Greener Grass - Improving My Scores

[Anonymous]

Hello All, 

This is my first time posting, so bare with me as I'm new to forums.

I started cleaning up my credit February 2018 with the goal of buying a house early 2019. My score in February was 471. I had multiple collection accounts (about 15), two credit cards through Capital One, a Fingerhut shopping account and my car loan. March of 2018, I paid off all the collection accounts, so there is nothing else on my credit showing delinquent. My student loans went into repayment without me realizing it, so there is a past due mark on those, but I have since consolidated those and they are current (Late status still showing). My two credit cards also fell delinquent December 2017 and even though those are current and have a ZERO balance, the past due mark is still on my report.

Fast forward to today. My credit scores at EQ649, TU651 & EXP633. I have since acquired two retail credit cards and two major credit cards (Discover and AmEx). My question is, I really want to his my goal of having a 750 score, but there literally isn't anything I can clean up on my report to push my score higher. At this point, is making regular payments the only thing I can do? With my credit cards, if I do use them, I try to pay them off before the statements hits, but I also realize that if no balance is reported from one statement to another, that isn't helping me either. 

Any advice is appreciated!

-Leah

[Sadie5150]

Just curious.  Were you able to get your collections removed when you paid them?  Or are they still on your CR and showing as paid?

Congrats on your credit clean up.  Sounds like your hard work has paid off for you so far

[Anonymous]

Imon2ya,

When i paid the collection, I made sure they had plans of removing them from my credit. All of them are gone! ☺️

[FireMedic1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All, 

This is my first time posting, so bare with me as I'm new to forums.

I started cleaning up my credit February 2018 with the goal of buying a house early 2019. My score in February was 471. I had multiple collection accounts (about 15), two credit cards through Capital One, a Fingerhut shopping account and my car loan. March of 2018, I paid off all the collection accounts, so there is nothing else on my credit showing delinquent. My student loans went into repayment without me realizing it, so there is a past due mark on those, but I have since consolidated those and they are current (Late status still showing). How many days? My two credit cards also fell delinquent December 2017 and even though those are current and have a ZERO balance, the past due mark is still on my report.

Fast forward to today. My credit scores at EQ649, TU651 & EXP633. I have since acquired two retail credit cards and two major credit cards (Discover and AmEx). My question is, I really want to his my goal of having a 750 score, but there literally isn't anything I can clean up on my report to push my score higher. At this point, is making regular payments the only thing I can do?  Kinda yes. With my credit cards, if I do use them, I try to pay them off before the statements hits, but I also realize that if no balance is reported from one statement to another, that isn't helping me either. AZEO method.

Any advice is appreciated!

-Leah

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Good job on cleaning up the CA's. How late were those accounts. 30,60.90 days? They are fresh and not a yr old yet so they hurt. Are you using the AZEO method? Student loans I dont know much about these day. All different than the 80's. I wouldnt apply for anything else. Time will heal for now. Let your accounts age. Took almost 2 yrs for me to hit 700 from 550's after BK 3 yrs ago. It doesnt climb that fast.

[Anonymous]

Hi FireMedic,

The credit cards were only 30 days but were reported as 60 days late. The student loans were all reported at 120+ days. Which infuriated me because there were 12-15 student loan accounts on my credit before i consolidated them all. So I basically has 12-15 120+ days late marks on my report.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like all of your cards may be reporting $0.  If so you are taking a 15-20 point penalty.  You should be having exactly one card reporting a small positive balance (e.g. $15) with all other cards reporting $0.

[Anonymous]

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The credit cards were only 30 days but were reported as 60 days late. The student loans were all reported at 120+ days. Which infuriated me because there were 12-15 student loan accounts on my credit before i consolidated them all. So I basically has 12-15 120+ days late marks on my report.

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If your credit cards never reached 60 days late, but were reported as such, there's no reason not to dispute the inaccurately reported information. 

As for the 120+ day lates, your goal should be to get all of them removed.  If you're able to and your most severe late drops from 120+ days to the remaining 60 day (soon to be 30 day, hopefully) on your CC, you'd likely see your scores increase substantially.  It's also worth noting that if you're able to clean up those student loan accounts and only a couple of 30 day lates remain on your CR, you'd stand a much better chance of getting those minor delinquencies removed with GW requests.

[Anonymous]

CreditGuyinDixie,

I agree. I’ve been so habitual to pay off my credit cards before the statements hit, that i forgot to let a small balance report as THAT is when I typically see a score increase...when a *small* balance is reported. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

BrutalBodyShots,

I have about 55k in student loans, so getting those removed isn’t as easy, unfortunately. When I realized my loans had gone into repayment status, I applied for a forbearance which gave me another year (2017-2018) before payments started again. March of 2018, I consolidated them into one big loan and began paying on them in a May 2018. The old student loan accounts that were closed due to consolidation still show 120+ days, but are also closed. So I’m not sure how much of a TRUE impact those are making.

[Anonymous]

A 120 day late whether on an open account or closed account carries the same negative weight. Also the adverse scoring impact of just 1 of them verses a bunch (say 10) is pretty much equal. The presence of a single major delinquency can hold back scores between 70-120 points depending on profile.