I just ordered my credit reports and score for the first time. Alhough my overall score was good (858), there was a string of >30d late payments from a long-ago student loan that I would consider disputing. Is it worth the effort, or is a 858 "good enough" with no marginal benefit for resolving these old late payments?

Also, according to Transunion, it seems the main drags on my score were "Not enough revolving debt experience" and "Too few open revolving accounts" and "Too many inquiries". So I guess contrary to common sense, they want me to open up additional credit cards and charge more? Normally I use one credit card and pay every month.

Thanks

This score is from Transunion, the upper limit of the scale if now 925 (previously 850).

There was an article in last month's Money magazine about this exact issue. The person who wrote the article had one credit card that she paid off each month - which made it difficult for her to qualify for additional credit.

I'll dig up that article and let you know what her advice was.

With respect to the >30 day payments, I'm not sure what you can do to get that off your credit report, but you might want to be upfront with potential readers of your credit report (including landlords, employers, or mortgage companies) and let them know that will find that blemish on your credit report, and explain what happened.

Zip Code: aschwartz@mdtaxes.com

I would dispute the charge.........you have nothing to lose by doing this.

Zip Code: dr_ericmiller@yahoo.com