How can I bring my scores up to 650+?

[danialhultin123]

So I would also like to reply to this.

I have been working on correcting my score for over 2.5 years now. I purchased a car 1.5 years ago, when my score was at a 592. I have removed all collections from my account, and I haven't missed a single payment...on ANYTHING in almost 3 years. I also keep my credit card balances under 23%, usually at 0 EVERY month. I never Max my credit cards out. My newest credit card account is about 7 months old, which doesn't help, but my other credit card is 2.5 years old, and my student loans are roughly 7-8 years old.

Now, since I got the car over 1.5 years ago, my score has crept up to 627 TU, 632 Equifax. That's it. I was told there would be an improvement in my score, enough to actually get a mortgage, and that hasn't happened at all. My score has leveled off. According to the calculator, if I paid all my bills on time for the almost 2 year period, keeping all balances down, etc. , I would achieve a score in the 650-670ish range. This hasn't happened at all. I have done absolutely all that I could, and can't win. Credit is the only thing in this world I can't figure(outside of how women think, yikes!) What am I doing wrong at this point? I have seen my score drop, even when using my credit cards responsibly. I have purposely kept a student at a 1 dollar balance, so my average age of my accounts doesn't reduce, and my credit score drop for........you guessed it.....being responsible and paying back debt.

Can anyone answer as to why you are penalized for doing everything the right way?

[llecs]

OP, I split your post from myFICO Product Feedback to form a new one here. I had to edit the title, but changed nothing else. If you'd like to change the title, click "Options" and then "Edit Message".

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

Obvious question....did you pull all of your scores from the 592 to the 627/632 from here?

When's the last time you pulled your 2 FICO scores?

While 23% isn't too bad, you may want to focus on getting it lower. If 23% is on your reports now, for example, you could probably eeeck out 20-30 points just by getting that util lower. For max points and best results, get all of your CCs but one to report $0 and get the remaining CC to report a balance of under 9% of the CL. Usually lenders will report the balance you had as of your statement date and will report that within a couple days of that statement.

While your newest is 7 months, I'd expect a modest bump when it turns one year old assuming nothing is added between now and then.

Adding a car loan, or any loan, IMO, won't help improve your FICO scores. IME, I paid off my last car note and one score dropped and the other gained, meaning it actually hurt one of my reports (EQ).

You said you kept a student (?) at $1....student loan? I'd PIF if that's the case. You already have a mix of credit per installment loans with the car. Paying it off likely won't do anything for your scores. BTW, AAoA factors in ALL OC accounts, whether they are opened or closed, good or bad. So, paying it off won't do anything for your avg. age. It'll continue to report for 10 more years and continue to help.

One thing that'll benefit you is to post in here what your top negative reasons are as listed on pages 2 or 3 of your FICO report. That's telling with regards on what is hurting your scores the most.