Fico go up. Fico go down. Raise me UP!

[Outdoorstech1]

Via my Discover IT Card.. My Fico was 644 in April. Then it went to 636 in May. 637 in June now its 649 for July. Since then keeping my cards at a low to zero balance and 

keeping my discover IT card at around $90 a month so I can report a low uti for it. 

If I keep all my cards (in my signature below) at a zero balance and just use one card and pay it off etc will this keep increasing my FICO as the months move on, OR will I be stuck at a low number due to some negaive accounts on my CR from a few years ago. I am currently working on getting them taken care of. (To active collections)

[Anonymous]

In my experience for my CR file the scores creeped up ever so slowly (too slow for me). As the baddies fell off or were removed my score would increase more rapidly. Some where I read credit is not a race and I would have to say patience is tough but is required.

[CreditDunce]

Optimizing your utilization will optimize your score.  But there are no bonus points for keeping your utilization optimized over long periods of time.  Unless you need to apply for something or just need the encouragement to see how high your score is climbing, there is no benefit doing it every month.

[Revelate]

Everyone is sorted into buckets: as near as we can tell, there's maximum and minimum boundaries to each bucket.

I got nice pretty increases in my score for about a year after starting to build (with many derogs) but then I pretty much flatlined in year 2 for long stretches.  Eventually the combination of a few things coming off, some additional positive history, and eventually an AAOA change, improved it... but I'm still not over 700 on a EQ '04 score.

I may get above 700 eventually, but it's very unlikely I make 720 on a mortgage score which I hold as my personal benchmark.  On the flipside when my lien and collection fall off I likely go straight to 780 with the history I'll have in 2018, so while I'm not worried in the long-run, in the short-term it's a little fustruating and I'm better than most people at taking a long-term view... and right or wrong that's absolutely what's required.

[Outdoorstech1]

Good info guys, thanks.  I can't wait to have all my derogs off my report and everyting squeeky clean and build build build.  #Goals

[Anonymous]

It took me from 2001 BK to 2010 for my scores to break 800. Revelate's experiences were similar to mine. Many flat spots in score recovery.