topic How to increase Fico scores. Advice please! in Rebuilding Your Credit

How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 22:57:47 GMT

Hello, everyone. I need advice on how to increase my Fico score. My current Fico score I get monthly from Experian is currently 563. My goal is to increase it by 100 points or better.

Here's a look at my current credit report on all 3 credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting look the same on all 3(Experian, Transunion and Equifax)

I have only 2 open credit cards

1. Capital One MasterCard-$1, 500 credit limit with a $1,289 balance

2. Care Credit- $1, 400 credit limit with a $960 balance

I have 16 late payments between 2018 and 2019 from these 2 open accounts. Some 30 day, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days

I haven't been late or missed payments for nearly 10 months now. Both accounts are on auto pay.

I have one Portfolio Recovery Associates collection account for $3,145..I'm on a settlement payment plan and PRA will delete it after my last payment. I expect to make the last payment within the next 4-5 months

I have 7 closed accounts all but 3 were paid in full and closed at my request more than 6 years ago. The other 3 accounts are recent charge off accounts from 2019 that are now paid after completing a settlement plan.

Where do I need to start or what do I need to do to increase my Fico score by 100 plus points.

Thank you in advance.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

FireMedic1 — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 23:00:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, everyone. I need advice on how to increase my Fico score. My current Fico score I get monthly from Experian is currently 563. My goal is to increase it by 100 points or better.

Here's a look at my current credit report on all 3 credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting look the same on all 3(Experian, Transunion and Equifax)

I have only 2 open credit cards
1. Capital One MasterCard-$1, 500 credit limit with a $1,289 balance

2. Care Credit- $1, 400 credit limit with a $960 balance

I have 16 late payments between 2018 and 2019 from these 2 open accounts. Some 30 day, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days

I haven't been late or missed payments for nearly 10 months now. Both accounts are on auto pay.

I have one Portfolio Recovery Associates collection account for $3,145..I'm on a settlement payment plan and PRA will delete it after my last payment. I expect to make the last payment within the next 4-5 months

I have 7 closed accounts all but 3 were paid in full and closed at my request more than 6 years ago. The other 3 accounts are recent charge off accounts from 2019 that are now paid after completing a settlement plan.

Where do I need to start or what do I need to do increase my Fico score by 100 plus points.

Thank you in advance.

I'll lay it on the table and to the point. You wont see 100 points in 7 yrs. With all the lates. Especially 120 day lates. Its not going to happen. You had I hope its in the past. A spending problem. Then couldnt pay your bills on time problem at the same time. I'm not getting on your case. To rebound from all the negs you listed will take yrs. But for now you can get those balances down on the 2 cards now and quit throwing $ out the window in interest that could go to your debts. Have 1 report less than 8% and the other $0. Time is your best friend now. Theres really no way to sugar coat it. Its in the past yes. But from here on out. If you cant pay it. Dont charge it. Good Luck!

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Remedios — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 23:01:08 GMT

Hi and welcome to the forums

Realistically, 100 points are not happening.

You could gain some back by paying down your cards to below 9%, but you have severe derogs, the kind that really doesnt lessen much for the entire time it's on your CR.

PRA will delete after it's paid off, but even with that, those 16 late payments are going to keep your scores suppressed, especially 90 and 120 days ones.

You could try for GW removal, but those work the best when you have an isolated late or two, and it also depends on a creditor. Some will not grant them, no matter how many letters you send, or how long you try.

Best you can do is pay your cards down, and complete your payment arrangements with PRA, then reevaluate once you see if that yielded any meaningful scoring gains.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 03:49:11 GMT

@Destinym1028,

I am far from an expert, but let me provide a little hope for you. My FICO 8 scores on 1/9/2019 were the following:

EQ 508, TU 511, EX 545

My FICO 8 scores as of today are: EQ 648, TU 679, EX 678 (and they all have been a few points higher)

Up to December 2018 I had 19 late pays across 4 different accounts, including auto, there were a few that were 90 days, I had one charge off and three collections. So, what did I do? I listened to the advice I received and read on this forum and patience is required. But all hope is not lost and IMHO you can recover your score in the next 12-24 months, if you do the right things.

