[USER]

Hey all! Visiting my brother this week and he was complaining about his credit score. He is well off financially and very responsible.

However, about 5 years ago, he received a bill for medical equipment to my parent’s house since he had recently moved out of state, that my parents missed, and somehow also missed the follow up bills.

As soon as he found out, he paid the bill in full but it was too late since it was already in collections.

Love my parents but this is not the first time this has happened where they missed or forgot about something important sent to them.

Now his credit score is still under 700. He owns a house, a rental property and a boat, all of which have higher interest rates due to his credit score.

He has great income, great payment history (pays in full monthly), and great length of credit history due to being an authorized user on my parents card for many years.

He has even paid a lot of money to a credit repair/recovery service already and it only went up maybe 20-30 points.

I feel bad for him and want to help try to repair his score.

He has a capital one quicksilver card and i suggested he should try to increase his available credit yesterday but they denied it because they recently increased him from 10k to 13k.

The only factor it seems he can control at this point is his amount of available credit, so he probably needs another card. Any recommendations?

Any experience with secured credit cards?

That seemed like a good option because he has the cash available.

I believe this kind of thing falls off after about 7 years, but i want to help him before then if possible.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

[Wallace]

Why are you overly concerned about your brother’s credit score. Credit score = I love debt.

Pay off the debt and stop borrowing.

Credit score means nothing if you don’t borrow.

[Jeane]

Dispute the collection? Won’t it fall off in a couple of years anyway?

Is he actively trying to use his credit for a major purchase now?

[Alana]

I’m not an expert in credit scores. But if he wants to increase his available credit, and he has cash available, why not pay off some of what he owes already?

Would that not be the same thing, with the added bonus of paying less interest by paying it off sooner?

[Wambui]

How many credit cards does he have?

If he’s good with money, he should add more credit cards.

Chase and bank America explain how credit score is calculated.

[Frank]

Sounds like his utilization rate is too high since he seems to be buying everything on credit.

And yeah, the boat probably has something to do with it.

Why does he even worry about it? It will fix itself over time if he just minds his finances.

[Damon]

Pay his bills on time moving forward and it will sort itself out.
Sounds like he financed all this stuff after his score took a hit.

[Kayleigh]

Why does he need a higher credit score so soon?

If he’s been making on time payments it will get better over time.

[Michele]

The cost of refinancing his secured debt may be cost prohibitive to him actually doing so, despite any increase in his scores.

When he applied for the credit limit increase, that was a “hard” hit on his credit score, which more than likely dropped his scores further.

Any bank will give him a secured scredit card. That will help with building his credit, but only if he understands how credit works.

I don’t think he has an understanding how “credit” or “credit scores” work.

If he did, he would have known not to request anther increase when he had just gotten one.

There are 3 credit reporting agencies. It’s rare for a credit card company to pull all three scores. I think your brother could benefit from learning a bit more about how credit works.

All banks provide free resources to their customers on how credit works, and tips to improving your credit score.

Since he was recently denied “something” related to his credit (a limit increase), he has special access to what was used in that denial. It sounds like he already has a lot of secured debt.

He should meet with his banker and explain what he is trying to do.

They have a way to do a “soft” pull on his credit and give him the best advice.

Best of luck to him!!!

[Author]

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