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My student loan stopped showing, as opposed to showing closed, as of November.  Not sure what's going on with it, I'm still in college and I should show an ongoing balance.  Better to not show at all than to show negatively I suppose.

wouldn't the most recent report continue to show until it expired or was reported paid in full?

I have 3 credit cards with Chase out of my 8 total credit accounts.  Chase offers lots of perks for opening accounts (hence my having 3) but does a poor job of taking care of customers, in fact the tend to screw over they customers with fees and high interest whenever possible.  The cards I have are the Chase Flex Rewards, Chase Amazon.com rewards, and Chase Freedom.  Among all my credit accounts Chase has the worst interest rates with the Chase Amazon.com at over 21% purchase APR!  I requested it lowered given my credit score above 750, perfect credit history, and on the basis that every non Chase account I have has an APR below 14%; I was refused for a APR reduction.  The other problem with Chase is all of the rewards programs they offer are below par.  You have to reach certain points values before you can cash in and you can only cash in specific amounts of points at a time.  I intend to close my Chase Amazon.com account as soon as I can cash out some rewards.

You should review your actual credit report.

annualcreditreports.com offers one free report from each bearau every year.

get a credit card with no annual fee, you don't have to use the card but if you do, simply pay it off in full when the bill comes and you will never pay a penny of interest fees.  If you get a rewards card and use it, you can even earn money.  I've made over $1,000 in rewards and never paid any interest.

call the collections agency and plead your case, sometimes they will.

Save up your money, the more you can put down, the less your credit score affects your purchasing ability.

contact the credit beauras with the inaccuracies and report the ID theft.  They can walk you through the process over the phone.

It depends on many variables, like the previous person said, a lower credit utilization ratio may improve your score.  The set backs are the increased inquires put a small dent in your score (only a few points usually) but even more so, requests for new lines of credit and sometimes even credit limits that are too high may increase your "risk".  High credit limits are a sign of earned credit worthiness but also imply that you have the ability to access a lot of debt going into your mortgage, additionally, the request for new credit lines right before taking a loan are a red flag presenting the question, "why does this person need additional credit right before making the investment in a home purchase?"  If you have not already sat down with a mortgage broker, this is a good time to meet with one and discuss your credit score and these specific questions.

Your length of job rarely effects your credit worthiness unless you are applying for a large loan for a car or house, in which case it is important that you show you have a very reliable income.  For this it will also help if your jobs have all been in the same career path.  If you are trying to build your credit score up, start with a secured credit card and patiently wait until your score rises enough to get more credit cards and so forth.  If you truly need to have a longer job history, try working multiple part time jobs that will allow you an opportunity to get a feel for whether it's a good long term fit for you before committing to it full time.  You shouldn't stick with a job you don't like, but perhaps before you quit it for a new job you should evaluate what you haven't liked about past jobs and compare the jobs you're applying to replace it with, with past experience.

It is generally ideal to run your card as credit.  It costs the business more to run credit because they have to pay additional fees to the credit companies to be able to accept credit cards, but the advantage to you is that credit companies are required to eat the cost if your cards are stolen and run as credit, but banks are not required this of debit.  So if someone sees you enter your pin and steals your credit info to run as debit, you may get stuck with the bill.  Banks are required by law not to allow you to overdarft if you make that request with the bank ahead of time, that is regardless of whether you run your card as debit or credit.  Most banks do not charge a debit transaction fee unless you are using the card at a outside ATM machine, in which case the credit choice will not be an option anyway.

I find that there is always a delay between changes in my accounts, such as payments made or debt accrued, and when these changes show up on the credit report.  This makes sense because the credit bearaus don't have direct access into my accounts but rather require the credit account companies to provide updates (which only occur once a month I suspect).  If your debt appears significantly higher than any amount of debt you've reached over the last couple months it should definitely raise concern and you should begin investigating it by obtaining your full credit reports from the 3 credit bearaus as somebody may have stolen your identity and accrued debt under your name.

