Some of you might be aware that I am trying to buy a rental property sometime this coming Fall, and so I have been obsessed with my credit score. Recently, a reader ran across one of myincreasing credit score articles and decided to share the story of her identity theft and credit issues with me. In her email she asks, “Why is my credit score so terrible, and what should I focus on to raise it up…?”

**To protect user privacy online, real names and email addresses are not disclosed**

Dear 1mil,

I saw how you raised your score 100 points from 650 over the course of a year, and I was wondering if I am missing something. I recently found out that there were 6 collections accounts on my credit reports from an identity theft, and my score had gone down to a 609, which was horrifying. After a lot of time and headaches the collections accounts are being removed, but my score is now 666!!

Besides those accounts, I have not had a late payment on any of my cards or student loans for the past three years straight, and do not have extensive credit card debt (less than 2k). I expected that the removal of those collections accounts would raise my score a lot more, considering the length of my history (about 8 years) and because the one or two times I had a late payment was over 3 years ago.

I have student loans from law school, but my friends told me their scores actually went up when their law school loans were reported to their credit history.

Do you have any specific information or insight as to why my score is still so terrible, and what i should focus on to raise it up the way you were able to raise yours? I know eliminating the credit card debt is paramount but it is still frustrating to have such a terrible score after all the efforts i have made to maintain my credit and also get those false collections off my report, when my overall debt is about 50k, 48k of which is only student loans and nothing else.

Sincerely,
Ms. Sinful Sixes

P.S. I should also add that I have no defaulted loans or credit accounts and have never been late on any of my student loans; the late payments from over 3 years ago are from when i was a sometimes flighty and less attentive college student with her first credit card. not an excuse, just a reason. thanks!

First of all let me just say that your credit score being stuck at 666 can’t be a good sign! But here are the take aways from your email just to recap:

• Identity Theft with 6 Collections over 8 years
• One or Two Late Payments in the last 3 years, No new late payments
• Current Score is 666, Why is it Low?
• $50,000 in debt

Now let me address each one of these items individually and examine how they’re hurting your score and give you some insight on what you might do about them. There’s so much information to pour over here, but I’m going to to try to be thorough…

Dealing With Identity Theft »