Back at it again with the messed up credit score... Please send help!

[bitingthebullet]

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

[Anonymous]

Creditwise uses the Vantage 3.0 score which is an entirely different scoring system from FICO. What type of negatives are listed on the BofA site that may be lowering your score? You may be able to deal with some of them.

[Anonymous]

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

---

That colored bit means you are doing it right. Kudos!!!

A third card would help. I just learned here that having 3 cards with a small balance (1-9%) on one of those with 0 on the other 2 will maximize your score impact from CC.

Yes, do address any baddies.

Also, some other type of loan would help to bablance your profile if the CC are all you have. See if you can get a small personal loan from your bank maybe. Make sure it is something you can easily manage paying back.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

---

That colored bit means you are doing it right. Kudos!!!

A third card would help. I just learned here that having 3 cards with a small balance (1-9%) on one of those with 0 on the other 2 will maximize your score impact from CC.

Yes, do address any baddies.

Also, some other type of loan would help to bablance your profile if the CC are all you have. See if you can get a small personal loan from your bank maybe. Make sure it is something you can easily manage paying back.

---

If you do this, check the prequalification site first to save yourself the heartache and hard inquiry if you can. Capital one will probably give you a second card for sure though if you are in good standing with them.

[bitingthebullet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Creditwise uses the Vantage 3.0 score which is an entirely different scoring system from FICO. What type of negatives are listed on the BofA site that may be lowering your score? You may be able to deal with some of them.

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So I just went through and requested all three of my free credit reports and according to the one from TU (that I subscribed to the 7 day free trial for) I still have several late payments reported on this from 09-2010 - 02-2011. I have previously tried to get these removed but unfortunately they are valid and my requests went unanswered or denied. Another thing that might be counting against me are high balances. I had a personal loan for $5000 from 06/2014 to 01/2016. I paid it off in full in January '16 but in Dec '15 the balance was still at nearly $3000. My credit cards that were closed due to late payment/high balance were: Walmart (credit limit: 650, high balance: 1236 with max. delinquency of 60 days in 02/2011) and Chase (credit limit: 1700, high balance: 2135 with max. delinquency of 120 days in 12/2010 and again in 02/2011. I do not know if it is worth mentioning but on the TU report my score is the same as in Creditwise. 

On the BoA site the reasons are listed as: 

Serious delinquency

FICO® Scores consider the presence of a serious delinquency (very late payment) on a person's credit report as a powerful predictor of future payment risk. Your score was impacted because your credit report shows one or more serious delinquencies.

Keep in mind:

People with previous late payments are much more likely to pay late in the future, and tend to be viewed as risky to lenders. Most late payments stay on a person's credit report for up to seven years.

Too few accounts currently paid as agreed

FICO® Scores consider the number of accounts that are paid as agreed. Your score was impacted because the number of these accounts is too low, or because you've missed payments recently on some of your accounts.

Keep in mind:

In general, people that have very few accounts paid as agreed or have missed payments recently on some of their accounts tend to appear more risky to lenders.

[bitingthebullet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

---

That colored bit means you are doing it right. Kudos!!!

A third card would help. I just learned here that having 3 cards with a small balance (1-9%) on one of those with 0 on the other 2 will maximize your score impact from CC.

Yes, do address any baddies.

Also, some other type of loan would help to bablance your profile if the CC are all you have. See if you can get a small personal loan from your bank maybe. Make sure it is something you can easily manage paying back.

---

If you do this, check the prequalification site first to save yourself the heartache and hard inquiry if you can. Capital one will probably give you a second card for sure though if you are in good standing with them.

---

So do you think I should wait until I pay off the debt to apply for a third card? I am really confused because I used the credit simulator and according to it if I pay off all of my debt my score will drop by 25 points. Seeing that made me extremely discouraged because it just didn't seem right. I find myself walking into so many walls. All I want to do is be able to eventually get a new car and buy a home! 

[bitingthebullet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

---

That colored bit means you are doing it right. Kudos!!!

A third card would help. I just learned here that having 3 cards with a small balance (1-9%) on one of those with 0 on the other 2 will maximize your score impact from CC.

Yes, do address any baddies.

Also, some other type of loan would help to bablance your profile if the CC are all you have. See if you can get a small personal loan from your bank maybe. Make sure it is something you can easily manage paying back.

---

Thanks for the encouragement. I feel like I'm stuck in sinking sand. I just really do not know where to go from here. 

[Anonymous]

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@bitingthebullet wrote:

Hi there, 

I know that there are plenty of people who are new to this forum so it's hard to help everyone but I am really hoping that someone can help me with what to do. I've been slowly improving my credit (which at one point was at a very low 600) and now according to the Credit Wise credit tracker from Capital One my score is 742 (TU). My reported debt is a bit higher than what it really is because the report has not yet been updated but my actual debt is as follows: 

$1000 out of $4500 Capital One

$200 out of $1000 Bank of America 

I plan on paying off my debt by the first half of July of this year and am wanting to know what I should do to improve my score. The only two credit cards that I have are listed above. I do not have a mortgage or an auto loan, though these are both things that I believe I will need within the next few years. How can I prepare myself for this? My friend told me that I should get a Chase Freedom card and then get a Sapphire, but I don't know what the benefit of doing that would be. 

UPDATE: I just enrolled for a free credit monitoring service through BoA and according to that my credit is 636 (FICO® Score 8 based on TransUnion® ). Why is this so much different from the score available through Capital One? This is really disheartening. 

If anyone could help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I am completely lost. 

---

That colored bit means you are doing it right. Kudos!!!

A third card would help. I just learned here that having 3 cards with a small balance (1-9%) on one of those with 0 on the other 2 will maximize your score impact from CC.

Yes, do address any baddies.

Also, some other type of loan would help to bablance your profile if the CC are all you have. See if you can get a small personal loan from your bank maybe. Make sure it is something you can easily manage paying back.

---

If you do this, check the prequalification site first to save yourself the heartache and hard inquiry if you can. Capital one will probably give you a second card for sure though if you are in good standing with them.

---

So do you think I should wait until I pay off the debt to apply for a third card? I am really confused because I used the credit simulator and according to it if I pay off all of my debt my score will drop by 25 points. Seeing that made me extremely discouraged because it just didn't seem right. I find myself walking into so many walls. All I want to do is be able to eventually get a new car and buy a home! 

---

Your balances are not that bad and should not be hurting you much. BUT, you do need to get a third card and keep the revolving  balance all on one card. Cap One should approve you for another card, though the limit may be small to begin. Don't worry about what simulators tell you they are mostly crap.

[RonM21]

Right. Don't get too worked up over the simulators. They are more for informational purposes, and are not exact.

[bitingthebullet]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Your balances are not that bad and should not be hurting you much. BUT, you do need to get a third card and keep the revolving  balance all on one card. Cap One should approve you for another card, though the limit may be small to begin. Don't worry about what simulators tell you they are mostly crap.

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Hi, 

If I already have a card with Capital One (Quicksilver) then which should I apply for given the mixed information regarding my score? Also, due to my history of delinquency with Chase it would be best to just ignore my friend's advice to get a card with them, right?