What should my next move be

[Anonymous]

My 3 scores have been about the same the last 6 months or so all about 600 give or take a few points. I have a captial one secured card and a capital one car loan both with a late payment. In the same month. Since have setup auto payments for the car and educated myself on credit utilization. I have since signed up citi secured card have not heard from them since that was sunday. What else can i do to improve me score? 

thanks for your help

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My 3 scores have been about the same the last 6 months or so all about 600 give or take a few points. I have a captial one secured card and a capital one car loan both with a late payment. In the same month. Since have setup auto payments for the car and educated myself on credit utilization. I have since signed up citi secured card have not heard from them since that was sunday. What else can i do to improve me score? 

thanks for your help

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Your next move should be to establish a track record of on time payments and low utilization with the credit you have for awhile.

[RobertEG]

A 600 score implies major payment history derogs or other major score impact factors, such as very high % util.

What is the severity of the derogs, and what is your current % util?

[jamie123]

Like the other posters have mentioned, it is difficult to predict your score increase because several factors come into play and not just utilization.

The factors are:

• AAoA (Average Age of Accounts)
• Utilization
• Hard Pulls for New Credit
• Number of New Accounts as a Percentage of All Accounts

You have however set yourself up for success or failure. You obviously had a problem using too much of your existing credit by not paying your balances off every month. Increasing your credit line will not solve this problem for very long. You need to change your credit use habits and only use credit when you can be assured to pay the balances to $0 every month. You need to change your habits or you will start on a slippery slope that doesn't end very well.

EDIT: Your scores will only rise from here as long as you pay the balances down. The starting score doesn't matter much. You need to get those balances paid off for good financial health.

[Anonymous]

Kprepair
the good news is:
1) you have all the info needed right here to improve the scores...moreover...people that do care
2) the damage is done and you will not make those mistakes again...
Your scores will improve even with small amount of credit...
No hurry
read past threads... great info there!
Time is your best ally and friend....
Good luck

...

[righthererightnow]

Try the goodwill letter option with Capital one.. to see if they can knock down or knock off any of your lates. That should give you a score boost.