Wells Secured card in 2/2014 ( No idea what my score was). Approved for auto loan with cosigner in July 2014 (Dont remember my score). Applied for Cap1 in 2/2015 and approved. (My score around that time on EX was 580ish. So im happy with my progress since then. Now comes the waiting game i suppose. 

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Payment History: I do have a couple charge offs. Tried disputing to no avail. So i have about 2 more years on those but i fugure the damage has already been done. Nothing left but to age off which ive read wont give me a huge advantage score wise when they are gone.

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 Not so fast JohhnyBoy, why are you giving up on the CO's? First, are all the CO's fully paid off? Second, there are loads of people who have been given GW Removal of CO's, why would you give up, it takes very little effort relative to the reward. The CO's are the only thing you can take action on right now that will bring your score up, depending on how old they are.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/GW-letter-Q-amp-A-Examples-and-GW-Success-Stories/td-p/1573680

[Anonymous]

Well to embarassingly say, they are not paid off. The collection letters that are still sent to my parents house in NY want such a ridiculous amount of money.  I have Discover and Capital One charged off. Both still show amounts on my credit report, they were both assigned to the same debt collector attorney with both having a judgement against me. They started garnishing wages. Capital One was apparently first in line, and the balance went from about $2k and now sits at about $1150. Discover lists at about $1950. My mom told me that in the letter i owe about $3500 all said and done to the Discover collection and would settle for like $2100. I have no clue about the Cap1 though. NOW..... for some odd reason, the garnishment has suddenly stopped, and i have no clue as to why. And although id like to settle these debts best to my ability, i dont want to poke a hornets nest at this point unless i could pay off what they wanted, which again doesnt work for me. And as for the most recent collection, they say i owe Verizon money, which i was damn sure i didnt, and apparently its up to me to prove. Like god forbid they showed me a balance of how and why i owed this money via a statement from Verizon. So they can shove off for all i care. Dont just tell me i owe you money when i have no knowledge or proof to say i do. 

[tufa4311]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And as for the most recent collection, they say i owe Verizon money, which i was damn sure i didnt, and apparently its up to me to prove. Like god forbid they showed me a balance of how and why i owed this money via a statement from Verizon. So they can shove off for all i care. Dont just tell me i owe you money when i have no knowledge or proof to say i do. 

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Send a DV letter under FDCPA 809(b) which entitles you to be given the name and address of the original creditor, along with verification of the debt. But, read this first as there are things to consider. For ex, if it's still with the SOL of your state you could trigger a judgment which could lead to more garnishments.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Debt-Validation-Sample-Letter/m-p/3436265#U3436265