Stuck at 650 four years after BK

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2015

I've been steadily rebuilding my credit post my CH 7 discharge in Jan 2012 (filed Oct 2011), but I've been stuck at 650-658 for almost 2 years and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. This is a brief overview of my credit profile:

•Perfect payment history post BK.

•Baddies: 2 judgements and 1 collection account, all discharged in the Oct 2011 BK.

•7 inquiries on my report, 4 of them were in the last year.

•Oldest open account (Cap1 - CL 6750) is from 2012, the rest (Barclay Rewards WMC - CL 2000, Apple Rewards - CL 7000, Walmart - CL 600, Amazon - CL 2000) were opened between 2013-2014. I think my avg account age right now is 1yr and 5months.

•I bought a car in 2014, then refinanced my Cap1 auto loan about 6mo after with my CU at 2%.

•In total - a little over 18K in revolving credit, personal loan for 3K that I paid off recently, and my car loan 13K.

I PIF for all of my cards every month, except for the Amazon + Apple which I have a 6 month promo APR of 0% on. The balances on those 2 cards are still under 15% of their total limit though. My overall utlilzation hovers around 11% and never goes above 30%. I have one card which I use pretty heavily, at times above 30% of it's total CL, and I'm wondering if that utilization might be hurting me even though I pay it in full each month? I just rolled part of my other Barclay card's balance to that card yesterday to see if a higher limit will have any effect on my score ... At this point I'm not sure what else I can/should do. I would like to expand my credit mix since I just paid off my personal loan, but I'm afraid any more inquiries will pull my score down.

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
I've been steadily rebuilding my credit post my CH 7 discharge in Jan 2012 (filed Oct 2011), but I've been stuck at 650-658 for almost 2 years and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. This is a brief overview of my credit profile:

•Perfect payment history post BK.

•Baddies: 2 judgements and 1 collection account, all discharged in the Oct 2011 BK.

•7 inquiries on my report, 4 of them were in the last year.

•Oldest open account (Cap1 - CL 6750) is from 2012, the rest (Barclay Rewards WMC - CL 2000, Apple Rewards - CL 7000, Walmart - CL 600, Amazon - CL 2000) were opened between 2013-2014. I think my avg account age right now is 1yr and 5months.

•I bought a car in 2014, then refinanced my Cap1 auto loan about 6mo after with my CU at 2%.

•In total - a little over 18K in revolving credit, personal loan for 3K that I paid off recently, and my car loan 13K.

I PIF for all of my cards every month, except for the Amazon + Apple which I have a 6 month promo APR of 0% on. The balances on those 2 cards are still under 15% of their total limit though. My overall utlilzation hovers around 11% and never goes above 30%. I have one card which I use pretty heavily, at times above 30% of it's total CL, and I'm wondering if that utilization might be hurting me even though I pay it in full each month? I just rolled part of my other Barclay card's balance to that card yesterday to see if a higher limit will have any effect on my score ... At this point I'm not sure what else I can/should do. I would like to expand my credit mix since I just paid off my personal loan, but I'm afraid any more inquiries will pull my score down.

You might be getting dinged for multiple cards carrying a balance - theres no clear line on how that is defined, but its clear that more accounts does allow more cards with a balance. Try to shoot for optimum UTI (only one balance of less than 10%) and see what happens. It also looks like you opened the 2nd, and 3rd accounts a bit later than is optimal - that may be what slowing down your score growth. I think some of the newer accounts just need to age. Your credit mix is fine I think, its just some of your accounts are still pretty new.

I'm not certain, but I believe the judgements should have been vacated with the BK....You might ask in the BK forum.

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
You might be getting dinged for multiple cards carrying a balance - theres no clear line on how that is defined, but its clear that more accounts does allow more cards with a balance. Try to shoot for optimum UTI (only one balance of less than 10%) and see what happens. It also looks like you opened the 2nd, and 3rd accounts a bit later than is optimal - that may be what slowing down your score growth. I think some of the newer accounts just need to age. Your credit mix is fine I think, its just some of your accounts are still pretty new.

I'm not certain, but I believe the judgements should have been vacated with the BK....You might ask in the BK forum.

Thanks for the RE Norman, interesting ... I had no clue about being able to vacate those judgements! I filed in NJ and apparently you have to file an additional motion a year after your discharge in order to vacate, which is gonna be tricky because I don't live in the state anymore ... but I will look into getting it done ASAP. Hopefully raising my balance on that one card will help bring my UTI down. I keep thinking 'well I only have 2 cards carrying low balances, that can't hurt' but you're right, considering I only have 5 cards right now, 2 does seem high as far as multiple balances go. The Amazon will be paid off next month so that will leave only 1 card with a balance right at 10%.

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
You might be getting dinged for multiple cards carrying a balance - theres no clear line on how that is defined, but its clear that more accounts does allow more cards with a balance. Try to shoot for optimum UTI (only one balance of less than 10%) and see what happens. It also looks like you opened the 2nd, and 3rd accounts a bit later than is optimal - that may be what slowing down your score growth. I think some of the newer accounts just need to age. Your credit mix is fine I think, its just some of your accounts are still pretty new.

I'm not certain, but I believe the judgements should have been vacated with the BK....You might ask in the BK forum.
Thanks for the RE Norman, interesting ... I had no clue about being able to vacate those judgements! I filed in NJ and apparently you have to file an additional motion a year after your discharge in order to vacate, which is gonna be tricky because I don't live in the state anymore ... but I will look into getting it done ASAP. Hopefully raising my balance on that one card will help bring my UTI down. I keep thinking 'well I only have 2 cards carrying low balances, that can't hurt' but you're right, considering I only have 5 cards right now, 2 does seem high as far as multiple balances go. The Amazon will be paid off next month so that will leave only 1 card with a balance right at 10%.

Be sure to let us know what happens when they update.

Anonymous · ‎09-20-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
You might be getting dinged for multiple cards carrying a balance - theres no clear line on how that is defined, but its clear that more accounts does allow more cards with a balance. Try to shoot for optimum UTI (only one balance of less than 10%) and see what happens. It also looks like you opened the 2nd, and 3rd accounts a bit later than is optimal - that may be what slowing down your score growth. I think some of the newer accounts just need to age. Your credit mix is fine I think, its just some of your accounts are still pretty new.

I'm not certain, but I believe the judgements should have been vacated with the BK....You might ask in the BK forum.
Thanks for the RE Norman, interesting ... I had no clue about being able to vacate those judgements! I filed in NJ and apparently you have to file an additional motion a year after your discharge in order to vacate, which is gonna be tricky because I don't live in the state anymore ... but I will look into getting it done ASAP. Hopefully raising my balance on that one card will help bring my UTI down. I keep thinking 'well I only have 2 cards carrying low balances, that can't hurt' but you're right, considering I only have 5 cards right now, 2 does seem high as far as multiple balances go. The Amazon will be paid off next month so that will leave only 1 card with a balance right at 10%.
Be sure to let us know what happens when they update.

Will do!