So confused.

[Anonymous]

I find myself in a complete mess, and really at a point of frustration with my credit.  Here it sits at 639 and I have been quite diligent in working to improve it over the past few years.  Now, I have student loans totalling just over $50,000...not delinquent - though they were several years ago, they have since been consolidated and are being paid on as agreed.  I had a secured card a few years ago that was meant to try and help me get to a point where I could perhaps be approved for an unsecured card...it worked, and I received a credit card about a year ago and have never been late, never maxed it out and actually got a credit line increase.  You'd think that would help.  I recently received a line of credit from Paypal and have kept that near a zero balance ever since.  I paid off a past debt in the last six months but still have the student loan delinquencies on my credit report - even though it has been resolved.

My problem is my score never seems to move.  It always stays right around 630...no matter what I do.  I'm getting to a point where my car is falling apart and I need to soon start applying for a car loan.  Can anyone explain to me in completely simple terms what it is that I am doing wrong?  How can I take steps that actually make a difference?  I would like to have some sort of an idea of how to move forward!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Payment history and utilization are around 2/3 of your score.

There's no magic formula for fixing derogatories, though sometimes you can write goodwill letters and so on to address them.

Utilization can be optimized by paying down revolving balances to a bare minimum.  It's important to note that the balances that are reported are the ones used to calculate utilization, and you can control these by paying them off or down before the statement date.

Beyond this, I'd make sure that you're getting your scores from a reliable place, and that your reports are free of erroneous information.

Perhaps you can share more of what is on your reports, and see if anyone has further suggestions.

[RobertEG]

Payment history is the most highly-weighted.

I would speculate that score stagnancy is most likely due to still having multiple major derogs in your report.

Scoring of payment history is not plain-vanilla.  Its scoring varies depending upon an overall categorization of payment history.  What is commonly referred to on this site as a "scoring bucket."  While your file still contains major payment history derogs, scoring is less favorable.

Significant score increases are usually not seen until your file becomes clean of all major derogs.

What are your remaining major derogs?

[AndySoCal]

What I would suggest doing is look at a credit report that shows the FICO score reasons. The reason(s) you want to look at are the ones hurting your score. Can you do anything to address those reasons. The reasons are listed according to impact. To help with this are is a link to the score reasons and an explanation.

http://www.scoreinfo.org/FICO-Scores/Pages/Score-Factors.aspx

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Can anyone explain to me in completely simple terms what it is that I am doing wrong?

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Keep this in mind:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

Biggest slice is payment history.  Therefore, derogs are always a major bottleneck (why you want to avoid them entirely) and you need to do what you can to address them.  The Rebuilding subforum is designed for this purpose.  Take a look in there and see if there is anything you can do.

Next biggest slice is amounts owed -- i.e. utilization.  The short and simple version is 30% max and ~10% or less ideal.  It's not just a matter of whether you've maxed out a card or not but the utilization that is indicated on your reports.

Have you actually pulled all three reports and reviewed them?

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@Anonymous wrote:

I had a secured card a few years ago that was meant to try and help me get to a point where I could perhaps be approved for an unsecured card...it worked, and I received a credit card about a year ago and have never been late, never maxed it out and actually got a credit line increase.

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It helps but it won't mitigate your derogs on its own.  How's your individual and overall revolving utilization (balance[s]/limit[s])?