Score not moving much

[Anonymous]

I was previously at 636 on Experian.  Im not 651.  I added 2 AU accounts with A LOT OF AGE and paid off one of my bank cards to 5% util.  Score only jumped 15 pts.  The 2 aged accounts are 23 and 25 years old.  One is Macys card and other is Discover.  I have 3 bank cards, 2 AU bank cards, and around 4 retail card and 1 auto lease.  Also have a paid collection paid in Novemeber of 15.  Do the retail cards play a big part in util as the bank cards do?  Will my score go up if I pay off the retail cards?  I know if I pay off a bank card, my score shoots up.  All bank cards are 10% or lower util except 1 thats at 95% but I just paid that off to 0% and waiting for that to report.  I have a feeling these AU accounts arent havingany effect on my score at all.  I thought if I added these 2 my score would go up considerably because they are aged.  My AAA was at 2.5 years.  Now its at 5.2 years.  

[Anonymous]

The "paid collection paid in Novemeber of 15.".... try to get that removed completely. Even though it's paid down to zero... it still shows up as a black eye on your report. I just sucessfully had one completely removed. It took a month and 1/2, but it's off now. Either write the creditor in question a letter or simply call them up and explain that you paid in full so you'd like to see it removed, because you are trying to repair your credit so that you can purchase a home (or insert excuse here).

[Anonymous]

I have been trying since November to get it removed.  Countless disputes, BBB, CFPB, everything!  Midland wont budge!  Currently, they actually reported to Equifax that I have a balance again!.  So I sent in another dispute asking to remove due to the blance error.  Its only reporting the wrong balance to Equifax thou.  I also had my lawyer write a letter on my behalf to Midland and they wont even talk to me now because they said my lawyer has to call because he is representing me  Actually the paid collection was opened 3/1/14.  I paid in Nov of 15

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was previously at 636 on Experian.  Im not 651.  I added 2 AU accounts with A LOT OF AGE and paid off one of my bank cards to 5% util.  Score only jumped 15 pts.  The 2 aged accounts are 23 and 25 years old.  One is Macys card and other is Discover.  I have 3 bank cards, 2 AU bank cards, and around 4 retail card and 1 auto lease.  Also have a paid collection paid in Novemeber of 15.  Do the retail cards play a big part in util as the bank cards do?  Will my score go up if I pay off the retail cards?  I know if I pay off a bank card, my score shoots up.  All bank cards are 10% or lower util except 1 thats at 95% but I just paid that off to 0% and waiting for that to report.  I have a feeling these AU accounts arent havingany effect on my score at all.  I thought if I added these 2 my score would go up considerably because they are aged.  My AAA was at 2.5 years.  Now its at 5.2 years.  

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Retail cards play the the same part in utilization as bank cards.

I agree that you should get off the AU accounts.

[RonM21]

The one card that was at 95% that you paid down should help a little.

[Anonymous]

So do retail card util have the same effect on my FICO score as bank card util?  If it is the case then I have another $2,300 to pay off ASAP  UGH

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So do retail card util have the same effect on my FICO score as bank card util?  If it is the case then I have another $2,300 to pay off ASAP  UGH

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Carrying balances at all on any sort of credit card unless under 0% doesn't make much financial sense anyways TBH.

2 and change years to 5 years is likely one step upward in the AAOA calculation (there's nothing at 3 years on my file and based on that I'm dubious that there'd be shifts at both 4 and 5 years).  You have to remember you moved 15 points from 635 to 650 or whatever, with a recent collection that's a non-trivial jump.

Maybe I missed something in someone's statement but I wouldn't be getting rid of those AU's unless there's massive balances on them, also take the wins where you can get them as it's hard for me to move my score more than 3-4 points at a time unless I do something really dumb.  If you were on a clean file the 2 -> 5 year AAOA shift would've been a larger impact in terms of absolute score movement: your collection is what's holding you back.

[Anonymous]

Yea. No balances on the au's. I'm gunna pay off the 2 retail cards and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Well....score is moving...I paid off Car Care from Sync and score jumped 17 pts.  Im waiting for Cap1 to report  a $30 balance any day now and also just paid Amazon mid cycle with $8 balance and filed a balance dispute for that one.  I have to apply for something in a week and I need my score as hi as possible.