This is what I did, YMMV.

I did PFD for all collections, mine were not very big, around $400ish for all three combined and that immediately raised my score a few dozen points one TU/EX and a little less on EQ.

I had a few incorrect items across all three files, so I challenged those online with each CRA (many people here will say not to use the online approach and to write the letters) and that approach worked for me. Those changes resulted in several point gains across all three CRAs, but in my case EQ always lags behind. FYI, I still have a couple of incorrect items and I am still working to get those removed, so in some cases it will take some time to get things fixed.

As my scores were improving, I app'd for various CC's and was approved for most (Disco Cash Back, Cap1 QS, AmEx Optima, NFCU GR, NFCU MR, CUWest Preferred Mastercard) and declined for a couple (BofA, Chase). My main CC is NFCU MR and I use AZEO. This has resulted in multiple score jumps over time.

As my scores improved I refinanced 14% auto loan to 5%.

I would try to get that CO PFD as quickly as possible then get your balances on your existing CCs less than 10% and AZEO. Look at the details of your credit files and get inaccurate items removed, even with all of your baddies every derog you get removed will help. And most important ALWAYS PAY ON TIME, that was my single biggest mistake.

Good Luck!

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 04:06:30 GMT

the quick and dirty, you can drastically improve your score by paying off your cards in full.

before ANYTHING else pay off your current credit cards in full. Utilization is a big portion of your credit score that is in your power to change. If you use your credit card for something pay it off in full with in 2 weeks of Making the purchase.

In regards to the late payments damage is done there yes. it will take years to offset your "on time payment %". However, you can technically accelerate this up by having more credit cards posting as on time BUT in your case I would not advise opening any new credit until you have gotten into a healthy relationship with your spending and money.

after that then focus on your collections and charge offs.. dispute or negotiate for DELETIONS period. And as those drop off your scores will jump up.

4 months ago I was at 537 at the moment I am at 707 FICO 8. It CAN be done, However.. I got aggressive with my debt and I only have 3 missed payments so your results will be different.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 16:46:19 GMT

I will echo what others have said here- it is high time for you to evaluate not how to increase your FICO scores, but rather, it is high time to you to evaluate how you spend and manage your debts.

I'll also echo Evolan- the quick and dirty way to see increases in your scores is to pay off your CC's, ASAP. Have one report less than 9% util, and the others 0%.

However, the collections you have will very likely suppress your scores for some time now. It is time for an aggressive approach to paying off your debts to get yourself in better financial health.

My lowest score was 541 at the end of Jan / start of Feb. I'm at 660 all across the board, with my highest score 677. I did this by getting all 9 of my student loans with Navient current, paying off one of my student loans with WSU in full, and paying down my only CC to less than 4% utilization. Doing all of those resulted in a 120+ pt boost.

BUT, I had a good foundation and a good mix of credit to start with. I have a mortgage thats been on my CR for 10 years with zero lates. Ditto for an installment loan with my credit union that is a year old with no lates. My 6 month old CC with Paypal also had no lates. I also have zero collections on all 3 of my CR's. I never had any collections to start with.

Now I have 3 CC's to get my score as high as possible (over 670 on all 3 agencies). That is the hope but the lates on my student loans might suppress my scores for some time.

Judging from the comments here, it sounds like derogs on CC's are more damaging than derogs on student loans? If so, thanks for the reminder. I'll make sure to always make my CC payments on time and to keep the util on all CC's low.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

FireMedic1 — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 19:31:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
the quick and dirty, you can drastically improve your score by paying off your cards in full.

before ANYTHING else pay off your current credit cards in full. Utilization is a big portion of your credit score that is in your power to change. If you use your credit card for something pay it off in full with in 2 weeks of Making the purchase.

In regards to the late payments damage is done there yes. it will take years to offset your "on time payment %". However, you can technically accelerate this up by having more credit cards posting as on time BUT in your case I would not advise opening any new credit until you have gotten into a healthy relationship with your spending and money.

after that then focus on your collections and charge offs.. dispute or negotiate for DELETIONS period. And as those drop off your scores will jump up.

