Why Is My Credit Score Not Going Up?

Is your credit card score still in the same place? Despite all attempts, has your credit card score improved? Ensuring you have a good credit card score has a vital role in quickly determining you will get mortgages. Many people often wonder why is my credit score not going up, but they fail to see something more complex that lies behind.

Your credit card score has an important role in your financial life. Thus, it is necessary to maintain it. However, not having a credit card score will only take things downhill. Even if you have a credit score, it is easy to get an excellent credit score.

You need to work your way through showing responsibility for years and earn it gradually. There is no quick method to increase credit score. It will go up slowly with on-time payments and paying them in full before due date.

Even if your credit card score does not go up after paying all the bills, things can become pretty complicated. Whether you want a home loan, open a bank account, or get insurance, your credit card score will determine how much you will get. The easiest way to stay out of credit card defaults is to ensure you make payments on time. A low credit score is a result of late or default payment. But, not every time the credit card score goes down, sometimes it tends to remain the same.

If you do not know how to fix the issue, get in touch with experts. But, if you like to do it yourself, here are the common tips for you to review your credit situation.

Why Is My Credit Score Not Going Up

 

Have You Reviewed Your Credit Report?

Before you jump to find the conclusion of why is my credit score not going up, you will need to check your credit card report. Reviewing your credit card report can have an important role in making things easy for you.

You can download all your credit card reports and eventually proceed to find out the flaws. Basic flaws are easy to find, but it is necessary to check the credit card thoroughly. Reviewing your credit card may often take three to four hours, so make sure that you have enough patience.

Avail your right to a free credit report guaranteed by law through Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to you. To get free credit reports, head over to AnnualCreditReport. You need to give your personal details including Social Security Number. Once they verify your details by asking you some personal questions from SSN, they will send you the credit report in snail mail in a few days.

Once you get or download your credit report, you need to look for all factors that are currently not improving. There are generally five different factors of credit score you need to take a look at.

After reviewing your credit report, the next few steps should be easy to answer. The reason why your credit score is not going up will lie in one of those reasons.

 

Is The Outstanding Card Balance Too High?

The first thing you should check for in your credit card report is if the balance is too high. Around 30% of your credit score depends on credit card utilization or how much limits you have used. The credit card utilization ratio is easy to check. You can check the ratio by dividing the total credit card limit by using the amount you have used.

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Make sure to do the math correctly to determine how much credit balance you have used. Often a stagnant credit score or low credit card score results from a credit utilization ratio being more than 30%. You need to analyze your payment history and other aspects to examine the credit card impact thoroughly. Using your credit card more can put you at risk.

If you want your credit card score to go higher, you need to use around 10% or less of the available limit. However, this in no way implies that you should not use your credit card at all. The best way to maintain your credit card score is to make regular payments and avoid having high balances.

If you too much outstanding card balance even with a 0% balance transfer credit card, it is going to work against you. From repaying balance perspective, balance transfer credit cards make your life easy. But, from credit score perspective, hoarding outstanding balances and just paying the minimum on credit card doesn’t work.

Does your outstanding balance looks good against total credit limit? Alright, then it is time to check the factors that can be affecting your credit score from going up.

 

Is There Something Negative On Your Credit Report?

Often people have a low credit utilization ratio and even pay bills on time, but have a stagnant credit card score. A low credit card score in all aspects will have a huge negative impact on your credit score. Often, the reason for a stagnant credit score is generally due to some derogatory remarks in your credit report.

Are you thinking you will just escape credit card debt by filing bankruptcy? Defaults and bankruptcies will last in your credit card for a long, and the record may sometimes even stick for seven years. Remember, the potential lenders will be wary of lending any credit to you, if you take these options.

The good thing is that these records will disappear after seven years. The negative impact will, however, diminish with the passing years. One thing to note is that you can do nothing by yourself for fixing a negative impact on the credit card.

Make sure to manage your credit card wisely over these years, so you can eventually develop a strong credit score with time. You may also reach out to experts for legal or financial advisors to fix your credit.

What Are Derogatory Remarks In Credit Report?

