Not sure if this is a reasonable goal, but I am determined on crossing that 800 threshold within the next year. Life has given me some pretty nasty lemons lately, so I decided to focus on my health and credit for therapy. Here are some quick snapshots of where I currently stand.
For what it's worth, I feel my profile is relatively thin.
-Discover card - $5200 limit, currently paid down to 1%
-Merrick Bank - $2700 limit, paid to 1%
-Care Credit - $5k limit, paid to zero
-Authorized user on my wife's Capital One card - $500 limit, no balance
-Closed $13500 loan with Navy Federal, satisfied/paid in full
-Mariner Finance loan - $2500, balance of $600
I have one derogatory item reporting to Equifax only. It's an old medical bill that went into collections with R&R Professional Recovery. The debt is only $92 dollars. Was going to pay it off, but was told not to as it will fall off soon with the new law and that it will also still appear as a collection even if paid? Not sure what to do there or the steps to go about disputing/validating it.
I guess the other thing that's hurting is my credit age. What would be the answer here, a trade line? If so, what do I need to know about finding a trustworthy one? I know nothing about these. I was thinking about applying for a new card (possibly with Navy Federal or an Amex,if I can swing it), but didn't want to take a hit on credit age.
Any help, advise, or input would be immensely appreciated!
[Mods - I apologize if this is posted in the wrong category.]
Right now. Paid med collections are deleted by law. Main thing that sticks out is age. AAoA's has to stay above 2yrs and AoOA has to get up there. Just got to let age do its thing. AoOA at 2 yrs is a young file.You'll see on the age factors theres a pretty good size point gain as your file ages.
@Tuck831 wrote:Not sure if this is a reasonable goal, but I am determined on crossing that 800 threshold within the next year. Life has given me some pretty nasty lemons lately, so I decided to focus on my health and credit for therapy. Here are some quick snapshots of where I currently stand.
For what it's worth, I feel my profile is relatively thin.
-Discover card - $5200 limit, currently paid down to 1%
-Merrick Bank - $2700 limit, paid to 1%
-Care Credit - $5k limit, paid to zero
-Authorized user on my wife's Capital One card - $500 limit, no balance
-Closed $13500 loan with Navy Federal, satisfied/paid in full
-Mariner Finance loan - $2500, balance of $600
I have one derogatory item reporting to Equifax only. It's an old medical bill that went into collections with R&R Professional Recovery. The debt is only $92 dollars. Was going to pay it off, but was told not to as it will fall off soon with the new law and that it will also still appear as a collection even if paid? Not sure what to do there or the steps to go about disputing/validating it.
I guess the other thing that's hurting is my credit age. What would be the answer here, a trade line? If so, what do I need to know about finding a trustworthy one? I know nothing about these. I was thinking about applying for a new card (possibly with Navy Federal or an Amex,if I can swing it), but didn't want to take a hit on credit age.
Any help, advise, or input would be immensely appreciated!
[Mods - I apologize if this is posted in the wrong category.]
1. Yes you should pay off the $92 medical collection.
2. No you should not apply for any new accounts if you want to improve your aging. The passage of time, without any applications, is what helps your aging factors.
3. You can improve some of your scores right now by making sure that all but one of your revolvers reports zero balances.
4. You can improve some of your scores right now by paying the Mariner loan down to $200.
Don't worry about paying off the $92 Medical collection unless you just want to to do the right thing ethically. It will fall off shortly under the new Law that just took effect and I know that first hand. Only baddie I had reporting on any CRA was a $50 supposed Medical collection from 2017 that was reporting on my EQ only. I refused to deal with them because it wasn't owed. My insurance paid it but didn't pay it prior to the Doc sending it to collections. Nothing I could do or provide would get the collector to remove it though. So I said screw it, I'll just let it age off as it's so minor and medical most lenders looked past it. Well under the new law it was removed yesterday by EQ and my score jumped 15 pts from 730 to 745. So I'm sure it won't be long before EQ deletes yours as well.
@Tuck831 wrote:
-Authorized user on my wife's Capital One card - $500 limit, no balance
There's a FICO penalty for all AU accounts reporting a $0 balance I'm pretty sure, make sure that card reports a balance ~1-3%.
@MT64 wrote:@bigseegar I read that the new law doesn't remove unpaid collections until the beginning of 2023, so I'm curiuos to know what or how it was deleted from EQ?
Also for anyone who may know as I'm facing two similar derogatories for under $500 on medical (one for $230 and another for $160) if you pay the collection off as charge-off, will it also be removed from the reports despite the way it was paid? There doesn't seem to be any real info detailing to that extent.
@MT64Welcome to the forums.
All med debt in collections is wiped out once paid.
On-going thread here on your question:
@MT64 wrote:@bigseegar I read that the new law doesn't remove unpaid collections until the beginning of 2023, so I'm curiuos to know what or how it was deleted from EQ?
Also for anyone who may know as I'm facing two similar derogatories for under $500 on medical (one for $230 and another for $160) if you pay the collection off as charge-off, will it also be removed from the reports despite the way it was paid? There doesn't seem to be any real info detailing to that extent.
I can only tell you as I did in my post that the $50 Medical Collection that I had that was only reporting to EQ and had been since 2017 was removed by EQ without me doing anything. I had contested it several times before even with proof that my INS paid it but all to no avail, so I just stopped and was going to let it age off. Then after as I said after the new law EQ just removed it themselves in July, 2022 as I didn't do anything. My thoughts are they maybe started early and with age and the smallest amounts?
Wow, good info @bigseegar . I was shocked to see in @FireMedic1's post a 10 point penalty once you go over 3 Cc accounts... who knew? Well, that's probably a silly question here. 
@805orbust wrote:Wow, good info @bigseegar . I was shocked to see in @FireMedic1's post a 10 point penalty once you go over 3 Cc accounts... who knew? Well, that's probably a silky question here.
You've seen it with fresh BK'ers and newbs for credit. Get 3 revolvers and a SSL many times for best FICO scoring. Then the age metrics starts working once thats been completed. Util % and age IMO is the biggest movers.