I pay off my balances every month, never late, but my credit score is not going up-any advice?

Question

I have never been late with a payment. Using my credit cards mthly and paying off the balances every month. However, my score has not gone up in more than two years. I am over forty and own a home.

Answer 1

If nothing has changed, there's no reason why your credit score should change.

It doen't just keep going up forever because you haven't missed a payment. Eventually, it will hit a stable point, based on your finances (as seen by the credit agency).

Answer 2

If one of your credit cards is providing an updated score each month, check the list of comments they give. Some things take time, such as age of the accounts. Ohers have no history.

While the trajectory of the account may not seem to be moving, I would expect that a look at the score each month should show it moving in a narrow range during the year. Each month my utilization varies. Some months I run more expenses through my cards. One particular month I run my life insurance bill trough my credit card, that causes my utilization to spike, and the next month my score drops by 10-20 points. Two months later everything is back to normal.

It is possible that you have reached a set point based on your history and current usage.

Answer 3

I recently had this issue. I have a mortgage and a credit card (that I pay off monthly) and no other debt. What I found was happening is that the card was reporting my outstanding balance which would show what % of available credit I'm using. I was paying off the card near the date that it was due so it appeared that I was using a larger percentage of my available credit which can reduce your credit score. I started paying off my balance earlier (typically within a week of the statement coming out) and my credit score increased within a few months. Typically what they are looking for is your use % to be less than 25% or so which is pretty easy to exceed if you are only using one card.