4 months ago I was at 537 at the moment I am at 707 FICO 8. It CAN be done, However.. I got aggressive with my debt and I only have 3 missed payments so your results will be different.

Paying all cards to $0 will ding a score. Have 1 report <8.9% then PIF. With those lates. There wont be any "drastically improvements". The bad outweighs the good in FICO scoring. Not the other way around. Disputing will ding a score also if it is reporting correctly accurately. It will update and hurt. Doesnt change the fall of date. just adds a new date. Dispute only inaccurate entires.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 19:56:36 GMT

Most of my family have 790+ FICO they PIF and never carry balances.

When I PIF my score jumped close to 50 points and as I maintained continued to go up.

My wife did the same and saw positive great results. Utilization is 30% of your credit score that's 255 points alone if balance is 0. Yes it will have a big improvement.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

FireMedic1 — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 20:01:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Most of my family have 790+ FICO they PIF and never carry balances.

When I PIF my score jumped close to 50 points and as I maintained continued to go up.

My wife did the same and saw positive great results. Utilization is 30% of your credit score that's 255 points alone if balance is 0. Yes it will have a big improvement.

They probably have AAoA's and AoOA over 25 yrs. Mortgages and so on. If you or your family are paying all your cards to $0. Let 1 report $50 and you'll pass 800. Try it.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 23:40:51 GMT

I am by no means an expert in this area and I have really appreciated all the people who contribute a lot on this forum. So my first bit of advice is lurk on this forum constantly to get educated. It'll help both with financial management and with credit repair. Also, I don't want to give you false hope, but I started a serious effort at repairing my credit in about August 2019. At that time my FICO scores were between around 530 and 550. Today, EQ is 700, EX is 680, and TU is still bottom dwelling at 627, but it's on the rise. I also have a much longer credit history than you it sounds like, but I do have some 120 lates circa 2014 on student loans. I believe these are inaccurate, but they are there nonetheless. I also have a total of 17 lates from 2017 and 2018 on two Cap 1 cards (including two 90 days from 2017). These cards are both perfectly paid now and have been for about 18 months. Both are growing slowly with credit limit increases. I had 4 collections on my credit, one of which had long ago been paid. The other 3 I was able to do pay for delete. And now all 4 are gone from my credit reports except one is still hanging around on TU and ages off next month. I had 6 charge off accounts from a stupid period in my life in and around 2015 and early 2016. Most of those were associated with collection accounts that got paid. There are still 5 of these on my credit. I've been successful in getting one removed for GW. I have for close to a year started paying my credit cards in full or close thereto. I'm at 7% uti. I'm starting the full scale AZEO method this month. And I'm at the start of a GW saturation campaign to convince Cap 1 to GW remove at least the two 90 days from my reports. Don't worry, I expect to fail. But it's worth the effort. I've recently gone an app spree and was approved for NFCU cash rewards, Amex Gold, Discover It Cash Back, and Wells Fargo VISA Signature (I bank primarily at WF and have a savings account at NFCU). I also was added as an AU on my mother in law's perfect WF card with a $7500 limit so I can piggyback and try to get some of her 800 Club to rub off on me. (It has not yet shown up on my reports though so I have no idea what good it will do just yet.) I am absolutely obsessed with keeping my credit clean now, though I now need to lay off the apps because of all the inquiries. I need to go into the garden as they say on these forums. I pay my credit cards multiple times each month when it makes sense to do so. I do not charge anything that I cannot afford to buy with cash right now or that I won't be able to pay off in fewer than 30 days after purchase. I have my credit cards in a rotation so I can give the ones I care about some love for future CLIs. I have a list written down of all statement ending dates so I can constantly remind myself of when to pay the bills. And my wife and I write a budget every single month and (mostly) follow it to the number. Long story short, everyone is different, but I don't think your repair journey will be impossible. Still, I'll say again, lurk on these forums. Understand things about AZEO and saturation method. Understand the value in a NFCU membership if you are able to qualify for one. (My father in law was in the USAF and my wife joined them sponsored me, though if need be, my father was in the Army National Guard Reserves for 30 years and I could've used that as my entree. My point is, NFCU is an amazing institution and I only know that because of the generosity of the people on these forums.) Good luck!

