Why is my credit score low & how can I improve it?

[guykara]

Hi everyone! 

Thanks to all of your help I was able to purchase a home in March of this past year. At that time my credit score was in the high 600's / low 700's. Since then, I've done some purchasing (home related, zero interest purchases) and am finally all settled. After a few months with the home, I'm looking to purchase a new vehicle. I recently checked my credit to see where I was at and was fairly suprised to find that my scores were reported in the low 600's. I was hoping the addition of the mortgage would've boosted my score. Anyways, here's a break down of my credit report. I'd love some direction on what you all would think would be best to improve my score.

OVERALL CREDIT RATIO: 31%

Positive Accounts:

[Open - Credit Card] Barclays Bank Delaware - $2610/$3000 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] Capital One - $0/$1500 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] Chase Bank - $0/$5000 - No missed payments 

[Open - Credit Card] Chase Bank - $0/$5000 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] West Elm - $2299/$3200 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] NFCU - $5962/$15900 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] PNC - $18/$500 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] Havertys - $0/$1500 - No missed payments

[Open - Mortgage] Firstland Mortgage - $284,000 - No missed payments

[Open - Auto] NFCU - $6192 - No missed payments

[Closed - Credit Card] Bestbuy - $0/$500 - No missed payments

[Closed - Credit Card] Capital One - $0/$551 - No missed payments

[Closed - Auto] Nissan - $0 - No missed payments

[Closed - Auto] Westlake Financial - $0 - No missed payments

Negative Accounts:

[Closed - Credit Card] Capital One - $0/$300 - Paid and Closed - First late payment: 10/2008

[Closed - Credit Card] BoA - $0/$500 - Closed / Sold - First late payment: 12/2008

CREDIT INQURIES: 17

COLLECTIONS: 0

PUBLIC RECORDS: Equifax shows 0, Transunion shows 1 (Paid)

AAoA: 1 Year 2 Months

Based on this information, I'm guessing all of the new credit is why my score is so low? I did refinance my car shortly after purchasing the home as well, since my father was originally a co signer and wanted to be removed. Is it just a matter of waiting for those two negative accounts to fall off? Maybe it's worth asking for an early exclusion on these? And then pay off my CC balances and just wait for my accounts to age?

My goal is to purchase a ~$50k vehicle (or possible lease, since I enjoy driving something new every 3-5 years). Any help / direction is greatly appreciated! 

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Late payments + 2 cards with high balances are keeping your scores down. If you can get those derogatories removed and pay your balances down your scores will rise rapidly. 

AAoA does effect your score but not terrible, the late payments are doing more damage. 

[guykara]

Thanks for the reply! I'll pay off those two cards ASAP. Is it too soon to apply for early removal on these accounts with lates?

[Anonymous]

It depends on date of first delinquincy if they were charge-offs. If they were just late payments on since closed and paid off accounts you'll have to write GW letters to the original creditors. There is no early exclusion for late payments you have to wait the full seven. 

Another thing, when you buy a house your credit score drops (I missed that on first reading). It takes a bit for it to recover because you have a giant loan with very little equity at the beginning. 

[guykara]

DoFD were 10/2008 and 12/2008 for the two charge-offs. And yeah, I was planning on possible leasing/buying in January (that'll be 2 years at my job, raise, etc.). I also thought it might give me some time to have my score recover a bit / ability to pay off the cards.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

You should be able to get both of those excluded from TU and EX right now. EQ is a little harder, generally can't get more than a month early. 

[Anonymous]

Call each CRA and see if those accounts from 2008 can be removed now. Pay those high balances down. If you have nothing else negative on your actual reports and verified it, and you have gotten your free reports at annualcreditreport.com, then doing those two things should send your scores up a lot.

What and when did the public record occur?

[guykara]

I just gave Equifax a call. They told me that the BoA is set to be removed October, 2015 and Capital One is set to be removed 7/2016 even though the DoFD happened 12/2008. Here is a screenshot of that: http://d.pr/i/17KfF . I asked for early removal and was denied on both.

The PR was a simple contract dispute I had with someone. I lost in court and paid what I owed. It happened in January of 2010. It was my company which was sued, so based on that it was removed from my personal credit report on Equifax, but haven't got around to disputing it on the others.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Did you make payments after december to the original creditor, and then go late again? Because the second time you went late would be DoFD, as it's the first time you went late and then never made it right again. Otherwise it is reporting incorrectly and you should dispute it. 

[guykara]

Yeah, I went late and then paid to catch up, then ended up late again. I guess it's based on that second date, then. Just called TU. They said they were going to check with the creditors to see if they agree to an early removal. That seems to be consistent with what other people have reported in terms of their early exclusion process. So we'll see!