topic Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 20:41:49 GMT

Long story short, I've hit a point in my life now where I'm 100% debt free for the 2nd time in my life (did it about 6 years ago at 25 yrs old during my time in the military, went from 400 to 720ish). I rotate CC cards out every month, just for utilization [ and points ], and I pay off balances every month. It seems, no matter what I do, I simply get stuck around the 730 mark or lower, and I never climb. Did an experiment where I took out a personal loan and paid it off really fast, no dice, like maybe 2-3 point movement, don't even know if it was the loan that did it.

Feels like I've hit an invisible wall or plateau. Only have 7 hard inquiries within the past 2 years, 3 of them in the past 12 months. What moves do I need to make to start seeing my score climb again?

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 20:48:39 GMT

Easy to answer if you can give us the following data points:

List all your credit card individually along with current balances and limits on each
List all your OPEN installment loans including current balance and original balance
List the age of your oldest account on your credit report (open or closed but NOT an AU)
List your average age of accounts in months or years/months.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:31:06 GMT

Alright, gonna post it parts (slow comp at work), have to do this in sections .

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 21:36:50 GMT

No worries, we're all patient. We have to be when building better credit, lol.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 22:00:58 GMT

Data Points Current score 730

NFCU Bal $50.00 Credit Limit $15,000

Iberia Bal $0.00 Credit Limit $ 7,500

VA Loan @ 3.25 30 Year fixed Orig.$ 157,500 Owe $147,000 Owned 2 years

Hyundai Finance Car loan Paid $20,500 Aug 2016 Owe $14,400 as of Dec 2017

Oldest Account June 2004

Average Age Approx 5 years.

Ch7 settled July 2012 (Hurricane ate house, Insurance company BK)Reinstated evrerything except house, Chase Card, & USAA second Mortgage. No late or misses since April of 2012

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 22:10:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Data Points Current score 730
NFCU Bal $50.00 Credit Limit $15,000
Iberia Bal $0.00 Credit Limit $ 7,500
@Anonymous Loan @ 3.25 30 Year fixed Orig.$ 157,500 Owe $147,000 Owned 2 years
Hyundai Finance Car loan Paid $20,500 Aug 2016 Owe $14,400 as of Dec 2017
Oldest Account June 2004
Average Age Approx 5 years.
Ch7 settled July 2012 (Hurricane ate house, Insurance company BK)Reinstated evrerything except house, Chase Card, & USAA second Mortgage. No late or misses since April of 2012

Balances are fine, I bet you'll see a small bump when that mortgage gets below 88.9% left to pay. Auto loan might be holding you back a sliver but probably nothing crazy.

The CH7 if reporting is hurting you. Public records tend to hurt for as much as 90 points for the full 7 years reporting, and I think Ch7 reports for 10 years? Either way, a public record typically caps people at 760 if everything else is PERFECT.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 01:27:34 GMT

Phil, nice thread hijack dork . Ok I'm home now on my main rig, Data Points

Credit Cards, all accounts Current (I would list all my closed accounts but they're all paid off and were closed years ago so idk ).
AMEX Balance $0 Credit Limit: $1,200 May 2013
AMEX Balance $85 Credit Limit: $8,000 Sep 2015
BARCLAYS $270 Credit Limit: $10,000 Dec 2016
CAPITALONE $0 Credit Limit: $10,000 Sep 2015
CHASE CARD $0 Credit Limit: $14,100 Jan 2010
CHASE CARD $0 Credit Limit $500 May 2016
CHASE CARD $0 Credit Limit: $2,100 Sep 2015
CITI $3 Credit Limit: $9,000 Jan 2017
CITI $0 Credit Limit: $10,100 Aug 2008
DISCOVER $0 Credit Limit: $10,500 Sep 2008
NFCU $0 Credit Limit: $18,000 Nov 2013
PFCU $0 Credit Limit: $12,000 Sep 2016
Store Card $0 Credit Limit: $2,500 Sep 2016
Store Card $0 Credit Limit $1,200 Oct 2015
USAA $21 Credit Limit $11,500 Mar 2009
USAA $0 Credit Limit $3,500 Mar 2017

Negative Info:

Collections ~$900from 2014 (They're not getting a penny from me. Tried to settle with cash IRL for 100%, OC said account out of their hands. I have enough hard evidence to trounce the collectors in court and come out with a profit, if they so choose to take it to there, CFPB violations through the roof. Bring it. )

Hmm, forgot about this until I typed it. Could be affecting me but my score has been climbing in spite of this so Idk how much damage this 1 3.5 year old negative is doing. Paying it off won't make it disappear until the 7 year mark so it is what it is.

Hard Inquiries: 7 (4 in 2016, 3 this year 2017 )

Never had a mortgage, don't have any loans that aren't paid. Is lack of a mortgage a big deal?