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

righthererightnow — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 07:38:39 GMT

Get your balance owed down to 10%,

that should bump up your score.

Maybe not 100 points, but it will bump you.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 12:55:13 GMT

Pay your open cards to $0.00. Your in collection/charged off accounts will provide a reporting balance for now. Open a secured card with someone that will issue you one. This may take a few months until one will come through for you. Do not apply for anymore for a very long time. Pay with either cash or a debit card for everything. Use your open cards once a month for a drink from McD's. It's a $1.00. Pay it two days later. BEG the card companies that you paid late to forgive you. If not successful do it again. And again. And again. But, always write to another person. Some say to write to the president of the card company. I believe in going higher and to write to a member of the board of directors at their regular place of business. Begin a relationship with your local credit union. i.e. Deposit the minimum amount over any fees threshold. Don't touch that money. Start a budget. Stick to it. Update your progress on the forums. Good luck!

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 23:43:35 GMT

Having been in a similar but different situation (basically, the same scores as you have, with late payments, closed accounts, charged off accounts, etc) it took 2-3 years to get more score up 100 and that was with settling some of my charged off accounts, and having a really low utilitization of my credit card limit. (had to get a secured card). Since you already have cards, pay them off.

True, if you bring both cards down to $0, you will take a score hit, but small enough that you could care less about, because your score is so low now, it will be higher now regardless.

I'm 4 years into my 7 year time frame, and I'm up around 680 (was around 620 while still paying of a settlement account and low CL usage) and once I paid that settlement account off, it went up around 50 points. Two weeks ago, I was able to secure some new cards and increased my CL from $4k to around $25,600.

There is hope... but pay down those cards and after a year or two you will see more and more movement. I had 120 late days on mine as well, so there is hope, but not anytime soon.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 04:50:12 GMT

Thank you to everyone who has given a dive thus far. I will take your advice and let you know my progress.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

hollowtipnwk — Mon, 04 May 2020 23:43:13 GMT

Every bit of advice here is valuable. I started taking an aggressive approach with my credit last September(2019). At that time, my credit accross the board was around 414, give or take a few points. I began paying more than the minimum on my CCs (only my NFCU was still activeand maxed out, all others were closed with one still reporting...CapOne of course) and started reaching out to collection agencies to settle for less than full. A lot of times I was able to set up payment arrangements, which led to the agency removing the file after the amount was satisfied. In February of this year, I applied for 2 secured cards (Disco IT and Citi), only putting the minimum as a deposit. I max them out and PIF every month. In March, I applied for the My Jewelers Club memebership which added $5000 padding to my utilization. Currently, My scores are TU 582, EQ 540 and EX 585. My utilization has gone from 104% to 40%. I have a bunch of lates, charge offs and closed accounts on my CR. I just begun tackling those items on my CR this week so I'm expecting to see more significant results in the coming months. I'm sharing this to let you know that if you attack your credit aggressively, you'll definitely see positive results. I've seen over 100+ point increase in 7 months. You can too!

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you to everyone who has given a dive thus far. I will take your advice and let you know my progress.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 04:42:44 GMT

Thanks for the advice.

Hello, everyone

A little up update. There's been a 26 points increase since the OP. The new FICO score is 589. I paid off Capital One but I'm still waiting on them to update with the credit bureau. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2020 04:44:58 GMT

I'm hoping I'm successful in get some or all of the lates deleted.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

C_O_N — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 22:19:28 GMT

This is probably super late, but you can probably get to 100 points by just paying your open balances down to below 10%. You shouldn't have gotten into a payment plan with Portfolio Recovery...even though they are probably one of the best collection agencies out there (out of other terrible options). You should have waited up to the point when they are are about to sell it to someone else (about 1-2 years), and make them an offer of like 50% and see if they bite. They will delete their tradelines once you settle your account with them so you don't need to negotitate for that. Between that and paying down your open accounts, your credit will shoot up.

