<prompt> Human: Ive been working on my credit for 2 years now. For the longest time, I just didnt take it very serious. A few years back, when I was looking for an apartment, I was denied credit score of 500 at quite a few places. About 6 months ago I applied for a home loan. I had about 30k for a down payment, and was looking to get into a 300-400k home median price in my area is about that. I was denied due to my credit.Today, my FICO score is about 600, and this is with me paying all my bills on time for 2 years now. Recently, I paid off my car, and as a result of that my score went down 10 points. I paid a credit card down to about a 200 balance, and again my credit score took a knock. All the collection accounts that Ive ever had have all been paid off. When I look at my credit it tells me the following:Very Good: Credit Mix.Good: Length of credit history, amount of new credit, amount of debt.Fair: Payment history.For Number of your accounts that were ever 60 days late or worse or have a derogatory indicator, there are 16, and 6 collections. The thing is, all of that is older than 3 years, and all of it has been paid off, and Im beginning to get really frustrated because it seems impossible that Im ever going to get my credit score up there.The scores used in mortgage lending are 595, 531, and 547. I feel like there is some voodoo to the credit game that Im missing out on, something I just dont understand.My total monthly take home is about 12k, and after rentbills I have about 7-8k left over. I know this may sound ridiculous, but I feel like since I have enough money to obviously pay for things, this shouldnt be a problem, or that I can somehow buy my way into good credit, or something. I only mention the money because I think there may be some possible way it can help me out with my credit situation.Any advice appreciated.  <response>: I paid a credit card down to about a 200 balance, and again my credit score took a knockPaying down a credit card balance does not decrease your credit score.Looking at your credit report on a site like CreditKarma or CreditSesame will show you what is decreasing your score. 