More improvement?

[nosensegrafix]

Not sure if this is quite the right section of the forum, but it was the most pertinent I could find. I have bounced back from a high 500 hundred score in my 20's to a 660 a half year ago when I was able to buy a home. Since then, I had to charge about 3 grand to credit cards for our wedding which is just about all paid off now. So now I have that open credit, but then quite a bit of good paid on time debt elsewhere. Everything is always paid on time, but my score is just not budging above a 606 now. Any more than the normal average things I already know and practice? Thanks in advance

[Lian]

Timely payments are, of course, the backbone of credit scoring.
However, maintaining timely payments is a slow growth in actual score, as it mainly affects age of accounts and aging of old derogs. It does not result in significant shorter-term gains.

With a score below the mid-600's, there are apparently some prior derogatory items, and/or you have very high % util on existing revolving credit.

Removal of old derogatory items is the quickest way to achieve significant score advances.
Particularlymajor derogs, such as charge-offs and collections.

What attempts have been made to remove those prior derogs? How old are they, and when do they reach their credit report exclusion dates?

% util is also important, but can be corrected month to month. The harder and more long term issue is dealing with prior derogs.

[gcooperville]

First off, congrats on bumping your score as far as you have.

The key now is to lower your credit/used credit ratio. In other words, pay off your debt as fast as you can. Not only will this help raise your score, you'll also save money in the long run due to interest savings. Formulate an aggressive payment plan (maybe min. payment plus $250 a month) and stick to it.


Greg

[J.A.]

I don't know why people think that when they pay off negatives their scores will rise. It will not happen unless you have revolving debt that has utilization of 30% of the limit. This will prevent your score from bottoming out. Even if your working on bringing your balance down while you are paying off old negative debt it will help. I've seen my clients come to me after having paid off negative debt and have no credit scores, because they had no other positive credit especially revolving debt.

[nosensegrafix]

Thanks for your reply. You are correct, I had a number derogatory issues 7-10 years ago. I paid them off, and got my score up quite a bit. There is 2 left showing on my reports. One large settlement/write off, and another settlement for just a couple hundred bucks. Its been awhile since I have studied this, but are you implying that eventhough they are legitimate debts, I can still try to have them removed? I am roughly two years away from them dropping off anyway, but anythig would help right now.

As far as my % of util debt, it had been pretty high for awhile to help pay for our wedding, but now all revolving debt is pretty much paid off, and all that is left is my auto loans and one personal loan a took out to pay off a bunch of the earlier debt, all of which have been paid on time.