For the last two years my scores have managed to stay around 605-630 for all three, this has me puzzled and I just can't seem to get it any higher I have very little debt consisting of mortgage, 2- credit cards with a balance (approx 40% of credit limit) and 3-4 others with zero balance, 2 car loans, 2 student loans that I am paying, never filed bankruptcy and no lates on any accounts just can't understand how to get my scores higher. Recently I retired from the military and I am currently working a new job so my income has increased 40%, would adding this to my file increase my income and reduce my debt to income ratio help with my scores? If so how? This and any onther recommendations would be grateful. Thanks for the help in advance. DSM
The balance at 40% of credit limit is killing you. Get it down below 30% and you'll see a significant increase. Get it down below 10% and your score will skyrocket. How old are all these accounts? Since you don't have any baddies, the only things keeping your score down are probably age and utilization. Credit scoring doesn't take your income into account at all, only your credit history. One final thought: Where are you getting your scores? If you aren't getting them from MyFICO.com, you might want to pay for a pull there. You might be pleasantly surprised. Scores from sources like TrueCredit aren't really worth anything.
Your income isn't factored into the FICO score. Even rich people can "forget" to pay their bills sometimes. Use that extra income to pay down your credit cards and your score will go up.
Thanks to all for the great advice, and I will pay down the balances and see what happens. BTW: my previous scores were from TrueCredit, I pulled my Equifax score yesterday from MyFico and it was at 647 that score alone is 40 points higher than TrueCredit which according to them was my lowest score of all three (607on TrueCredit) Why the major difference? Which one is most accurate? Again, I appreciate all for the help. DSM
When a creditor pulls your report and score, they get a FICO score. Everything else is a "FAKO" score... something that Experian or TransUnion made up. The problem is that virtually no one uses those scores for credit granting purposes. The difference is because the actual algorithm for calculating FICO's is a trade secret. Just to make it more confusing, there are other variations of FICO out there. The one you bought from MyFICO.com is basically what credit-card companies and most consumer loan companies will see. There are also mortgage-enhanced and auto-enhanced FICO's, so a bank or car dealer might see a slightly different score. I've seen changes on my report cause my TrueCredit score to go down and my FICO score to go up. TrueCredit is a great product for monitoring what's on your report, but ignore the scores they give you. And ignore any advice they give you about raising your score.
