why wont my FICO score go up?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have been working hard trying to increase my FICO score. I had 4 collections deleted. My score is at 544 and won't budge. Right now i have 3 student loans all paid and up to date, one CC with a high util rate 96%, a charge off and a car payment that i have been paying on time for 7 months now. I know I need to pay down the credit card but thought the collection removal would have given me some boost? Any suggestions? i already tried to GW the charge off with no luck.  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Where are you getting these scores and how much time in between each personal inquiry are you giving?  

[pizzadude]

You are right that the revolving utilization is hurting your score ~ also you might consider opening another credit card account ~ FICO likes to see several open accounts.

Is the one CO the only negative account on your reports ?

[FrugalRican]

You might not see a boost until you get that CC down under 9% and that last CO taken off your report.

My suggestions:

(1) CC down, down, down! 96% is WAY too high.

(2) Get your official FICO score, if you haven't already. What score is the 544?
(3) Apply for another card, if you are unsure that you'd even get one (depending on your FICO score) then you might want to open a secured card. It'll help out that utilization a little as well.

(4) Continue, and DO NOT QUIT with the GW's.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

I have been working hard trying to increase my FICO score. I had 4 collections deleted. My score is at 544 and won't budge. Right now i have 3 student loans all paid and up to date, one CC with a high util rate 96%, a charge off and a car payment that i have been paying on time for 7 months now. I know I need to pay down the credit card but thought the collection removal would have given me some boost? Any suggestions? i already tried to GW the charge off with no luck.  Thanks!

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Unfortunately removing some of a group of collections usually has little effect on the score, unless you remove recent ones and keep only older ones, then it will have a little more.  Ultimately, the biggest increase doesn't come until the last collection is gone.  The utilization is definitely hammering your score.  My TU was around 580 in January.  I removed a few collctions that made virtually no differences.  However when I got my utilization down from ~90% to 1%, my score jumped from 580 to 630.  Utilization is a quick way to see a huge increase in your score for sure.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the replies. i do have a bankruptcy that is 4 years old and the charge off that is still reporting negative. The score i mentioned is My equifax FICO score from Score Watch.

[casmith1980]

if you haven't already, GW the last CO and work on the utilization of your CC.  Pizzadude is right about getting another CC....it will help with utilization as well (overall).

FICO score boosts require a lot of patience   just think of it this way "it took me years to screw up my credit, it will take years to get it right" LOL 

at least that's how I look at it

[Anonymous]

i know this is requiring a lot of patience. We have been renting for years and have to be out by July and do not want to rent again and keep moving, so i am on a time crunch. Starting to lose hope on a 640 by July! i wish i would have been more agressive months ago!

[FrugalRican]

If you were hoping to get a mortgage by the time you move out, you shouldn't be thinking about apping for anything new. You need 6 months app free before you go in there, so that rules out applying for new credit, which could technically lower your overall utilization, giving you a slight boost.

In other words, if you wanted your mid-score to be 640, it'd have to be by July and dealing with what you have right now.

I know it sucks to rent, but you might be better served by renting one more year and taking that year to straighten things out - If you see that that collection isn't going to budge.