A year and a half ago, my credit score was 540 when I got a new job and decided to turn things around.
I settled all 4 of my credit cards first. After 6 months I got a $300 limit card to try to help establish my credit again. My credit slowly climbed to 641 (TransUnion), but has plateued there since Septemper 2012 (11 months.)
I have kept my credit utilization close to but not exactly 0%, payed every single bill on time, and also opened a Macy's card and a second credit card with a $5,000 limit within the last 3 months but my score has remained unchanged. I have a credit utilization ratio of 16%, ontime payment history of 100% over the last 2+ years, average account age of 22 months (it was 34 months 2 months ago before I opened the new credit card and Macy's card), 16 total accounts, 5 open/11 closed accounts, 2 hard inquiries, and 0 derogetory marks.
How do I improve my credit score as quickly as possible? I feel like I've been doing everything right, but my score has been stuck at 641 plus or minus a few for almost a year now.
I'm not sure if this means anything, but my TransUnion score did jump to 713 in Feb 2013, but immidiately returned to 640 the next month and has been there ever since. I have no idea what would cause that, nothing at all had changed.
