I've paid all bills on time for 3-4 years but still scores are low!

[411ldavi]

I have several problems showing up on my credit report -
1) too many inquiries - how do I stop these? how do I make this have less impact? what can I do to fix this?
2) collection account - this item is not my bill; this is a medical bill, paid by insurance, but provider says it was not paid and put it on my credit report as a collection, how do I fix this?
3) revolving credit ratio is too high - I only use one credit card, have a $10K limit with $6K on the card - should I get another credit card and transfer half of the balance?
4) new account, too new - I don't have a new account, I just raised the credit limit on my credit card to help my credit score. Did this backfire?
I want to refi my residence but I'm not getting good rates. These are all fixable but I don't know how! I have no judgements or any other negatives.
Please help me get this fixed, I deserve a better score!!!!!! This is so frustrating!

[improving]

1.) Too many inquires.
You can try disputing these and list them and mark them as unknown. (some may be removed that way) lately I haven't had much luck getting them removed though. I think someone on here mentioned they did it on line (I think through Experian and got a lot removed)

2.) Medical Collection account.
In your case - I'd get the proof it was paid by insurance, you should have a statement or request one from insurance company. Send that to the provider and I'd demand they need to delete from cb's since it was not accurate at all.

3.) Ratio.
I would try and pay as much down as you can on your card. I think the ratio should be lower - like at 30% - in your case $3k then. Just continue to get it down there. No, I don't really think getting another card and transferring balance would really do much good - though it could possibly. ? tough to say. I think it can be fairly hard to get credit cards and most may want the entire balance transferred, which may not do any good anyway.

4.) New account.
hmmm. that one - I don't know. I don't think it should report as new account if you just raised credit limit - which actually shouldn't of backfired - that should help!

Those are my thoughts, maybe others can jump in and offer more advice or suggestions.

[Nixer]

My quick thought would be DO NOT get another card and transfer the balance. This will give you yet another inquiry that you are also trying to remove.
I have disputed 1 inquiry in the past and I got the reply back that they did not investigate them and they will come off in 2 years. I do not remember which CRA it was though, but never hurts to try.
I believe you can also send a non pp letter to the company that placed the inquiry.