<prompt> Human: After attempting to get a VA loan to buy a house so I can get my family out of a poor situation I was denied.I have been paying USAA to monitor my credit and saw that my Credit Score was at 689 several months ago so I thought that now was the time to do it.I called USAA in order to try to get pre-approved and was denied.I was told that my three scores were too low.596,592,669I was shocked, devistated, deflated, embarrassed, hurt and so much more. My chest hurt. The thought of letting my wife and kids down felt like it was crushing me. I sat at my desk for nearly an hour, not doing anything but staring and trying not to break down.Later in that evening I signed up for Credit Karma,It shows my scores as 656 and 664.It shows that I pay 100 of my bills on time.I was surprised to see that it claims I have one debt in collections from Comcast for 53. 53!?!?!?!. I dont think this is legit because I havent used Comcast in 7 years and I paid everything completely when I left but shit, 53? Id pay that in a heart beat just to get rid of it.I have 1000 dollar credit card with 800 on it. I know, Im paying it off now as soon as possible. I know this hurts me but by that much?There is nothing else detrimental on the Credit Karma report or the USAA Experian report. I just got an email from the USAA credit monitoring that my score has gone down drastically to 576. WTF? From 689 in September to 576 now? DOWN OVER 100 POINTS IN A MONTH!!!???What the hell is going on?I want to do right for my young kids and great wife. They are my motivation for everything. I was horribly irresponsible financially before they came into my life but the second I found out I was going to be a Dad I changed everything. I changed my career and my financial habits. They arent perfect but after 36 years of not caring its felt like turning a massive ship on a dime. Im 43 now and I thought that ship was finally on course. Credit Karma seems to be recommending that I open another credit card account but that seems counter intuitive. What am I missing? Will this lower the percentage of used credit and therefore increase my score?How is my score so low if I pay on time for everything? What am I over looking. I dont believe I am being willfully blind to anything. Im trying to be bruttally honest with myself. I should have paid off that credit card long ago and didnt. Im stupid for not doing it but I had no idea that it would hurt me so much since I paid higher than the minimum payment every month without fail. Id use it occasionally though and that was pretty dumb too. Please help this financial fool figure out his fck up.EDIT: The consensus is get that Comcast collection removed, PAY DOWN THE CREDIT CARD TO BELOW 10 UTILAZTION FIRST. Then, later get another card or two and things should start to look up. This does not seem as bad as I thought. I can pay off that card this month and be on my way. Thank you all for your help.Assistant: Couple of notes on your situation:1. Your Comcast collections account will fall off your credit report at 7 years and 180 days past the Date of First Delinquency. If this account is something you do not recognize, is past the 7.5 year DOFD mark, or would like to contest, click here2. Your credit utilization is 80 on your only Credit Tradeline. Once you pay this down and your next statement reports, you will receive a large boost. Here is a link detailing whats happening Also, Here is a full writeup of the nuances of FICO scoring.3. DONT PANIC. Keep in mind that there are healthy ways to repair credit but note that credit is not everything Stay the course, continue budgeting, keep your balances low, and eventually things should start looking up.I authored a good portion of the Wiki content I linked to, feel free to AMA.Human: GREAT REPLY. Thank you. Youve given me some good stuff to look into.  <response>: This reply is solid gold. uzonination knows their stuff. 