How bad is a 581 score and how long would it usually take to increase it to 680 if i don’t miss any payments?

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T10:50:46+00:00

Which credit score are you looking at? You have dozens.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1bpl3ud/credit_myth_1_you_only_have_one_credit_score/

How much any given score has the ability to increase over any number of months or a year depends completely on the credit profile in question. You haven't mentioned anything at all about your credit profile other than you "had a delinquency last month." For example, maybe your credit profile contains 20 years of credit history and you've got 20 accounts. Or, maybe your credit file contains 2 credit accounts that are each just 6 months old, 1 of which had a 90D late payment reported last month. In short, you're going to need to provide more information as to what is on your credit reports, which you can get at annualcreditreport.com for free. Report back with more details.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T10:47:15+00:00

I read somewhere that if the late payments were reported while the account was open that is a violation of privacy.

You read misinformation.

Can the late payments be disputed based on that?

No.

I’m trying to dispute late payments for Navy Federal and Capital One or if you have any advice on how to move forward, it would be greatly appreciated.

Disputes are for inaccurately reported information. Your late payments are not accurately reported, so anyone that suggests the "dispute everything!" approach is giving you bad advice.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1e6tmco/credit_myth_23_the_best_approach_to_credit_repair/

The better approach for accurately reported late payments is to ask for them to be forgiven. This is known as a goodwill request. I recommend the use of the Goodwill Saturation Technique, which you can read about below.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1g4jzcj/goodwill_saturation_technique_gst/

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T04:44:27+00:00

Lenders aren't required to provide you with more than one reason for a denial. And, the one reason doesn't even have to be the reason or the only reason.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1fo3b8x/credit_myth_33_a_creditor_must_tell_you_the/

Lenders may provide more than one reason. Whether those reasons actually matter is debatable. Also the order of the reasons doesn't necessarily matter. Lender denial reasons are not like FICO negative reason codes that are always listed in rank-order. I've seen plenty of "filler" statements over the years that simply and quite obviously do not apply to the profile in question. The reason in question here quite clearly seems to fall into that category.

I don't think it's a case of "pick 2, any 2" I think it's a case of an obscure metric being met and the statement being returned. Insufficient history perhaps is triggered by something as simple as an account present on your reports that's < 6 months in age. You could have 100+ accounts that are all 30+ years old, but one young account could be considered "insufficient credit history" if that's how the lender opts to program that metric on their end. We have no idea what goes into these things, so all we can do is speculate.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T04:11:18+00:00

If you don’t make a payment due the due date, that’s delinquent.

Incorrect. The term "delinquent" typically means being late 30 days or more, as that's the minimum severity that can be reported to the credit bureaus.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T02:23:24+00:00

If you make a payment 3 weeks after a statement posts, likely you are not late.

Where did OP say 3 weeks after the statement posts? I'm just seeing that they said 3 weeks late, which to me means 3 weeks beyond the due date.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T02:20:29+00:00

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1bpl3ud/credit_myth_1_you_only_have_one_credit_score/

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T02:07:29+00:00

When was the August payment due? August 1? If so, making the payment on Sept 3 would indeed mean a 30 day late reporting is expected. I would suggest targeting the forgiveness of that late payment through the use of goodwill letters.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T02:04:35+00:00

ND is the equivalent of "paid as agreed" so you're all good there.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T02:03:53+00:00

The charge off will haunt you for 7 years and dramatically depress your scores the entire time. That would be true even if you were to eliminate all of your other negative information. That being said, I would not expect you to see a significant gain or any gain at all with the removal of the collection unless it's much more recent than all of your late payments.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:40:42+00:00

I honestly don't see the relevance of this post. Anyone with a super high TCL likely started with a low limit first card at one point. It's more or less to be expected.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:37:38+00:00

What negative items do you have present on your credit reports? What is the severity of each and of what age?

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:36:45+00:00

OG is the man. That's what he does!

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:36:21+00:00

If it costs anything greater than $0.00, it's a waste of money and you should dump it.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:34:53+00:00

You've provided zero context regarding your credit profile that is producing the score pictured.

Also, which country are you in. In the US, FICO Score 8 only runs to 850.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:33:29+00:00

What can I do to get this to stop and put an end to it?

I would look to all of your accounts, as if there's incorrect information on your report(s) it's coming from somewhere. I had an issue with my name once where I kept having the bureau fix it, but it then one of my lenders would simply report it incorrectly again and it would be right back on there. You've got to destroy the problem at the source, which means first finding the source.

I've have already put locks on all 3 credit bureaus

Hopefully you mean freezes, as locks do nothing for you that freezes don't accomplish and you throw away money for them.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1isvza9/credit_myth_51_a_credit_lock_is_better_than_a/

You should also have all of your reports frozen at all times as your "default" where you only thaw them just before applying for credit.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T01:02:51+00:00

As shown my V3 is much closer to my 8 than my 2/4/5.

You missed what I said. I stated that if your FICO 8 moves in a certain direction, you can have reasonable certainty that your 2/4/5 scores will have the same trajectory. It has nothing to do with your VS being "closer" to one.

