I've paid my bills but credit score is still low?

Here is how your credit score is figured:

* 35 percent of the score is based on your payment history. This makes sense since one of the primary reasons a lender wants to see the score is to find out if (and how timely) you pay your bills. The score is affected by how many bills have been paid late, how many were sent out for collection, any bankruptcies, etc. When these things happened also comes into play. The more recent, the worse it will be for your overall score.

* 30 percent of the score is based on outstanding debt. How much do you owe on car or home loans? How many credit cards do you have that are at their credit limits? The more cards you have at their limits, the lower your score will be. The rule of thumb is to keep your card balances at 25% or less of their limits.

* 15 percent of the score is based on the length of time you've had credit. The longer you've had established credit, the better it is for your overall credit score. Why? Because more information about your past payment history gives a more accurate prediction of your future actions.

* 10 percent of the score is based on the number of inquiries on your report. If you've applied for a lot of credit cards or loans, you will have a lot of inquiries on your credit report. These are bad for your score because they indicate that you may be in some kind of financial trouble or may be taking on a lot of debt (even if you haven't used the cards or gotten the loans). The more recent these inquiries are, the worse for your credit score. FICO scores only count inquiries from the past year.

* 10 percent of the score is based on the types of credit you currently have. The number of loans and available credit from credit cards you have makes a difference. There is no magic number or combination of types of accounts that you shouldn't have. These actually come more into play if there isn't as much other information on your credit report on which to base the score.

Payment history is the biggest factor. That means on time payments. You cannot be late on payments at all.

The second biggest thing is debt ratio. That means getting your debt paid down, which you are in the process of doing. You need to give it a couple months after you pay a debt off to show up.

You are right about applying for new cards. Too many of them hurt your score. Try applying for a secured credit card. You might want to do this at a bank you do business with that already has a history of you. A secured card, used wisely, could help your score.

It sounds like you are doing everything right though and it's just going to take a bit more time for the scores to go up.

Good luck and keep paying that debt off.

Faye brought up several valid points about how your credit is broken down and applying for too many credit cards hurt your score. But I have some ideas that should be able to help out.

1. Secured credit card- I agree with Faye on this. Don't apply for any more credit cards. Get a secured credit card. You might want to start where you do your banking first. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Orchard Bank(HSBC) are 3 major credit card companies that offer secured cards that report to all 3 bureaus every month. Start out with a small deposit (like $200) that you can get $200 in credit. Make small purchases that you can pay off in full on time every month. Try to increase the deposit every 3 months if you can to raise your limit. After about a year after perfect payment history, you'll get your deposit back (with possible interest) and you'll have an unsecured card. Also the higher the credit line, the better it looks when it is unsecured.

2. You said that you're renting, but that doesn't show. Guess again. Maybe not with the "big 3", but there's an agency that not only reports rent, but ultilities, insurance, cable, phone, wireless, etc. and compiles it in a monthly scored report that can be used in addition to your traditional reports. PRBC is the only CRA(consumer reporting agency) that allows customers to furnish verified payment history to be reported and considered as credit. I've supplied the link to the website below, there's too much for me to say it all here, I just say to check it out. It will help.

3. Also if you know any close friends or relatives with good credit, ask if they would add you as an authorized user. This would be for reporting purposes only, so you wouldn't want a card. If you're able to do that, make sure that the credit card company does reports that account on your credit as well.

4. And once again, don't apply for any more credit. Every inquiry is a 2-3 point hit against your score that lasts for up to 2 years.

hopefully all the information that we all have provided will help you out in the future...

Good Luck

Have you pulled your credit report from all 3 credit bureaus? Some creditors only report to one credit bureau, they do not have to report to all three. Also, if you get denied credit you can request a copy of your credit report that they pulled from. Inquiries on your credit report can hurt your credit score too not just your debt. So I would not go around to a bunch of different places trying to get credit. They pull your credit report and they become a hard hit inquire that can hurt your credit score. Also, your credit score changes on a daily basic.