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 01:42:16 GMT

Your CC usage is impressive as heck!

The lack of an installment loan hurts you -- I would do the Alliant SSL technique (it's in my 11 rules thread in my signature link) which may boost your scores as much as 30-35 points and it will literally cost you a few dollars TOTAL for 5 years of stellar perfect reporting.

The collection is killing your score overall, unfortunately. It's as bad as a chargeoff usually, not as bad as a foreclosure or bankruptcy. Probably will continue to ding your score for 60-70 points until it ages off. So 850-60 = 790 might be your maximum score going forward until that goes away.

If you do the Alliant SSL, I bet you go to mid-700s right as soon as it reports. Paying that collection will have zero effect on score unless they delete it.

Once you age those oldest accounts a little bit more, you'll be in range for 850 scores assuming that collection goes away, your utilization stays low and you have that Alliant SSL reporting always.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 03:29:16 GMT

Thanks for the compliments . It took about 13 years to get to this point. I literally stopped paying all my bills when I was 18 when I lost my job, so building credit was kind of like climbing out of a dirt hole with toothpicks, but here we are. Alot has changed strategy-wise (No more Orchard Bank lol ? ). I'm gonna read up on the Alliant SSL. Was planning on buying a car, so I might use this purchase for this exact purpose. Thanks ABCD .

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

arkane — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 06:27:16 GMT

@slayerbizkit wrote:
Phil, nice thread hijack dork .
**bleep** didn't even notice. Yeah that wasn't cool. :/

Negative Info:
Collections ~$900from 2014 (They're not getting a penny from me. Tried to settle with cash IRL for 100%, OC said account out of their hands. I have enough hard evidence to trounce the collectors in court and come out with a profit, if they so choose to take it to there, CFPB violations through the roof. Bring it. )

Hmm, forgot about this until I typed it. Could be affecting me but my score has been climbing in spite of this so Idk how much damage this 1 3.5 year old negative is doing. Paying it off won't make it disappear until the 7 year mark so it is what it is.

Hard Inquiries: 7 (4 in 2016, 3 this year 2017 )

Never had a mortgage, don't have any loans that aren't paid. Is lack of a mortgage a big deal?

Would it not make more sense to just take them to court and turn a profit, and potentially get that collections record removed as well? I'd like to think if there were CFPB violations out the wazoo, you should have some recourse.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 06:57:19 GMT

@arkane it's cool man

The collection is already past SOL by about a year for the state it occurred in. I'm afraid any new contact initiated by me might give them a way to reset the clock. The smoking gun CFBV violation would be them contacting me beyond the SOL, but they're not that dumb unfortunately . I already moved out of that state and have a new job elsewhere. As much as I want to dish out pain, It's not worth it for me to fly out there, rent a place, and put my life/new job on hold for a quick buck. Priorities =\ . If somehow, fate brings us back together in the same state, I would be more than motivated to drag them through the coals.

Edit: Actually, you have a point. There's nothing for me to lose. If I sue them, can they be forced to come to MY state? That would be ideal.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

arkane — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 07:01:00 GMT

I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to answer that question, so I'm just gonna go with "consult with an attorney experienced in financial cases".

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 13:58:24 GMT

The simple answer to the question and thread title by the OP here is to get all negative information removed from your credit report. With the presence of a major baddie, an 800 score is impossible; 770 is about the best someone can do if their profile is otherwise perfect outside of a major negative. That being said, if you were to employ the SSL technique you could probably get your score into the 750's and perhaps touch 760 in a year or so, but that's about it. If I were you I'd do everything I could to get that negative item removed.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 14:15:24 GMT

If it's out of SOL, I would do a dispute CMRRR USPS on it anyway. There's no harm in trying -- if the collection agency doesn't verify, it'll just drop off.

Almost all my old collections out of SOL had wrong info (balance off by $10, or DOFD was wrong by 2 months, or account number was wrong, etc) so a simple "I never had an account with a $795 balance and a DOFD of August 2011 with the account number 666******** please verify this information or delete it" CMRRR USPS and poof, gone.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

slayerbizkit — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:20:45 GMT

Is there any downside to a USPS cmrrr? My biggest concern is re-opening the lines of communication with them or them "re-aging" the account accidentally (I'm pretty sure I sent them a cease and desist after my original rounds of USPS cmrrr's within the SOL window). They are the most dense but determined collectors I've ever faced (they refuse to do PFD, lie to my face, produce only the bare minimum required by law in writing, yada yada yada etc ).

Just want to cover all my bases for making a move on them.

Re: How do I climb from low 700s into 800?

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 17:33:29 GMT

Well if they haven't "updated" the derogatory report for many years and the last status date is really old, it won't reage the DOFD but it could reage the collection in how the CRAs see it. To be honest I've never witnessed that myself so I can't judge if FICO would care or not.