I cant get my credit score to move!?

[tomanji]

Hi guys. I have been working on my credit for a while now.. I signed up with myfico about 9 months ago.. the first time i pulled a power report my score was 569 and that was in 9/09 since then with the help of a friend I no longer have ANY thing in the collections section of my most recent report.. The only thing I have left is a old scana energy bill thats still showing up and a capitolone card.. the limit on the card wasn't even $1,000 but my balance is like $3,000 with them now due to interest I guess... im going to pay off the scana bill this week... I have done all I could with capitol one and nothing, so I'm just going to wait for it to fall off in 6/11

I currently have a bank of America secured card... But I have had it for so long that its no longer secure.. It has a $300 limit... I use the card and pay it in full at the end of the ,month leaving maybe like a $10 balance, I also have a creditone card also with a $300 limit and a household bank card also with a $300 limit... I pay them all off and leave like $5-15 balances... I have no mortgage (I rent) and I have no car payment... I have not been late on a single bill in over a year and as of today 6/18/10 my fico score is 582 its only gone up 13 points! what am I doing wrong?? I also have a few bad debt/collections that show up but they all say $0 balance and they have been taken care of.. what can I do to get my credit going up?? I'm using and taking care of the credit I have... on the creditone website they say my credit score is like 630 I think that may be experian... why such a big difference??

Any help would be appreciated...

[bicknar]

Hi Tomanji,

Everything being what it is... I think the big culprit is the Cap 1 Card....  If it's not a collection.  It's probably being counted towards your util.  Which is about 300%.  Ouch.  The other cards,  Keeping them they way they are is good.  Just make sure that when you pay them you are paying them before the reporting period.  This way you can keep your $10 balances showing and the individual usage under 10%.  Not sure what the energy bill looks like.  So I would concentrate on the Capital one card to bring that balance down. 

Once that balance gets below 100% that should help, and once it's gone it will help tremendously.  

If you have any lates showing on your credit report, you can try GW letters, but that all depends on how late and how old they are.   BTW congrats on clean payments for a year!!!  That is a huge step in the right directions.

With regards to the collections that are showing up... Those are hurting.  Doesn't matter if they are paid or not.  A collection is a collection and it's a negative.  Maybe another place to GW, but I'm not the one to ask on getting collections removed as I don't have much experience with them.

Good luck!

A

[RobertEG]

When you say that you no longer have anything reporting under collections, what specifically do you mean?  Do you mean now reported as paid, or simply not in your CR at all?

The two biggest factors in your credit score are major derogs, and high utilizxation of existing credit.

Clearly, a 300% util on existing revolving credit is having MAJOR impact.  It is way over limit.  Is that account still open?  Did they do a CO?

As for other major derogs, with high balances on two current revolving accounts, that is a pretty good indication of numerous prior derogs along the path of high util on those accounts. Each 60/90/120+  late is continuing to be scored as a major derog until each passes 7 years from its individual date of delinquency. 

CAs and COs continue to count as major derogs, even if paid.  Did you get PFD deletion of those, or have they passed 7 1/2 years from the DOFD on the OC account?