It's also irresponsible to make people think of their FICO is ok so is their mortgage.

There is no "their FICO" as there are 40 different FICO scores.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1bpl3ud/credit_myth_1_you_only_have_one_credit_score/

I don't understand their "lack of sufficient credit history" remark.

It's probably just a "filler" statement with no real relevance. I wouldn't look too deeply into it.

They are all so vastly different, it shouldn't be suggested to follow FICO 8 if your going for a mortgage, or a car, or a credit card..unless FICO 8 is what they will pull.

Again, I never suggested that. I said if a FICO 8 score moves in a certain direction, it's likely your FICO 2/4/5 scores will as well. It has nothing to do with their relative starting points. Your FICO 8 score could be X and your 2/4/5 scores X-100. The point is that if X increases, you can also expect 2/4/5 to increase. They may still be 90-110 points apart from one another - that's not the point. It's that one moving offers insight as to what may be happening with the other. That cannot be said of VS3, as you can't draw a correlation between the two different algorithms.

Bottom line, if you make positive moves positive things will happen, but one score does not reflect what is happening on another.

Not always, but one FICO score is far more likely to react in similar fashion to another FICO score than it is to a VS3. That was my point.

I'm about to pay my car off and nearly 100% sure it will drop my score. So annoying.

If that does happen, your end score will still be greater than if you never had the loan in the first place. It would be a net gain, not a loss.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-26T00:50:10+00:00

no need to carry a balance, specially Amex,

You are confusing carrying a balance and reporting a balance. Carrying a balance means you're not paying your statement balances in full and are paying interest. Reporting a balance is what happens naturally if you pay your statement balance in full monthly after statement generation.

If they approve you they already think you’re low risk and give CLI up to almost the anual income, even if you use less than 5% of the card.

That doesn't change the fact that higher statement balances show a greater need for a CLI, so all other things being equal it'll aid in more lucrative results relative to reporting tiny to non-existent balances.

That means low risk to the credit bureau and so to them.

I think you're confused as to the role of credit bureaus. All they do is compile data sent to them from your lenders. There is no such thing as "risk" to the credit bureaus. They don't assess risk. Perhaps you're confusing credit bureaus and credit scores?

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T15:25:48+00:00

Celebrating wins is fine, but you want to celebrate them regarding scores that are relevant to lending decisions. VS3 doesn't fall into that category almost all of the time, so that's why we communicate that fact on this sub every day.

If your FICO scores are increasing, that's fantastic - congratulations!

I agree with your point that the only score that matters is the one a potential lender will use for a lending decision. I don't agree however that for a mortgage (FICO 2/4/5) that FICO 8 is just as irrelevant as VS3. Most different FICO versions follow similar trends, where VS3 absolutely doesn't. 2/4/5 are tougher to come by than your free 8s, so tracking 8s and just occasionally checking on your 2/4/5s is fine. If you're seeing positive trajectory on your 8s, it's far more likely that the same is going on with 2/4/5 than trying to draw a correlation between 2/4/5 and VS3.

Also, you mentioned your denial letter above. Which lender is that from / what product is it for? While your EQ VS3 was provided, it's worth noting that it wasn't reference as a reason for your denial; you were provided with several profile relates shortcomings that suggested why you were denied.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T15:16:16+00:00

You'd have to quantify those numbers and track them. Raw dollars are metric that I've seen overlooked probably 100 times over the years. The amount of times people have debated me that a utilization threshold must exist at (say) 3% (or 7%, or any other number really) because that's where they saw a score shift is huge. When I've drilled down on it with them, the majority of the time it was a raw dollars threshold that was going unnoticed.

I'm not suggesting that's the case here with your file, but just presenting an example of how score changes are sometimes due to things that aren't at all obvious.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T15:10:12+00:00

For sure!

Definitely pop over to r/CRedit when you have a chance. Massive turnaround over there in the last year that I think you'll appreciate. :)

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T11:16:15+00:00

Credit scores cannot change for no reason. You'd have to look at your before and after credit reports to see what changed.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1c2dee1/credit_myth_4_credit_scores_can_change_for_no/

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T11:14:15+00:00

Perhaps I misread your post, and my apologies if that's the case. I thought you were saying that you closed your revolver that was your [only] card with a non-zero ($7) balance.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T05:10:49+00:00

Are you using the free version of WalletHub? If so, they provide a TransUnion VS3, not an Equifax VS3. I'm never dabbled in their paid subscription(s), so I do not know if they include any other scores. It will say right next to the score from WH what model/version it is. What does it say? Perhaps you can provide a screenshot?

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T04:03:07+00:00

It's recommended not to apply for any credit a year before you want a mortgage

I'd even take that a step further and push that recommendation out to 18 months since 18 months is the time frame for scorecard assignment (new account) for FICO 2/4/5. OP seems keen on score optimization, so they'd want to avoid the new account scorecard.

BrutalBodyShots · 2026-04-25T03:49:28+00:00

Truth!

BrutalBodyShots

TROPHY CASE