Derogatory remarks in credit report includes the following negative items against you

  • Missed payments – This occurs when you fail to pay on time. Some credit card issuers may be willing to work with you and not report first missed payment, if you repay soon. But, after they will report all missed payments to credit bureaus. So, the only way to avoid this remark is to pay bills responsibly on time.
  • Collections – If you never pay your debt after a long time, the debt becomes a non-performing asset and is sent to collections to retrieve at least a part of the debt. While you may think this is a winning situation for you, your credit profile will become much weak after collections go into your credit report.
  • Repossession – Repossession happens after collection stage. If you never repay and have no means or debt repayment plan, then they may repossess items from you
  • Foreclosure – If you have your home foreclosed on you, then that enters on your credit report as a failure to repay mortgage on time. Making sure even before taking mortgage is the best way to avoid foreclosure later.
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If you don’t have these derogatory remarks on your credit report, then it is great. Check the next few factors on why is your credit score not going up. The culprit may be one of them.

Is Your Credit Utilization Ratio And Credit History Good?

Before you proceed, it is essential that you thoroughly analyze the downloaded credit card report.

Your credit card report will provide you with proper insight into whether your credit card score is on the same track. A good credit utilization ratio of below 10% and strong credit history will have a strong impact on your credit score.

If you are not able to stick to this, at least make your credit utilization is below 30%. This is the absolute minimum credit utilization ratio to commit to. Otherwise, your credit score will be hurt.

On the contrary, you may be having a low credit history, which is keeping your credit score stagnant. If you have not many credit history years, then expect it to not move too much. Also, if you get new credit cards, then your average age of accounts will drop, there by there may be a temporary drop.

If these credit factors are poor, it is one primary reason to answer your question, “why is my credit score not going up?”

Many people often reach out to credit card companies, to know why their credit score is not going up, without checking their credit reports. Before filing a dispute, one should prefer fixing the credit reports all by themselves. However, fixing the credit report by yourself will take longer than usual. Hence, it is necessary to get in touch with the companies who can fix credit card scores for you quickly, thereby avoiding any defaults.

 

Are There Errors In Your Credit Report?

One of the best ways to make sure your credit card score goes up is to check for all flaws and errors. If you have your credit card report with you, make sure to analyze them thoroughly. Specific errors can often make your credit card score low. Hence, this is the way it should always be.

Errors In Credit Report

The errors can vary from small to huge, so you will need to analyze everything. The errors may include a misspelled name or even identity theft. If you find mistakes that can severely negatively impact your credit score, you need to take care of it and eventually file a dispute. You should file a dispute letter to the respective credit reporting agency.

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Make sure to always send the mail or letter by a certified email id so you can have a record of the date you have sent. Also, make sure to attach necessary documents to support enough claims for your dispute. Avoid sending original documents. If you have strong and more evidence to prove your claims about an error in your credit card, the credit bureau will eventually remove it at a fast pace.

The credit card will take a maximum of 30 days to verify and reply to your claim. If the organization cannot verify the claim or does not get back to you in 30 days, the error should be removed from your credit file.

 

How Can You Make Your Credit Score Go Up?

Make sure to keep close watch on your report to determine why is my credit score not going up. When you know your scores, it becomes easy for you to determine which factors to improve.

You must analyze all the risk factors that may have an impact on your credit score. It would help if you made certain changes so that the credit score can reflect in your account.

Some of the prominent ways to improve the situation include the following

Make Timely Payments

The lenders will always check how diligently you pay your bills before providing you the loans. The past payment performance will act as a great indicator of your future performance. If you make your bill payments on time, things will become easy for you.

Pay All Your Debts

If you have any outstanding debts in your credit card account, make sure to clear it. One answer to your query on why your credit score is not going up is due to maybe debts in your account. The lenders always grant loans for ratios of less than 30%.

Never Close An Unused Credit Card

Many people close their unused credit cards, but it can be a great way to stay relevant in the market. Closing the account will only increase the utilization ratio. However, keeping the same amount but fewer accounts open will only low the credit card scores.

Always look for an option to downgrade into a no annual fee credit card with not much bells and whistles.

 

Conclusion

Wondering why is my credit score not going up is not enough. You need to keep a check on your credit card activity to avoid any damage. If it never goes up, reaching out to professionals will play an important role in getting expert credit recommendations. They will check the entire report and help you avoid financial difficulties.

2 thoughts on “Why Is My Credit Score Not Going Up?”

  1. Thanks. I was wondering why my credit score is not going up at all. But, this guide helped me nail down where the problem was. I will come back every week to check more quality information.

    Reply
    • I’m glad I was able to help you. That’s exactly the goal of CryptoandFire.

      Reply

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