Wil Increasing the Credit Line on my Secured CC Help My Score?

[Anonymous]

My current credit overview is below:

Score - 663

Auto Loan - 31 months into a 60 month loan with no missed payments, currently owe $9,000 on vehicle

# of Credit Cads - 5

Oldest Credit Card - 3 years old

Average Age of CC - 2.1 years old (I've never had a late payment)

Total Credit Available - $1,750

Total Credit in Use - $142 (less than 10%)

Negative Information - Late payment over 90 days 4 years ago (bill shipped to an old address that I didn't know about, it has been paid for over 3 years now as soon as I found out about it)

Admittedly, an average credit age of 2.1 years is quite young. However, I've never had a late payment on my vehicle or any of my 5 CCs so it seems a bit off to me that my credit score is only 663 when I'm utilizing less than 10% of my available credit, even with a single piece of negative history from 4 years ago.

I think the thing hurting my credit score the most is that of the 5 CCs I have, the highest balance on any of these is only $500.

The oldest CC I have is a secured card with a limit of only $200 that I used to begin establishing credit when I finished college and got my first job.

So the question is...if I pay an additional $800 to the secured card and increase my credit limit to $1,000 will this help my credit score? I don't mean help the score in terms of lowering the % of credit being utilized, rather will having a CC with that high of a limit improve how I appear to other creditors? I've been trying to get my score above 700 for quite some time and haven't had any success so far.

I've read that having low credit limits on credit cards can hurt your score, so I'm hoping by increasing this it will help mine...what do you guys think?

There are some very knowledgeable people on this forum so I'm hoping you guys may be able to help me.

Thanks in advance.

[cdtotten]

Is the score a FICO?

To answer your question, what appears to be driving your score down is your 90 day late. It doesn't matter if it was paid or not (makes no difference), a 90 day late is a major derogotory item and puts you in a different scoring bucket. The effect of it diminishes over the 7 (or 7.5) years, but it can still lower your score from 50-100 points without blinking.

Yes, increasing your credit line will lower your util and help a little, but if your current util is under 10%, you aren't going to see much of a jump (maybe 5-10 points).

Hope this helps, but with a major derog, all you can do is plug along and stay current with your tradelines.

[Anonymous]

The score is from Equifax's ScoreWatch, so yes I believe that is what you would consider an official FICO score.

It's a bit disappointing to know that there is nothing I can do to really give my score a good bump besides simply continuing to do what I've been doing. In any case, it is what it is.

I appreciate the inciteful response, it is very helpful even if it wasn't what I was hoping to hear.

To build on that...does the low limit of the individual cards have an affect on my score or is it purely based on the overall credit amount and how much it is utilized? I don't want to spend the money to increase the limit on my old secured card just to lower the amount of utlization, I was just hoping that would show more creditworthiness.

Also, is the 7 (or 7.5) years measured from the date of last activity (when it was paid), when the collection account was opened, or when the bill was originally missed? This can make as much of a year difference so it would be helpful to know.

Thanks again for your help.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The score is from Equifax's ScoreWatch, so yes I believe that is what you would consider an official FICO score.

It's a bit disappointing to know that there is nothing I can do to really give my score a good bump besides simply continuing to do what I've been doing. In any case, it is what it is. You can try to write GW letters to get that 90 day late removed early. There is no guarantee it will work but it's worth a shot.

I appreciate the inciteful response, it is very helpful even if it wasn't what I was hoping to hear.

To build on that...does the low limit of the individual cards have an affect on my score or is it purely based on the overall credit amount and how much it is utilized? I don't want to spend the money to increase the limit on my old secured card just to lower the amount of utlization, I was just hoping that would show more creditworthiness. Both overall and individual card utilization is looked at for scoring. Plus the number of accounts having a balance at any one time is scored.

Also, is the 7 (or 7.5) years measured from the date of last activity (when it was paid), when the collection account was opened, or when the bill was originally missed? This can make as much of a year difference so it would be helpful to know. The CRTP (Credit Reporting Time Period) for collections is up to 7.5 years from the DoFD on the OC account that led to the collection.

Thanks again for your help.

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