Help with increasing my FICO. I will be somewhat of a project but have a somewhat unique opportunit

[Anonymous]

Hello yall,
Ive known about this forum for over 2 years now, gotten countless amazing tips, insights and advice to where I had to make a acct now that I am committed to building mine back & at least for the time being am in a pretty decent position financially to really make some headway on my credit thanks to some money saved up, & a new loan I received recently to help partially with some lf my outstanding relccuring debt.
Before i get sidetracked - 602 fico 8 with experian, have a acct there. Almost exact same with tu and equifax. The good - 2 active cap 1 cards, 1 2uesrs old, 1 3 months. Religiously pay those, got a 2200 secured loan through my cu approx 8 months mayne more now., same perfect pagments.
Was carrying balances every month which i learned now is a bad thjng. - dl have 1-2 older car loans i eas cosigner with my dad when i was in high school that are perfect payment wise and my oldet acct.
The bad - .... pretty bad... had a tough year 2 years ago. Resulting 1 credit one charge off /collection 793$, 1 wells fargo secured card in collection which i stupidly closed but dont know why i wohkd owe any. 2 other pretty old 6 yr collections - verizon 360$ and 1 med bill for 800$. About 5 lr less inquiries per bureau, oh and abot 15k in student loan debt...oh and a old charge off from chase for a cc that will be over 7 yrs this year for 833$... (which i am still kicking myself flr now that i know where chase stands among decent card issuers...
So considering all of that i feel ok about being at 602, but want ot higher asap, am trying to start a business and cohlr really use that.
I was all the way down at like 489 about 3 years aho whem i first started trying to build. Got to 643 highest 2 years abo and hit financa trouble.
Now 602, reaspn im posting is i paid off my cards to 0, the 2 current. 1 reported to experian today and..... no change at all..... went frlm over 50 util to 0 and NO CHANGE i am still dumbfounded. Now that yall know my history what should i do?
Want 700s, nect card hopedully a us bank store card- theyre offering 55 cents off per gallpn when usong 100 points.... ridonculous i drive a jeep that gets 17 mpg if im lucky. Frothing at the mouth for that. That amd for a card thatll increase the line to more than 500 my god cap 1 has not let me move up at all....
Anyhkw thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

Time and responsible managing of credit are your friends from here on out.

Keep your balances low, always paying in full your statement balance(s) every cycle.  Never miss a payment.  Let time do its thing.  In the meantime don't apply for credit.  Following the above advice is all that's needed for your score to grow at a slow/steady pace for the next year and longer.  The only game changer for you to help your score grow faster would be to work on the removal of your negative items.  Removing just 1 may not result in any score gain (or a minor one) but getting them all removed would easily bump your score up significantly, likely to the tune of 100 points or so.  I would suggest heading over to the rebuilding section of the forum and reading threads over there that talk about goodwill letters and pay for deletes.  Tackling your most recent negatives as well as your most severe ones could help your scores improve quicker.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tip. I kind of figured Im at that point now, my experian is at a standstill even after 1,2 positive and neg new things hit.
The main collections I have are with verizon, chase, and recently 1 kther random one for medical bills go figure.
How often have you seen someone be successful in at leasg pay and delete? This i would defknitely be interested in doing if i knew it wojld guarantee a removal.

Last thing - so I am trying to start a sma bus right now, and initiallh went in to us bank to try and see if i could get a realistic jdea of what my chances would be on the personal side. Nice lady talked to me for a while, onve i told her what was going on it became obvious i prob wouldnt/lr wohld have to pull one hell of a recon.
But, before I left she did tell me about her experirnce with slme lf their business cards and pre approval popping up right wjen a person started a acct there, all i needed was a ein number ect. That peaked my interest heavily, how dkfficjlt can jt actually be to be successulful in apping for new bus cc?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

How often have you seen someone be successful in at leasg pay and delete? This i would defknitely be interested in doing if i knew it wojld guarantee a removal.

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There are mixed results.  Some are able to negotiate multiple PFDs with a single attempt, where others have to ask again and again in order to get the result they're looking for, or sometimes it's never an option.  In the rebuilding forum if you search for the specific lenders with which you're interested in doing a PFD with you may be able to find some threads as to how easy they are to get from them.