Comments on: What to do (and NOT to do) When Trying to Fix Your Credit Score

By: sherry mcadams

sherry mcadams — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:01:19 +0000

i am trying to help my mother improve her credit score from 611 to 620. and i don’t know how to do that can you help. she is trying to buy her first house and needs to raise her score pretty quick.

thanks sherry mcadams 256-955-0278

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:15:48 +0000

Great article. A couple of tidbits and/or updates. First off, the FICO ‘08 model was changed in the later stages of development to include authorized users [a switch from what they stated at first]. You can see more about this at http://www.videocreditscore.com/fico-08-update/

I helped create the FICO Score Estimator at myFICO years ago. It’s a nice tool, but as users recommend, it’s a nice guide. You still need to see your actual scores.

By: James

James — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:53:17 +0000

I can confirm the accuracy of the FICO score calculator. I just got my score yesterday and my actual score was in the middle of the range the calculator gave me. I knew all of the questions without referencing my credit report… I guess it just depends on how much you like looking at all your accounts.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:10:01 +0000

When doing the CoPF, I got a submission from someone (paid blogger) praising the merits of getting credit through piggybacking. Not only is it unethical and legally touchy…it’s also no longer possible unless you become a full joint account holder. Even worse than paying for other forms of credit counseling.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:50:13 +0000

Controversial one: if you’re trying to fix your credit score, it might not be a good idea to pay a collection that’s more than a couple years old.

When payment is made on a collection account, collection agencies update credit bureaus to reflect the account status as “Paid Collection”. When this happens; the date of last activity becomes more recent. Since the guideline for credit scoring software is the date of last activity, recent payment on a collection account damages the credit score more severely.

By: Lily

Lily — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:20:37 +0000

I tried the Bankrate.com calculator. It gave me a 50-point range that did cover my actual score. However, a 50-point range is pretty wide and may not be helpful to someone near the cusp of “good” credit shopping for a loan. Moreover, the calculator asked a lot of questions that I would not have known had I not recently pulled a credit report. So it’s a decent but imperfect fix.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:16:18 +0000

Closing long-standing (old) accounts shortens your average length of account history, thereby lowering your score. Longer histories are good.