Is there anything I can do to raise my score?

[Anonymous]

I just checked my scores a couple days ago (see my sig).  I would like to increase them to about 780 by the end of the year, but I don't know how feasible that is.  Here is my situation:

12 TL's

2 are closed SL

2 are open SL

8 are CC (3 of them store cards)

Balances reporting on 5 TLs (2 of them SL totaling $79,500)

-util is 1% overall, max individual util is 8% on one CC

Oldest account: 6 years 7 months

AAoA:  3 years

No baddies

No inq on TU, 1 inq on EQ

I feel like I'm doing everything right, with the exception that I thought one CC was going to be reported at $0 because I paid it off before the statement, but it still showed a balance - I guess Chase didn't update EQ and TU yet.  I did get a negative on EQ because the balances of my SL's are so high.  I feel like the young age of my credit file is what's really keeping my scores lower than I would like, and I'm not sure that 1 year is going to help all that much.  Does anyone have any knowledge or experience about what kind of score jump I might experience in a year, all else being equal?  Also, if anyone has any suggestions to help me improve my score, I'd love to hear it.  Thanks!

[MarineVietVet]

You're very close to FICO High Achiever status (760+) so that shows you are doing things correctly. Your AAoA is pretty low and so I'd just let everything age for awhile and continue to do all those boring things that got your scores so high to begin with: 

Always pay on time

Keep utilization low

Don't apply for credit you don't need

IMO you're in great shape.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I just checked my scores a couple days ago (see my sig).  I would like to increase them to about 780 by the end of the year, but I don't know how feasible that is.  Here is my situation:

12 TL's

2 are closed SL

2 are open SL

8 are CC (3 of them store cards)

Balances reporting on 5 TLs (2 of them SL totaling $79,500)

-util is 1% overall, max individual util is 8% on one CC

Oldest account: 6 years 7 months

AAoA:  3 years

No baddies

No inq on TU, 1 inq on EQ

I feel like I'm doing everything right, with the exception that I thought one CC was going to be reported at $0 because I paid it off before the statement, but it still showed a balance - I guess Chase didn't update EQ and TU yet.  I did get a negative on EQ because the balances of my SL's are so high.  I feel like the young age of my credit file is what's really keeping my scores lower than I would like, and I'm not sure that 1 year is going to help all that much.  Does anyone have any knowledge or experience about what kind of score jump I might experience in a year, all else being equal?  Also, if anyone has any suggestions to help me improve my score, I'd love to hear it.  Thanks!

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I agree with MVV --you're in great shape for someone with relatively young credit. You might try reducing the number of CC's reporting balances.

But if you want to see where you should focus your attention, look on screen two of your FICO score reports, over on the left, at the negative factors.

The list of negatives are the things that are currently keeping your scores where they are, pure and simple. The first listed is the most damaging, the second is next-most, and so forth. If the first-listed is "short history", then don't apply for anything. If it's "too many accounts with balances," make more of them report $0. And so forth. It's very straight-forward.

Since your scores are already so high, you might only have one factor displaying, even though there really are several. That's because myFICO reduces the number of listed negatives as your scores rise, because the lower factors aren't carrying that much work. If you want to see the up-to-four negatives that lenders would see, you can pull a myFICO /12 report. Unfortunately, there aren't any discounts that I know of for this, plus you'll have to clear out their cookies when you're done, or you'll get directed there in the future. But if you're curious, that's where you can find any additional negatives that don't show on your regular myFICO report.

[MarineVietVet]

As usual HTSU explains things much better than I do. 

I guess I forget from time to time that some folks with high scores are actually curious as to how they can improve them even more and there's nothing wrong with that at all..

Once I reached 750-760 though my focus was on keeping them high by not doing anything dumb!!    I knew that as long as I stayed smart about credit that the scores would be fine.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the information.  I'd never heard about that myFICO 12 thing so I might check that out.  On both reports, the young age and high non-mortgage balances are the two listed negatives.  Honestly, there's not much I can do about either of them.  For my CCs I PIF every month (sometimes before the statement, sometimes after).  And I haven't even graduated yet so I won't start paying my loans back until around November.  I've been gardening for a year and a half already with essentially no movement in my scores.  I'm kind of frustrated because I feel like I'm doing everything right.  Do you have any idea when I might see my score start to change a bit due to added age?  Also, at what AAoA does rebucketing occur?

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for all the information.  I'd never heard about that myFICO 12 thing so I might check that out.  On both reports, the young age and high non-mortgage balances are the two listed negatives.  Honestly, there's not much I can do about either of them.  For my CCs I PIF every month (sometimes before the statement, sometimes after).  And I haven't even graduated yet so I won't start paying my loans back until around November.  I've been gardening for a year and a half already with essentially no movement in my scores.  I'm kind of frustrated because I feel like I'm doing everything right.  Do you have any idea when I might see my score start to change a bit due to added age?  Also, at what AAoA does rebucketing occur?

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Know that myFICO/12 will insert a cookie on your computer and that causes all of your future reports to appear differently. You can stop that anytime by clearing your cache. It does come in handy to see those negative score reasons, though.

To copy everyone else...time will likely be the important factor here. You probably won't see any start changes, but it'll be gradual and you might see some bumps when your AAoA hits another year (YMMV on when that would be..2 yrs or 3 or 4 or 5 or whenever), when certain TLs hit an anniversary or age, and so on.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for all the information.  I'd never heard about that myFICO 12 thing so I might check that out.  On both reports, the young age and high non-mortgage balances are the two listed negatives.  Honestly, there's not much I can do about either of them.  For my CCs I PIF every month (sometimes before the statement, sometimes after).  And I haven't even graduated yet so I won't start paying my loans back until around November.  I've been gardening for a year and a half already with essentially no movement in my scores.  I'm kind of frustrated because I feel like I'm doing everything right.  Do you have any idea when I might see my score start to change a bit due to added age?  Also, at what AAoA does rebucketing occur?

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Pez, once my credit history reached 7 years... I believe I was rebucketed.  My score actually dropped from 749 to 728.  That was the only thing that changed as far as I could tell. 

[Anonymous]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Since your scores are already so high, you might only have one factor displaying, even though there really are several. That's because myFICO reduces the number of listed negatives as your scores rise, because the lower factors aren't carrying that much work. If you want to see the up-to-four negatives that lenders would see, you can pull a myFICO /12 report. Unfortunately, there aren't any discounts that I know of for this, plus you'll have to clear out their cookies when you're done, or you'll get directed there in the future. But if you're curious, that's where you can find any additional negatives that don't show on your regular myFICO report.

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The good news is that the myfico discount codes work swell on www.myfico.com/12.  Happy day!

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Since your scores are already so high, you might only have one factor displaying, even though there really are several. That's because myFICO reduces the number of listed negatives as your scores rise, because the lower factors aren't carrying that much work. If you want to see the up-to-four negatives that lenders would see, you can pull a myFICO /12 report. Unfortunately, there aren't any discounts that I know of for this, plus you'll have to clear out their cookies when you're done, or you'll get directed there in the future. But if you're curious, that's where you can find any additional negatives that don't show on your regular myFICO report.

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The good news is that the myfico discount codes work swell on www.myfico.com/12.  Happy day!

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  I did not know this!!! Thanks for posting this.

[Anonymous]

@Cyan007 --

DW hit 7 year AAoA on EQ this month and saw a 7 point increase. She is in a major derog bucket for a CO, so I don't know how that affects everything.