Scores before finding this site: Equifax: 639 Experian: 670 Scores after two months here: Equifax: 705 Experian: 713 I expect to take a hit when my new cc accounts (three) report though but after I weather that I'll be gunning for 720 or better.
Mist, What did you do to increase your score? And what types of derogs (if any) did you have? Thanks for the info!
I just had a few 30day lates. One company duplicated the accounts so 2 looked like 4. Another company duplicated a delinquency so 1 looked like 2. Another account wasn't mine and was removed. I transferred a chunk of $$ off of one cc to another new one which isn't reporting yet. I have one account in dispute under the Fair Credit Billing Act because they miscalculated the interest charges by adding a debit and a credit which both posted the same day instead of adding one and subtracting the other. Therefore, that account now says "No Status" so the amount owed does not calculate into the debt/cl ratio. Once it is resolved, I will have paid it off anyway so my FICO should remain where it is if not better. I currently have 3 tradelines showing 30day lates. 15 positive tradelines. Due to errors and inaccuracies one more of those should be coming off - I'm dealing directly with the creditor on this one and will sue if necessary as they have twice verified inaccurate information and report disparate dates of delinquency with each of the bureaus making a tri-merge look like a delinquency in each of 3 months for ONE 30day late. An account which had been paid down did not report regularly to the credit bureaus so my balance looked higher and had been calculated higher into the FICO model. They had not reported since Jan. I requested them to report the new, lower balance and they did so my ratios from that alone helped quite a bit. I still have this problem with one of my mortgages who only report quarterly to two of the Bureaus (they do, however, report monthly to Experian). We're into all principal on this mortgage so the amounts owed are reduced by $2000 a month which really impacts things. I have few inquiries. In fact, none on TransUnion at all, a couple on EQ, and 3 new ones for new accounts on Experian.
Oh...another thing. I received a cl increase of $1000 on one account and another account who didn't report the credit limit is now reporting it as I requested them to do so. A lot of what has transpired has been the direct result of dealing with the creditors themselves rather than the bureaus. I highly recommend letters, certified rr directly to creditors to accomplish quite a few of your goals. NO PHONE CALLS, though! Phone calls are useless and do not protect your rights.
Good point about the phone calls. I know from being a law clerk that EVERYTHING needs to be in writing and CC/RRR.
Those are substantial increases. Take a look at this chart of scores/rates from E-Loan's congressional testimony: http://www.house.gov/financialservices/92100lar.htm
Greg, Yes. It is substantial and while I haven't yet read the link you gave (I did browse it for a moment) I can tell you that the one thing, above all others that made a difference in my scores was the credit limit to debt ratio. I've told my story before and I'll tell it again. I lost a card once so to be safe I closed all my other credit cards. Little did I know how much taking such a "responsible" action would hurt me. Keep those lines of credit open and try to get credit limit increases. The only people who tell you that you have "too much credit available" are mortgage lenders as far as I can tell. If you aren't going for a mortgage get and keep as much credit available as you can. Even if you do go for a mortgage and they tell you this you can always close some then to satisfy your lender (under protest, of course). There is almost always enough time to do so when buying a house.
