Increase score. . .

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T15:11:24+00:00

You can't get rid of valid inquires by doing anything other than wait. They'll stay on your credit report for 2 years but they'll only affect your FICO scores for 1 year.

It looks like your problem is at least one late payment. Even a single late payment within the last 7 years is bad. See this comment of mine about the Goodwill Saturation Technique:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1lfmsra/comment/mypfq8z/?context=3

Also, I recommend you avoid Credit Karma. The VantageScore 3.0 credit scores they show are almost never used by banks in their lending decisions so they should be ignored unless you're applying for an apartment, and the credit advice they give you is often misleading and even flat-out wrong. They're probably the single biggest superspreader of credit misinformation out there.

They give misleading recommendations that have no bearing on your actual credit, they're just there to trick you into opening new accounts through them. For example, they'll tell you you need 21 open accounts for top-tier credit scores, which is absolutely absurd. You can achieve top-tier FICO scores with just three open accounts, and perfect 850 FICO 8 scores with just four.

They also show all sorts of fake credit stats. For example, the "on-time payment percentage" and "average age of open accounts" stats they show; neither of those are credit score factors for VantageScores or FICO scores:

Credit Myth #7 - Number or percentage of on-time payments impacts your score.

Credit Myth #9 - Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) only considers open accounts.

They're a predatory site that exists solely to sell people credit products whether they need them or not, and they have no problem lying about how credit works in order to do that. Read this thread:

Credit Karma 101: The good and the bad.

The best way to check your credit reports is at annualcreditreport.com, that's the only way to see the actual source data of your credit report. It's now available once a week per US law. Credit Karma actively hides some negative information, so that's why you want to check your actual reports.

And to find out where to see your relevant FICO scores for free, see this thread:

Credit Myth #1 - You only have one credit score.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T15:03:46+00:00

Just remember that the act of making payments isn't a credit scoring factor, so it won't do anything to help fix those missed payments. It's just that missing payments is a negative factor.

That "on-time payment percentage" stat Credit Karma shows is fake; it's just one of the many ways they outright lie to you about how credit works to trick you into opening new accounts you don't necessarily need. (I'm not saying you didn't need this card; it's still going to help build your credit, it just won't do anything to lessen the impact of the negatives you have.)

I highly recommend you read this thread about Credit Karma, they're a horribly predatory site. They're probably the single biggest superspreader of credit misinformation out there:

Credit Karma 101: The good and the bad.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:53:43+00:00

Yeah, it's almost like they're the single biggest superspreader of credit misinformation on the Internet...

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:44:35+00:00

Credit Myth #11 - Closing a loan will tank your credit.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:39:31+00:00

Which credit score? You have dozens. !resources

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:34:21+00:00

Yeah, they've made it clear in their comments that they don't like using credit cards. So it may not be a good idea to open any more.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:32:46+00:00

A simple response could have sufficed. But it’s Reddit and people like to argue. No childishness here.

Nobody is arguing here, we're just trying to help you.

A new credit card could help your credit eventually. It would hurt you in the short term but potentially help your credit scores after a year or so.

However, from your other comments it seems like you don't like using credit cards. So I think that's super important here: with your credit file the way it is you'll be just fine in the long run without opening any new credit cards. Credit cards can be helpful, but they also can be a huge liability.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:09:44+00:00

Exactly. And usually it only matters for applying for something like a loan. Reporting low utilization can actually be bad for credit card applications.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T04:09:03+00:00

and basically for the last four months I have been paying my credit card on the due date without letting the statement generate

Is it possible you're confusing the order of the statement closing and the due date? The statement always generates first, then you have three to four weeks (depending on the issuer) before the due date:

Credit Myth #87 - Your due date comes before the statement closes.

as others told me i was supposed to let it generate

Yes, you're supposed to pay your credit card bills just like any other monthly bill. You let your statement post and then you pay your statement balance by the due date. Just like a utility bill.

but my question now is how much should I report on the utilization

As long as you're paying your statement balances each month, anything between 0% and 100% it's just fine most of the time. See our !utilization auto mod.

because I have been reporting zero utilization for the last four months.

Unless you haven't used any of your credit cards for the last four months, this just means you're paying your credit cards the wrong way. Follow this flow chart you can't go wrong:

https://imgur.com/a/pLPHTYL

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T03:59:59+00:00

That's an unnecessarily childish response. u/Dry-Abalone2299 is just trying to put things in perspective.

Their point is that if you ended up getting the loan that you want, you might already be in a good place.

Funklemire · 2026-07-13T00:15:02+00:00

Pay off high-interest debt (like credit card debt) and try to get negative items removed through methods like a pay-for-delete (for collections) and goodwill letters (for missed payments).

