I AM TRYING TO INCREASE MY FICO SCORES. CURRENTLY MY EQUIFAX FAKO SCORE IS AT 559 FROM 445 LAST WEEK. THERE ARE SEVERAL NEGATIVE ACCOUNTS ON MY REPORT THAT INCLUDE A BANKRUPTCY(DISCHARGED 06/2003), A JUDGEMENT 03/2001 (IN DISPUTE), A COLLECTION ACCOUNT FROM 06/2000, AND TWO PAID COLLECTIONS THAT LIST A ZERO BALANCE MARKED PAID AND CLOSED. I HAVE TWO INQUIRIES THAT SHOULD BE REMOVED THIS MONTH AND TWO SECURED CARDS THAT SHOULD HOPEFULLY BE REPORTING SOON. IF MY JUDGEMENT AND THE TWO INQUIRIES ARE REMOVED FROM MY REPORT, SHOULD I EXPECT MY SCORES TO INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY? WOULD THE ADDITION OF TWO NEW SECURED CARDS HURT OR HELP MY FICO SCORES. WHAT CAN I DO TO IMPROVE MY SCORES. IF I REMOVE THE TWO PAID COLLECTION ACCOUNTS IT WOULD GET RID OF MY HISTORY. MY PREVIOUS DISPUTES REMOVE MY LATEST HISTORY DATING BACK TO 1995 AND I CANT GET IT BACK. HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY SCORES?
The complete removal of negative items is the fastest way to increase your score. If you have positive TLs, paying the balances down to near zero helps quite a bit too. An inquiry dropping off will only make a minimal difference. It's been my experience after monitoring my CR daily for about 2 months now that a new acct reporting tends to give you about a 10 pt drop...My proof is that I've had 2 new accts added to my CR during this time and each resulted in a 10 pt drop. Although, paying them on time will negate that drop in a relatively short period of time.
