MyFico Hates Me...

[sobetrader]

Started my credit repair journey about 3 months ago at that time myfico (EQ) 527 and that was 14 baddies and 2 positive tl's, I am now down to 5 remaining baddies, 1 new positive tl added for a total of 3 tl's (Wachovia SL, Amex Optima-$500, BBRZ MC-$100) and yet instead of improving my score has dropped to 477!!!

I'm currently standing at about 60% uti, besides getting my uti down what can I do to improve my score?

I'm not looking for miracles or a quick fix I set out on this path with aspirations to achieve a 660ish fico by Nov. 2011

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums! Sorry about the FICO drop.

Were any of the removed baddies old charge-off accounts? If so, your history could have gone away and that can lead to a drop. Also, if any of them were unpaid CCs, then removing those can result in a score drop too if it impacted your util.

60% util is too high. Bring one of those CCs to $0 with the other reporting a balance of under 9% of the CL.

Don't apply for anything else as that'll drop your score too.

[ficonightmare]

llecs- history makes more of an impact on your score than charge-offs?

I thought removing an old account that had derogs would actually increase your FICO score?

[llecs]

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@ficonightmare wrote:

llecs- history makes more of an impact on your score than charge-offs?

I thought removing an old account that had derogs would actually increase your FICO score?

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YMMV...it depends on the age of the OC CO'd account, in relation to your other TLs, and it depends on how it reports. Certainly if this was a new TL with multiple lates then removing it would certainly, likely, increase your FICO scores. If it were an older one, helped the AAoA, and lacked the monthly lates, then removing it could, possible, drop OP's score. DW had a Verizon CO reporting. It was one of her oldest TLs and one or two of her FICO scores dropped once it was removed. A score drop can also occur if you're rebucketed if it was OP's last baddie (not the case here), but that's hard to predict and doesn't always happen.

[ficonightmare]

Oh wow, trying to improve scores is so tricky.

thanks for responding.

[Anonymous]

Just to add another thought-- were any of your baddies recently updated as "Paid"? Are the derogs that remain newer than the ones that dropped off?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@sobetrader wrote:

Started my credit repair journey about 3 months ago at that time myfico (EQ) 527 and that was 14 baddies and 2 positive tl's, I am now down to 5 remaining baddies, 1 new positive tl added for a total of 3 tl's (Wachovia SL, Amex Optima-$500, BBRZ MC-$100) and yet instead of improving my score has dropped to 477!!!

I'm currently standing at about 60% uti, besides getting my uti down what can I do to improve my score?

I'm not looking for miracles or a quick fix I set out on this path with aspirations to achieve a 660ish fico by Nov. 2011

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To echo llecs, the util is pretty huge. When it's high, it's the biggest driver of your scores.

Have you read around here on the boards to learn about paying your CC balances before the statement date so as to control the reported balances, and therefore the util?

As for the remaining baddies, I'm guessing that at least one is quite recent. How old are they, and how bad are they? It's great that you've been able to clean up some of them so far, because that gets you that much closer to your goal. If they removed ones were older than the remaining ones, it's quite possible that you won't see much change yet. It should come, though.

When you look at your Equifax FICO score report, what are the negatives listed on screen 2, in order? These are the factors hurting you the most, with the first-listed factor carrying the most weight. Is high revolving credit usage (aka util) one of them?