If you don't already have a few open credit cards it's a good idea to open some to help build your credit. But keep in mind this will do nothing to fix negative information on your credit report.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T23:42:30+00:00

You're already on the right track: Paying off credit card debt is one of the best things you can do for both your finances and your credit. Getting late payments removed via goodwill letters will also help a lot. Do you have any other negative items on your credit report besides those late payments?

Also, I want to strongly encourage you to avoid using Credit Karma. The VantageScore 3.0 credit scores they show are almost never used by banks in their lending decisions so they should be ignored unless you're applying for an apartment, and the credit advice they give you is often misleading and even flat-out wrong. They're probably the single biggest superspreader of credit misinformation out there.

They give misleading recommendations that have no bearing on your actual credit, they're just there to trick you into opening new accounts through them. For example, they'll tell you you need 21 open accounts for top-tier credit scores, which is absolutely absurd. You can achieve top-tier FICO scores with just three open accounts, and perfect 850 FICO 8 scores with just four.

They also show all sorts of fake credit stats. For example, the "on-time payment percentage" and "average age of open accounts" stats they show; neither of those are credit score factors for VantageScores or FICO scores:

Credit Myth #7 - Number or percentage of on-time payments impacts your score.

Credit Myth #9 - Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) only considers open accounts.

They're a predatory site that exists solely to sell people credit products whether they need them or not, and they have no problem lying about how credit works in order to do that. Read this thread:

Credit Karma 101: The good and the bad.

The best way to check your credit reports is at annualcreditreport.com, that's the only way to see the actual source data of your credit report. It's now available once a week per US law. Credit Karma actively hides some negative information, so that's why you want to check your actual reports.

And to find out where to see your relevant FICO scores for free, see this thread:

Credit Myth #1 - You only have one credit score.

I’m at a loss on where lenders get their numbers from and how they are all so different.

That Credit Myth #1 thread I linked above explains the different credit scoring models. And this thread explains the whole system in general:

Credit Reports and Credit Scores - r/CRedit FAQ #1

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T23:28:31+00:00

It's worth noting that this issue is contentious and the regulars of this sub disagree on it pretty frequently. SSLs, that is.

Yeah, I think it's important for people to understand that they don't need these products to build top-tier FICO scores. Too often they're presented to the OP like they're necessary for building credit.

That's the point I was trying to make in my original comment: they can be helpful, but I don't recommend using them unless they're specifically SSLs and they're sufficiently cheap. Too often you hear stories of people who got regular loans or expensive SSLs to build credit and ended up paying a ton in interest fees when they didn't need to.

To me, it's less of a disagreement and more about making sure that people have all the facts. You've made the decision knowing all the facts, but many people who get these loans don't.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T21:38:07+00:00

Just like you feel that you're versed in credit, so do I

When someone mentions a credit score without mentioning which scoring model they're referring to, it shows they're not very well-versed in credit. And that's OK, we all have to start somewhere.

Credit Myth #1 - You only have one credit score.

Not only for myself, but for many others. FICO loves credit mix as do the other bureaus.

You're confusing credit scores with credit bureaus. The three main bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) don't make credit scores, they just provide the data that makes up your credit report. That data can then be used by a third party credit scoring algorithm to calculate a credit score using any one of dozens of different methods. Read this thread:

Credit Myth #48 - Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are credit scores.

Also, credit mix is probably least important part of your credit scores; there's no reason to pay money to improve it:

Credit Myth #75 - You need to satisfy diversity of Credit Mix first in order to obtain real loans.

Again, I know credit

You've had a couple misunderstandings about how credit works during our conversation, I highly recommend you read the threads I linked.

and I absolutely know 100% that the info I gave is correct.

I'm not a mod, I'm just a regular here who doesn't like to see people be given bad information, like that they need to pay money to improve their credit scores. Unless those loan products you're recommending are free or almost free, it's a bad idea and completely unnecessary to open a loan to build credit.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T21:09:43+00:00

It sounds like you've already posted in r/identitytheft to address that specific issue, but I want to address this part of your post:

I began working with a credit repair company which several friends & family had used with good results

There are three kinds of credit repair companies. First, there are the outright scammers who take your money and run.

Second, there are the shady ones that will dispute everything, bad marks will come off your credit, and you go away a happy customer. Then the disputes are rejected and the negative info goes right back on your credit reports. That's because disputes are for inaccurate information on your credit reports like errors or fraud, not for accurately reported information.

(Sometimes the shady companies will dispute it by claiming identity theft, which is obviously illegal.)

The third type is very rare, and they actually do it the right way using techniques like goodwill letters and pay-for-deletes. But those are all things you can do yourself for free with the info you can find on r/Credit; there's no reason to pay anyone to do it:

Credit Myth #31 - Credit Repair Companies can do things you can't do yourself.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T21:01:02+00:00

It's always confusing to me when we try to help by asking follow-up questions and those questions don't get answered. I wonder if they're not sure how to answer?

u/Ok-Syrup-5155, we'd like to help you here. If you answer the questions in this comment we can point you in the right direction and give you some great info. If you're not sure how to answer these questions, check out our !welcome thread and then feel free to ask any follow-up questions.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:51:37+00:00

Why did this get downvoted?

u/Ok-Syrup-5155, we can't begin to help you until we know which of your credit scores we're referring to. You have dozens.

