None of my scores have budged since beginning of October

[Anonymous]

What could be the reason for this? All my revolving and installment accounts are reporting regularly. Only one of my cards out of 8 reports a balance as I am paying that one down over time (using 0% intro rate). I had one collection deleted from my TU and EX but that didn't cause a score bump. I still have one collection on TU and EX and 2 on EQ. I also have 1 PIF charegoff. All my scores are in the 640s which is up about 40 points across the board since April. Have I a hit a plateau? I'd like to try to get them all over 660 by February but I don't know what else I can do. I have a $3700 balance on the one card and $31,885 in total credit. Any thoughts on what I might be able to do to kick start my scores?  

[Anonymous]

You mention that you have a $3700 balance on the one card -- but you don't mention what the credit limit is for that one card.  If that card's utilization is very high, you will get some benefit from paying it down to < 69% (nobody know exactly where these breakpoints are and they could vary according to the scorecard you are in).  You might get some benefit from paying it down even further, e.g. to below 49%.

In addition to paying the one card down to < 49% of its individual credit limit, you may also gain some benefit from getting your total utilization to < 9%.  Bear in mind that paying down the one card involves a number of decisions: credit score is only one.  Making the right set of money managment decisions may be more important than the score.

Your negatives are the hugest drag on your score by far.  You might want to try asking the people at the rebuilding forum for advice -- I have no idea whether GWL's or something else might succeed in removing some of them.

One thing you can certainly do is open absolutely no more accounts for a while.  You already have open installment loans and you have 8 credit cards, so you don't need any more accounts.

[ddemari]

I agree, the balance on the one more card seems high depending on the limit. If the limit is 10k, then balance is not that high but still kind of high.

also, one collection, two collectios etc. mixed with charge off reporting will keep your scores pretty stagnent. U need to give it time. Its definitey a journey that can take a while depending on how old the collections are. Once you have no collections, you will see the big bump in scores. 

basically this is the time to prep your reports and keep them good moving forward so when you have a clean report, your scores will JUMP up for you. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input. The limit on the card with the balance is $10,000 so utilization for that card is at 37% with total utilization at 12%. I guess there really isn't much more I can do then. The collection agency will not remove the collection and it's not due to fall off until November of next year. I tried GW for the charge off and Cap One said no to that as well. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Looks like you are doing everything you can.  But bear in mind that you will get some help as your total utilization comes down further.  When it goes below 8.9%, for example, you may get some benefit. 

Your CC utilization looks like it will be steadily coming down as you pay off that card -- maybe during the next 8 months, well before the collection comes off.

There is one small thought you may want to consider.  I can't promise you'll get a benefit from it, but it couldn't hurt (in the long term).  Next year and afterward, Fannie Mae will be requiring mortgage lenders to look at a prospective borrower's credit reports and see whether they are more of a "revolver" or a "transactor".  This is a new thing.  Revolvers are people who carry a balance from month to month, as you are doing with that one card.  I.e. rather than paying off the full amount on the statement, they pay at least the minimum payment and carry the remainder over to the next month.  Transactors (by way of contrast) allow the statement to post, and then pay it in full (PIF) in the three weeks following.  Transactors have been shown statistically to be far less risky than revolvers.

So two things might help you in the long run.  First is to steadily chip away at that card you are paying off so that you pay it off maybe a little sooner than you thought.  Obviously make the right financial decision, factoring in your budget and retirement contributions and the 0% APR and everything else. .  This way you will begin to create a history on that card of paying in full (PIF).  The other thing you could do is allow more of your cards to report balances and then PIF.  Right now all your cards are reporting $0 and therefore they don't show this "transactor" behavior over time.  (Though they are not showing revolver behavior either.)

Of course, the classic wisdom is still correct: in the month before you need to squeeze every extra point out of your score, pay all cards down to $0 except one.  Thus allowing a number of cards to report balances in the next nine months will cause you to temporarily lose a few points.  But it will cause your reports to begin showing a history of transactor behavior on your credit cards, which is something that it sounds people may benefit from in the future.

Here is a news article about the T/R distinction and the recent Fannie Mae announcement. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/realestate/a-focus-on-credit-history-formortgage-approvals.html

Note that in the big picture this is not a big deal for you.  It's just a small thing for the future to consider.  Your basic plan is great.  Let the negatives come off, pay off your card before then, and then PIF going forward.  PIF-ng on the other cards before then is more speculative than anything else, but as I said it just seems like you wouldn't lose by having done that.