I had 2 collections with them (they outsourced the collections to some law office that was an pain), the second one I was able to negotiate from $1600 to $1000. I was going to do a payment plan on the second one, but I ended up cancelling it before the first payment and made the offer a year later.

I had collections, 5 late payments from 9 student loan lines (each, and they are current now), 3 charge offs (2 cc and 1 auto loan)...but I also had over 90% utilization on 5 credit cards, one personal loan I was never late on, and 3 late payments on other cards (one was on a paid as agreed closed account, and 2 were on an active card). I ended up refinancing my personal loan (for less interest than my credit cards), and used the money to pay down all my credit cards to $0, and paid out the last collections (I settled all other accounts a year earlier).

Now, I only have my student loans and my personal loan and my credit scores are in the high 600's...with my Fico 8 for TU peaking at 695 (it just dropped 11 points for going to 0% utilization). My newest lates are are about 22 months old. When I paid my credit cards down to below 10%, without my refinanced loan reporting I hit a peak of like 704 on credit karma (now they are in the 680's).

Anyway, sorry for the long post but I wanted to show that there is hope. Gaining 100 points can be realistic depending on the rest of your credit profile. You probably won't be able to reach 700's for a while tho.

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

Repairman — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:01:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, everyone. I need advice on how to increase my Fico score. My current Fico score I get monthly from Experian is currently 563. My goal is to increase it by 100 points or better.

Here's a look at my current credit report on all 3 credit reporting agencies. The credit reporting look the same on all 3(Experian, Transunion and Equifax)

I have only 2 open credit cards
1. Capital One MasterCard-$1, 500 credit limit with a $1,289 balance

2. Care Credit- $1, 400 credit limit with a $960 balance

I have 16 late payments between 2018 and 2019 from these 2 open accounts. Some 30 day, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days

I haven't been late or missed payments for nearly 10 months now. Both accounts are on auto pay.

I have one Portfolio Recovery Associates collection account for $3,145..I'm on a settlement payment plan and PRA will delete it after my last payment. I expect to make the last payment within the next 4-5 months

I have 7 closed accounts all but 3 were paid in full and closed at my request more than 6 years ago. The other 3 accounts are recent charge off accounts from 2019 that are now paid after completing a settlement plan.

Where do I need to start or what do I need to do to increase my Fico score by 100 plus points.

Thank you in advance.

The best thing you can do now, that's within your power, is to pay down those balances on your currently open cards (and collection accounts). Start by getting them all down to below 30% of your credit limit and continue to go lower from there. And then pay in full and ON TIME each month. You're not going to see massive 100 pt gains anytime soon, but on time payments, debt reduction (and spending restraint) is your best tool right now. And do whatever it takes to focus on that. Even if it means making sacrifices in spending elsewhere and/or taking on another source of income. I also would avoid any hard inquiries before your debt is eliminated. Also, although for the most part, I haven't personally had success with goodwill leters, since your chargeoffs are fairly recent, you could also try to write your creditors to request if your Chargeoffs can be removed from your reports. You should also be closely monitoring your credit report and score changes each month, and make sure all information on your reports is correct. If anything is actually incorrect on your reports, make sure to dispute it and have it deleted. After all of those steps are taken, and when you have 0 hard inquiries on your profile, I would suggest you try to apply for the Capital One Credit Steps program, and if accepted, use the card exclusively and responsibly, paying on time and in full each month. And again, try your best to avoid building up debt again. Best of luck!

Re: How to increase Fico scores. Advice please!

ChiknNuggz — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 21:59:16 GMT

I agree with what everyone is saying. Getting the utilization down will def give ya a small boost maybe like up to 20points BUT all those recent late are going to take time...and lots of time bud. You can try writing/emailing/calling about a goodwill removal but with 16 lates. I'll b honest its probs not gonnen happen. Only thing to help will be years of in time payments and just wait for the late payments and charge offs just fade away buddy.