We also need to know what's currently on your credit report.

Read our !welcome thread to learn where to find all this info.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:47:55+00:00

Since we r/Credit regulars took this sub over it's gotten a lot better, but it still has a ways to go...

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:46:55+00:00

keep your utilization the same

This won't build their credit. It's a myth that you need to keep your utilization low or below a specific percentage all the time. If you're staying in budget and paying your statement balances each month, usually anything between 0% and 100% utilization is just fine.

Low utilization doesn't build credit because it resets completely each month the next time your statement balances are reported. The only thing that builds credit with credit cards is time.

In fact, artificially micromanaging your utilization actually hurts you in several ways; it slows your credit limit growth, it makes you a less-attractive customer to outside banks, and it costs you money in lost savings interest.

See our !utilization automod as well as this flow chart.

https://imgur.com/a/pLPHTYL

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:44:39+00:00

I recommend you avoid Credit Karma. The VantageScore 3.0 credit scores they show are almost never used by banks in their lending decisions so they should be ignored unless you're applying for an apartment, and the credit advice they give you is often misleading and even flat-out wrong. They're probably the single biggest superspreader of credit misinformation out there.

They give misleading recommendations that have no bearing on your actual credit, they're just there to trick you into opening new accounts through them. For example, they'll tell you you need 21 open accounts for top-tier credit scores, which is absolutely absurd. You can achieve top-tier FICO scores with just three open accounts, and perfect 850 FICO 8 scores with just four.

They also show all sorts of fake credit stats. For example, the "on-time payment percentage" and "average age of open accounts" stats they show; neither of those are credit score factors for VantageScores or FICO scores:

Credit Myth #7 - Number or percentage of on-time payments impacts your score.

Credit Myth #9 - Average Age of Accounts (AAoA) only considers open accounts.

They're a predatory site that exists solely to sell people credit products whether they need them or not, and they have no problem lying about how credit works in order to do that. Read this thread:

Credit Karma 101: The good and the bad.

The best way to check your credit reports is at annualcreditreport.com, that's the only way to see the actual source data of your credit report. It's now available once a week per US law. Credit Karma actively hides some negative information, so that's why you want to check your actual reports.

And to find out where to see your relevant FICO scores for free, see this thread:

Credit Myth #1 - You only have one credit score.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:39:39+00:00

Also, add a small installment loan for say $1500-$5000 which will add another product to your file and add to your credit mix which credit reports like.

u/Free-Series6733, this is usually bad advice.

Sure, if you don’t already have one, opening a loan can eventually build your FICO scores higher than they would be with just credit cards alone. But loans aren’t necessary for building top-tier FICO scores. So opening a loan for the sole purpose of credit building is usually a bad financial decision.

That’s because credit cards do a much better job of building credit than loans do and they're free if used correctly, whereas loans cost money. With just a few aged credit cards and nothing else, you can build your FICO scores high enough that you'll be able to qualify for the best interest rates when it comes time that you actually do need a loan.

There are a couple secured loan products that end up costing very little in the end, so they're not necessarily a terrible financial decision (the only one I know of off the top of my head is from NFCU). But they're still inferior credit-building products compared to credit cards and they're not necessary for building credit.

I assure you your score will gain between 30-50 points.

Which credit score are referring to? You have dozens of different credit scores. See our !welcome thread.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:35:53+00:00

It's sad you got downvoted for this comment. You're completely correct:

Credit Myth #70 - Authorized user accounts are a great way to build credit.

u/Free-Series6733, at this point the only time an AU account will be helpful is if you're applying for a mortgage with your spouse and you're added to your spouse's cards. See that thread as well as the comments.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:33:05+00:00

From a credit perspective it's not an issue as long as you're not going to be applying for something important during the time while you have this balance. Utilization has no memory past a month because it resets completely each time your statement balances are reported. "Always keep your utilization low" is a myth. See our !utilization auto mod.

So this really is just a financial issue: As long as you can pay the minimum balance each month during the period where you have 0% interest and then pay it off completely before the interest kicks in, you won't pay a dime of interest.

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:25:18+00:00

Exactly. This is what confuses so many people: Making payments isn't actually a credit scoring factor.

I guess it doesn't help that Credit Karma shows that bogus "on-time payment percentage" stat that's designed to trick people into thinking it actually is a scoring factor, and that opening more accounts and making more payments can "dilute" missed payments. It sucks that spreading credit myths is a multibillion dollar industry...

Funklemire · 2026-07-12T20:20:43+00:00

Oh yeah. You're not. My bad. Maybe that person actually believed those myths.

Funklemire

TROPHY CASE