Reached a Dead End

[Anonymous]

Been working on rebuilding my credit for about 3 years now and have successfully removed all remains of badness...  Here is what I got:

1. 13 Cards most with low credit lines (300-400)

2. Approx 50% utilization

3. Avg of 662 score across all 4 bureaus 

I tried to run different scenarios through the FreeScore "if-then" calculator and learned that the most impact I will get is by paying off my cards but even then I will be in the 690-699 area (tried adding aging to my accounts as well but that did not help either).  In fact, I only need to Pay off $1500 worth of debt to get bumped to 699 but the big question is "now what?"...

So, with that in mind, I went to a free consltation at a local credit repair/coaching service that is "supposed to know" and here is what they pointed out:

1. Fix personal information (there are some inaccuracies and 3 reports do not match)

2. Remove / dispute inquiries (currently Equifax x 5, Experien x 11, Transunion x 6)

3. Obtain an "Installment loan" to diversify credit profile

Any thoughts on these suggestions?  Can you see anything else I should be doing?

[2NE1]

You have 13 CCs and they're all low limit toy cards? 

How long have you had them? why haven't you asked for credit limit increases? 

[drkaje]

I'd dispute or remove anything inaccurate.

Those "what if?" predictors tend to not be very predictive.

Building credit is done long term. You already have 13 accounts so opening more doesn't really make a lot of sense (IMO).

My guess at what's holding down your score is too many inquiries, having 13 youngish accounts, multiple accounts reporting balances at the same time, and utilization over 50%. Only way to fix that is start paying down the balances strategically. Basically paying them down/off before the statement posts so the lower balance can be reported. The scoring system hates to see multiple cards with balances and high utilization.

If asking for CLIs, be sure some of those cards have reported $0, and hope no hard pulls are involved.

Fixing your credit history took 3 years. Fixing your score and credit itself will take time, too.

[RobertEG]

"Remove/dispute inquiries" is usually a fruitless pursuit.  To dispute an inquiry requires a showing of lack of permissible purpose on the part of the inquiree.

The CRAs always obtain a statement of permissible purpose prior to providing a CR, so they are pretty much "in the clear."  To challenge the inquiry requires the consumer to know both the provided permissible purpose asserted to the CRA, and to show that it is inaccurate.

If you wish to pursue disputes of credit report inquiries, you cannot dispute directly with the inquiree, as direct disputes relating to inquiries are specfically exempt from the direct dispute process.  Thus, you must dispute through the CRA.  Having a self-certified, stated permissible purpose in their files, they routinely verify.