How long ago did you pay off the credit card and jewelry store? and when did the medical stuff get written off? If it just been in the last few months then other creditors think you are just paying off stuff but can't handle credit. Give it a few more months and try again to get a credit card or a store card but only one or two.

If you want to pull a free credit report you can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and it will not be an inquire on your credit report. This site does not charge you anything to pull from all 3 credit bureaus but it does charge if you want your credit score. You can only pull one a year from the date you pull your credit report, so I would not pull from all three at one time. Wait a few months and pull from a different one then wait a few more months and pull from the other.

I work for a non-profit that offer free credit counseling. This is want I would advice to any of my clients.

Be patience and you will be able to option credit. And when you do make sure your make all your payments on time.

It's great you're committed to improving your credit.

Congratulations.

Unfortunately, you're missing some key information regarding credit and credit scoring.

First, 35% of your FICO pertains to payment history as 15% pertains to Length of Credit history.

Paying off bad debt does NOT guarantee a score increase.

In fact, the listing now reads, "Paid Collection" after you've your debt.

Here's what I recommend: Which CRAs are reporting these bad listings?

Dispute with the CRAs...one listing per dispute letter.

Simultaneously, force debt validation with the Creditor (that is, the owner of the debt).

You may find the Creditor, whom you've paid, simply doesn't validate and the listing comes off.

That's what you want...DELETIONS! If it/they don't come off right away, wait 40 days and do it again.

This time, find inaccuracies in the listing(s)...anything, i.e. amount, fees, Date of First Delinquency (DOFD -- big one as Creditors/Collection Agencies regularly re-age accounts).

You can still get deletions...it's a bit more time consuming now.

You are not alone...many, many people do NOT have a clue about negotiating a reduced settlement and deletion.

They try to do what's right. Can't fault people for trying to do what they believe is right.

The laws don't necessarily take what's right into consideration, hence the bad credit listings after you've paid.

They pay and naturally believe there credit will now improve.

This is absolutely the reason your score is still around 600.

From now on, don't pay unless the Creditor agrees to provide a favorable listing.

To get good credit, consider getting added to a friend's or family member's SEASONED credit card as an Authorized User.

We regularly hear from people raising their scores 120+ with this secret strategy.

To learn more about becoming an AE, click on the following link to get details: http://www.fixmyuglycredit.com/Improve_FICO.html

Take your time. Give your credit a rest. Take maybe 6 mos-1 year and do not apply for or do anything that requires credit. Your score will increase slowly but surely. Also, make sure that those accounts on your report are reported correctly and dispute all of them, if the creditor does not respond in 30 days, they get removed.

First get a copy of your combined credit reports from the three

Credit bureaus and write the credit bureau and dispute the negative information

On the file one or two items at a time

The beginning should start: Pursuant to my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting

Act, I hereby challenge the credit report entry(ies) as noted below:

List Specific debts negative information , the dispute wording should be

(I do not owe this debt, I want this deleted from my file) or (This is not my bill, I want this

Deleted from my file)

The credit bureau then has 30 days to verify the negative credit information or remove

it. negative information can stay on your credit file for up to 7 years, a chapter 7

bankruptcy will stay on 10 years, dispute all negative information if the information

cannot be verified by the credit bureau it will be removed.

I hope this helps

Unfortunatley, it sounds as if you handled your old credit poorly. Yes, you some paid off, and you're in the process of paying some off now...and two accounts are written off. You have not other positive revolving or installment debt that would report to the bureaus, so, yeah, you kind of have to live with bad credit until stuff starts falling off.

The best thisn for you to do to get a positive tradeline reported on your credit report would be to obtain a secured credit card.

I just found out that if u pay your bill, it will take time for your score to go up like 6mo to a year,

From the time u pay if off it takes 7 years to get removed from your credit report :( but once those thing are off it could help your score..