Got approved about a year ago with a CK score around 750.  I have 5 credit cards and between them, this card and my Discover cash back card are my two most used.  I received a very significant points bonus for opening the credit account which got me about $200 in gift cards after spending $500 (used it to pay part of tuition and payed it off before I had any interest charges).  I received a intro 0% APR and my current rates are low at 13.49.  They also decrease the APR automatically for making payments on time.  My starting credit line was over $7k which was double my next largest credit line at the time (it's now $8500).  Reward points are easy to earn, they have a lot of offers for ways to spend the rewards points but the best value comes from getting gift cards.  They also have good offers on balance transfers but they come and go.

Got this card 4 years ago when I was 19, with no credit score (it was easier back then).  They offer great cash back rewards and a very user friendly online site that helps break down your spending to get a clear view of how you are spending your money on the card.  This is my favorite of 5 credit cards because the cash back is better than the points rewards on any of my other cards.  My only complaint would be that they offer extra 5% cash back promotions in certain categories throughout the year but this has an amount cap and it is hard to dertermine whether you have reached that cap and dropped back down to the 1% cash back.  They also have lots of fine print for the online shopping cash back offers.  All in all, though, it's a great card with great rewards.  I've been able to get credit limit increases every year and rate decreases when requested.

There are a few things you should do.  First read all of your full credit reports to see whether it even shows on your reports, often medical debts don't ever get to the credit beauras.  If it is on your report, contact the company that is listed for collecting the debt and clarify that their records show the debt payed and explain the circumstances of the delinquincy.  They are able to reverse their reporting of your delinquency with the credit beauras.  If that fails you can still challenge it with the credit beauras or at the very least add a statement to your credit files explaining the reason for the debt/delinquincy (this is seen by creditors when your credit is pulled).

I found the article detailing the differences under the "News" section (http://www.creditkarma.com/article/vantageScore).  Essentially, from what I've read, the VantageScore is focused on the past 2 yrs of credit history and doesn't ding you for credit inquiries whereas the FICO looks more at your whole lifetime of credit history.

it only takes a few years of credit history to get your credit score into the mid 700's.  I'm 23 with a score in the 760's, got my first 2 credit cards when I was 19 and didn't make a single charge on them for the first 1.5 years.  You might need the 40 years of credit history to get a credit score closer to 850 but realistically you only need a score in the upper 700's to get good credit offers/rates/deals, which I managed in less than 5 years of credit history.

this is shown in the "my credit" -> "credit compare" page.  It shows how you rank in your age group as a percentile

perhaps you have not established any credit yet and have no score.  Have you ever had a credit card or any loans or credit lines?  If not, perhaps your bank will be able to start you with a student credit card (you don't have to be a student, it's just a small credit line card) to help you establish credit.  If you do have credit history, go to annualcreditreport.com and get a free credit report.  If nothing shows up on your credit report than contact the company you have you credit history with and ask them to report your credit history to the three credit bureaus.

you should get an actual credit report to verify the debt.  On a credit report they will specify who the debt is to and if it is inaccurate you should contact the company showing that you have a debt to clarify and remove it if it is inaccurate.

799 is an excellent credit score and will not hinder your ability to get a mortgage at a good rate. There are other factors involved though.

Each inquiry caused by applying for a new line of credit will show individually as another additional inquiry. The fact that you made several inquiries in a short period gets taken into account when calculating your score but there is no consolidation of inquiries. Each inquiry will show on your credit report and have a negative effect. It is best to avoid applying for several loans to see which deal is best, instead ask what interest rates are available and with what credit score then only apply for the loan that offers the best rates up front within your credit score range. Many times loan agents will try to push you into just completing a credit app to see what you qualify for, this is not to your benefit.

What's lowering your score is probably the addition of new debt more than anything (hard inquiries from the new loan and credit lines drop your score as well). This isn't necessarily bad, it will always happen when you take on debt. In the long run you will find that as long as you don't fall behind on payments (which with a student loan, chances are no payments are required until after graduation) you will be able to achieve an even higher score. The debt itself has a negative impact on credit as long as it is there, but having an open account with no missed payments will provide a slow rise in your credit and when you do eventually pay off the loan you will see your score rise much more.