topic Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

SingleWithThree — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:03:39 GMT

Equifax has been my nightmare score. It has been in the low 500's for almost a year now and no matter what I do, it does not increase.

The crazy thing is the other two agencies are reporting a lot more seiously deliquent accounts than Equifax is and even a settled judgement. And those scores are between 583 and 618!!!

HELP! Does anyone know how to increase an Equifax score?

Anyone had luck doing it?

I appreciate any help anyone could offer.

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

llecs — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:07:04 GMT

What do you think is holding you back? Do you have any baddies? How's your utilization?

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

SingleWithThree — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:31:12 GMT

I have a few "baddies" and my utl isn't perfect, but it isn't horrible either. I've been paying down my credit card balances.

I guess I'm confused because the things that I have done in general over the last year have greatly improved my other two scores...but not Equifax.

In addition, I have about 3 extra accounts appearing on the other two reports and NOT Equifax. And that score is still significantly lower. Plus I even have a judgment on the others and not Equifax. My worst account is a loan that hadn't been paid on for two years. That doesn't even show up on Equifax...only TransUnion.

What might be the best attack? Paying down the credit cards and then paying off the baddies?

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

llecs — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:52:00 GMT

What are those extra accounts? If an OC, you'd be surprised how much history the CRAs like to see, especially EQ. Even if the account was bad, the absence of an old account on EQ vs the others could mean a double-digit difference. If you were to pull the EQ FICO report and the TU FICO report from this site, you can see those differences in history, AAoA, utilization, etc.

Start by paying down your open CCs. Get the balances to under 10% and you'd want half of them reporting $0. If you have a good mix of credit (at least 2 revolving and one charge), you'd see approx. 10 points per every 10% you decrease your utilization.

Tackle baddies also. Post back over in "Rebuilding Your Credit" with details and others will help. They'll likely ask for DOFD, balance, and debt type.

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

marty56 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:15:03 GMT

EQ hates derog information more then the other 2 CRAs. The 40 point difference between my TU and EQ score is because of this.

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

jbh — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:35:56 GMT

Sounds about right. My other 2 cra's have a baddie, but I doubt they will match Eq's rise of 61. Another thing is to be careful of new accounts. Maybe I am nuts but it seems that TU would appreciate new accounts more than EQ.

Re: How in the Heck Do You Raise Equifax Score?

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:41:53 GMT

SingleWithThree wrote:

I have a few "baddies" and my utl isn't perfect, but it isn't horrible either. I've been paying down my credit card balances.

I guess I'm confused because the things that I have done in general over the last year have greatly improved my other two scores...but not Equifax.

In addition, I have about 3 extra accounts appearing on the other two reports and NOT Equifax. And that score is still significantly lower. Plus I even have a judgment on the others and not Equifax. My worst account is a loan that hadn't been paid on for two years. That doesn't even show up on Equifax...only TransUnion.

What might be the best attack? Paying down the credit cards and then paying off the baddies?

Since I assume that you are talking about your FICO EQ score, what negatives are listed on your myFICO EQ report?

Until your scores are in the high, high 700's and the 800's, the negatives are a really clear indicator of what you need to work on.