OK, I got turned down for a refinance loan today and need some help in clearing a few things up to get a refinance loan on my house to pay off my credit card debt. But my Credit score was just 645. Told it was due to having 67% of my potential credit card credit used. Also, told that the following affected me as well. Negative items on report Collection Item HEALTHCARE RECOVERY SO Opened: 04/2009 Balance Date: 05/2010 Account Status: Paid account/was a collection (This was for a medical bill we had in dispute because we thought it was paid by insurance and was for less than $200.) Deliquencies KOHLS/CAPONE - Good monthlly payments since card opened in 09/2006 30 day late for November 2010 and March 2010 Bank of America Credit Card - Good monthlly payments since card opened in 11/2005 except for the following slow payments 30 day late for July 2007 60 day late for August 2007 Good staning on the following CITIMORTGAGE INC - No deliquencies since opened in 2005 USAA Credit Card - No deliquencies since opened in 2010 CitiCard Visa - No deliquencies since opened in 1988 CitiCard MC - No deliquencies since opened in 2005 USAA - Auto Loan - No deliquencies since opened in 2007 CHASE - Auto Loan - Paid in full 02/2011, No deliquencies since opened in 2006 Thoughts on how go get my score up?
Welcome to Creditnet! The collections and late pays are really killing your scores. So is your high credit utilization. Get your CU ratio down to 10% or less and you should see a nice increase in your FiCO scores. Of course, that means paying down your balances and using a much smaller portion of your available credit from month to month. You could send goodwill letters requesting that the slow pays get removed, but there's really not much more that you can do about them if they are correctly reported. You're in a similar situation with the paid collection. If there's something inaccurate regarding the entry, you could always dispute it through the CRAs in hopes that it will get removed altogether.
Josh is correct the late pays and collections are hurting your score. Your utilization is also too high, if you don't have the money to pay down your credit cards you could also add yourself as an authorized user to one of your friends or family members credit cards. Chose an authorized user account that has a high limit but very low balance (less then 10% of the credit limit). The credit limit from the authorized user account will get added to your total utilization and will lower your ratios. This will increase your credit score. Make sure whatever card you are added to as an authorized user it is not much younger then the credit cards you have already established. Thanks! Heather with BoostMyScore.NET
