@newkidontheblock wrote:I am trying to get to 700 but for some reason I am missing the mark. I have 4 cards Credit Care - $1000/ Elan - secured $300 / HSN - $4000 / Capital One Quick Silver $3500 I ran up my Capital almost to the max with my husbands funeral in 2/2015, but I paid all of my cards off then my EQ shot up 17 pts. Then I got a bill for $48 interest on the Capital One so I paid that off, now EQ droped 18 pts. My report shows 11 collections With EX; 5 of these with TU and 4 with EQ but I have paid all of them off. I have no inquires and I pay all my bills ahead of time so there are no lates. As of today EQ 678 TU 648 EX 640. I need to buy a car (my baby is 16 yrs old with 234400 mi). I am trying to do every thing that I know to do and my scores seem to be going in the wrong directions. What am I missing ??? Also when can I ask ELAN to switch me over to unsecured?
Sorry to hear about your DH passing. That causes stress and bills.
You've really only got one credit card, the Capital One Quicksilver. If you want to get a car, I'd suggest going to your local Credit Union, starting a relationship with them, and you'll likely get reasonable rates. What you don't want to do is go to the dealers without financing already lined up from one certain source. The dealer will want to "shop" your loan, which means you could end up with dozens of INQ on your file. There are several recent reports here of that happening. The dealer is motivated by trying to get a financing bonus, and could care less what happens to your credit score in the process.
I'd keep the non-Capital One items out of circulation, use the Quicksilver reasonably for daily spend items, let the balance report on the statement, then pay in full. I would not limit use to 10% of the balance. If you get a car loan from a CU, that will add a term loan to your credit mix, and after it ages a few months, you'll start to see an improvement in your scores from that.
Aging the baddies and getting them to fall off is, unfortunately, the long term solution to the score issues.
Good luck!
@jamie123 wrote:
@newkidontheblock wrote:
You need to groom your scores to achieve the highest scores that you are capable of getting. You want 1 card reporting a small balance of less than 10% of its credit line and all the other cards reporting $0. If you pay all your cards to $0 your scores will actually drop.
In my case the difference of one card reporting a small balance versus all cards reporting $0 is 18 points!
Your scores won't truly rise above say 730 until your collections have dropped off no matter how good the rest of your report looks. Look at my scores in my siggy. My EX report is clean. My EQ and TU each have 1 baddie. You can see how much 1 baddie can keep your scores down.
What is the overall utilization difference between having all cards report and only 1 reporting? If the utilization dropped a lot, that would add points to your file regardless of number of cards reporting. If you have baddies, what is the timing of those compared to this 18 point score difference, and which direction was the score difference?
@jamie123 wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
@jamie123 wrote:
@newkidontheblock wrote:
You need to groom your scores to achieve the highest scores that you are capable of getting. You want 1 card reporting a small balance of less than 10% of its credit line and all the other cards reporting $0. If you pay all your cards to $0 your scores will actually drop.
In my case the difference of one card reporting a small balance versus all cards reporting $0 is 18 points!
Your scores won't truly rise above say 730 until your collections have dropped off no matter how good the rest of your report looks. Look at my scores in my siggy. My EX report is clean. My EQ and TU each have 1 baddie. You can see how much 1 baddie can keep your scores down.
What is the overall utilization difference between having all cards report and only 1 reporting? If the utilization dropped a lot, that would add points to your file regardless of number of cards reporting. If you have baddies, what is the timing of those compared to this 18 point score difference, and which direction was the score difference?
I'm sorry, perhaps I could have been a bit more clear.
In my case:
1 card reporting $387 of $6K card credit line(6%), total UTI is 1% = EQ 705
All credit cards reporting ZERO $ = EQ 687
I have 1 unpaid tax lien on EQ and TU from 2005. My EX is clean.
All scores are in my siggy.
Ah, ok, yes, all cards reporting $0 I could see leading to an 18 point drop.
@newkidontheblock wrote:I think I understand. I've been at this since 2007 for my husband and and I'm determined to raise my scores.
1. 5-7-15 EQ 678 - 1 account Capitol ($3386- 0) decreased by 100%, score up to 685
2. 6-18-15 EQ 685 - 1 account Capitol ($48-0 interest) decreased by 100% score droped to 668 You are working against several baddies in your file, so for the time being, you will be in this range of scores. Don't worry too much about it. Just keep working on getting the file improved, and eventually things will start to score better.
3. I should keep my UTI between 1% and 5% which would be $35.00 to $175 per month meaning purchase and let show on the statement then pay it off I think this is not necessary. Use the CapOne card normally and pay by the payment due date shown on the statement.
4. Apply for an account at a Credit union which means they are going to do a hard inquiry when they pull my credit report Yes, a HP, however you then start building another real credit card, which will help in the long run. The impact from the Inquiry will be only short term.
5. I intend to challenge all collections (medical) on all 3 CAs which show update range from 2010 to 2015
6. Should I try to change secured ELAN VISA (Tri Counties Bank) $300 CL to unsecured? Sure, yes. Always worth asking.
7. I'm sorry I could not find out what siggy means? Siggy = Signature. In your My Settings link from MyFICO, there is a box to input your Personal Information and that displays on the bottom of each of your posts.
8. My plan is to get my husband's 3 credit reports then cancel payments for the FICO Score Watch and submit a statement of his death 2-6-15 or should I send a Death Cert then freeze his accounts? Do I send it to FICO or each indivdual CR -EQ, TU and EX? Someone else willneed to answer this one, or search for related posts.