How to get credit score up once all debts are paid

[Anonymous]

Just started about a month ago getting my credit clean...got reports, paid off debts, no more lates etc. Now I'm stuck.  what do I do to get my scores up? In the 600's.  Have a high mortgage rate and want to refinance.    Does consumer credit counseling just work for those with debt or do they assist with other things as well?  I've read so much good information on this sight----any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks

[MidnightVoice]

I guess in part it depends why your scores are where they are.  Lates?  Collections?  What is keeping them down

[Anonymous]

Exactly. If you have 0% credit util, 0 recent lates, at least 7+ years of credit history, small or no inquiries, and no public records or collections your credit score should be higher. What are top 3 reasons myfico says your score is lower? Do you have any public records or collections? How recent is your most recent late payment? How high is your credit util? What is your total available revolving credit? Do you have a good mix of accounts (mortgage, 1+ installments loans, credit card, store card, gas card)? There is no "magic solution" for everyone. You need to improve/reverse the areas in your credit that are keeping your score low. For example if you have a collection and 5% credit utilization, paying your credit cards down to 0% isn't likely going to improve your score much if any.

[Anonymous]

Bear in mind that paying an old debt (i.e., charge-off or collection) will do nothing to raise your score.

[prosario69]

Is this true?????

[Anonymous]

Hey i noticed that you were a Super COntributer I wanted to knw what is a true score??? Ive ordered thruough Transunion and im getting a score of 585 and my fico says its 540??? Then ive purchased EQ through my fico which is showing 539 Experian i ordered it through the CRA and it said 565??? Whats the Difference through ordering  thru the CRA and myfico?? 

[Anonymous]

Scores from myFICO are FICO scores. It is the most widely used scoring model in the United States. Virtually all banks, Credit Unions, loan brokers, Credit Card Originators, and other service providers (cellphones, utilities, landlords) use FICO and only FICO.

The scores from other websites and from the CRA use other (non FICO) models. They are commonly refered to as FAKO. They aren't worth the electricity used to calculate them.

One exception is Equifax which uses scores from FICO.

FAKO are not completely useless. That can kinda give you an idea if your score is going up or down, generally how bad/good it is and the magnitude of the change. I check my reports about once a week with TrueCredit because it is cheaper. If I see a substantial change to the FAKO I will pull that FICO (from MyFICO) before applying for credit.

Short Answer:
FICO = real
FAKO = fake

[Anonymous]

---

@prosario69 wrote:

Is this true?????

---

Paying off old debt will NOT improve your credit score.

You should secure a PFD (pay for deletion) letter from creditor before paying. Then use PFD to force creditor to remove the entire account.

On the FICO model a negative is a negative and only time reduces the amount if affects the score. i.e a 1 week old PAID collection will have massively more impact to your score than a 5 years old unpaid collection.

Also the $ amount has no influence on the score. An account charged off for $22 is just as damaging as an account charged off for $1,000,000.

FICO is just a model. It doesn't accuratey reflect the "real world" for all scenarios. Don't assume because something "makes sense" that it applies to your FICO score.