Hi I have just joined this great forum. I have read all of the stickies in this forum and am ready to get started. Here is my story.
I refi-ed my house and I had a credit score of 705. I just applied for another loan and it went down to 680! My mortgage lender stated it had dropped alot due to a $70 collection from a light company. He also stated that I had high util. This was 1.5 months ago. I then took it apon myself to raise my credit score. I payed off 2 credit cards, 1 being Sears(over 10yrs history) and 1 being a Visa(6+yrs history) and I paid down a MC that I was close to the limit. It has a 3500 limit and I had 3400 on it. I paid $1000 on it and I paid $1000 on my discover (7000 limit 1200 on it). I also paid down my Lowes and HomeDepot(5000 limit with 3800on it). Thinking I did good my score is now at 630!
I thought I knew what I was doing but when I found out my score was 630 last week I started looking for help. I almost paid a credit restore company out of desperation. I then stumbled on to this forum and in a short time I have learned a lot. Have a couple of ?s.
1. Should I move some debt around, 1000 from my MC to my Discover, 1000 from my Home Depot to my Discover to lower my Util?
2. Can I reopen the 2 cards I closed and recover my history and accounts?
3. Should I challenge all hard credit pulls in the last 6 months?
Plenty more ?s to come in my great FICO journey.
Thanks in advanced