@fixfico wrote:
Rifleman,
You are where I would like to be within a year are less. My EQ score is 595 and I am working on getting my utilization down to less than 10%; overall now it averages out to about 40%. Was utilization the main factor for you? Or did a lot of other things help as well? I have a BK from 2003; some late pays from 4 years ago; and 2 collections that I paid a year ago. I have tried GW letters but have not been sucessful at this point. What do you think got you to 700?
Thanks!
Message Edited by fixfico on 07-17-2007 08:24 AM
I'll tell you what I did:
First thing I did was set a Budget--I got a very simple budgeting software program that I HIGHLY recommend. It's called "MY Budget Planner"--It can keep track of all you monthly/daily expenses--it is very simple to use--I quickly learned how much money I was spending on everything and over a few months time greatly changed my spending habbits.
Another biggie was I finally got all my bills online--I can't tell you how awesome this is--you can see all your statements of anything daily, and pay them with a few clicks of a mouse. I realized part of the reason I was late sometimes was because I would forget when payments were due. Plus, I hate putting stamps on things and hand-writing checks--who does? IT's the year 2007...snail mail is like the telegraph at this point.
After taming my spending in a few months, I began to tackle my debt--because my score was not good for awhile the only cards I had were Orchard bank ($500 limit) and Capital One ($500 limit). But I think this was also a real blessing, because I could be in mountains of debt now if I had cards with high limits. Both those cards were routinely maxed out and over the limit--I can't believe how stupid I was--I had no idea what I was doing, or how many thousands of dollars I spent in interest payments. So anyway, I paid both cards down to zero and kept them there for 2 months at that time, my score was in the high 500's. As soon as I paid them down to zero, my score jumped to around 620.
So first I reduced my credit utilization. I have been staying under 10% or 20% each month since then and my score climbed.
The next thing I did was dispute the hell out of many accounts--there was some genuinely inaccurate info--I had an account paid in full still listing pay status as "90 days past due"--it took months of disputing, but I eventually revised it. Getting that pay status updated boosted my score another 30 points or so. There were also some late payments that we not correct. Getting late's removed significantly boosted the score again--like another 30-40 points. When late payments fell off my oldest credit card the score really jumped--because it is one of my oldest accounts showing a more positive history.
After disputing much info and getting higher scores I looked at the site "who gave me credit" to see about getting some new credit cards. Some very helpful people here at MYFICO (you guys!) helped advise me and I opened 3 new accounts--only one of which has reported so far
The thing that finally kicked the score from around 685 to 702 was responsible use of my new credit card--the new account posted, the credit limit much higher ($7000) then my old 500 cards, and the balance very low.
So in short (this is actually turned out to be very long), I would recommend a few simple things to make score go up fast:
1. control your spending
2. get all your bills online (if possible)
2. keep credit card balances low (10-30%)
3. dispute things until they are fixed--if baddies don't fall off with dispute, then GW, PFD, etc
4. let time go by, enjoy yourself, but be responsible
5. Think "good credit is sexy"