Hi everyone, I am repairing my credit after an illness that ruined it in 2000. All of my credit reports are great now with a fico of 768 to 770 (scale of 300-850) except Experian who is giving me a vantage score of 778 (prime and on a scale of 501-990). I just, yesterday, had two very negative records removed from Experian but my vantage score was only 769 before I had them removed. I have tried to get credit with amex and capital one today and both denied. Here are the reasons stated by amex: Amount of credit available on accounts (Experian) Too few established accounts or insufficient account information (Experian) Length of time accounts have been established (Experian) Number of revolving accounts (Experian) Here is an idea of my report:Open negative accounts CAP ONE 30 days past due as of Oct 2007 Date Opened:08/2003 Type:Revolving Limit:$500 Date of Status:11/2007 Last Reported:05/2009 Recent Balance:$66 Open accounts in Good Standing AMEX Responsibility: Authorized User Status:Open/Never late. Type:Revolving Date Opened:02/2000 Credit Limit:$12,900 Recent Balance:$2,171 HSBC BANK Date Opened:08/2006 Type:Revolving Credit Limit:$1,150 Recent Balance:$9 KEY BANK Responsibility: Joint Date Opened:07/2008 Type:Revolving Credit Limit:$2,000 Recent Balance:$0 Closed Accounts: CAP ONE Statusaid,Closed/Never late. Last Reported:04/2000 BP/CBSD Statusaid,Closed/Never late. Last Reported:11/2001 CHASE BANK USA, NA Status:Closed/Never late. Last Reported:05/2002 CHRYSLER FINANCIAL Statusaid,Closed/Never late. Last Reported:01/2004 CAP ONE Statusaid,Closed/Never late. Last Reported:06/2004 GEMB/JCP Statusaid,Closed/Never late. Last Reported:10/2007 Some of the closed accounts say "closed at consumers request" The bad things I can figure out are: All my accounts are revolving I only have $1650 total available credit that is not "Authorized User" or "Joint" My oldest open account was opened in 2003 That one late payment on the negative account What should I do to improve my score? I was thinking I could write to capital one and ask them to take that one late payment off for otherwise being a great customer. Also I was thinking I could get a business loan, one business credit card and one new personal credit card to increase my total available credit. Also never close a credit card again. Can anyone give me recommendations?
If you're scores are already above 740, you're well into "prime" territory. (congratulations, btw). As to how you can improve, you might try for different types of credit, e.g. a bank card, a couple of department store cards, and a car (installment) loan. Nothing that you wouldn't buy anyway (i.e. don't buy a car you don't need just to get a loan). If you already have a car, you could try to refinance it and just put the money in the bank. You could also try talking to Capitol One. It might not help, but it can't hurt. As far as your credit history goes, the only thing that will cure that is more time. That's a tough one to speed up without piggybacking (which it looks like you're already doing).
Reopneing old accounts Another person said that credit cards may sometimes reopen old accounts. Is that true? I would love to reopen my oldest capital one card from 1996. That would help my average age by a lot. Another thing I an wondering is that I have records on my Transunion report that belong to my grandfather (same name except he is Jr. I am the 4th)...they are all good records but some were opened before I was born. I am afraid to remove them because they are good and help my average age in that credit bureau. But the mistake would be obvious to a creditor that actually looks at the file...like a bank mortgage. I am sending a goodwill letter to Capital One today. Hopefully they will accommodate me.
If the cra hasn't caught the age mistake,makes you wonder what happens when you dispute anything.In these days it would be hard for them to reopen anything.With those scores there pretty good.
