topic Re: Brand New to credit scores, need advice building from where I am. in General Credit Topics

Brand New to credit scores, need advice building from where I am.

thephpguy — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 22:28:21 GMT

I have a FICO score of 711.

My oldest credit is 6 months old.

$500 Overdraw protection reported as some sort of loan. -- June 2012

$250 Retail store card. -- Sept 2012

$200 Retail store card. -- Sept 2012

No balance on any of them. If I do buy something on one of the store cards I pay it off 5 minutes later. Is this advisable? Should I put a $20-50 charge on it and perhaps pay it off the next month? (along with the 18% interest.)

How do you recommend that I should I manage these cards?

The $500 overdraft protection reports a $10 Monthly Payment Amount.

Total credit = $950.

# of accounts = 3

Total balance = $0

Accounts with a Balance = 0.

Debt to credit ratio 0%

Monthly payment amount = $10.

Inquiries in the Last 2 Years = 4

(2 Several Service providers and 2 for the 2 retail store cards.)

I am in my mid 20's and have never had to have debt before as I worked through collage and have always had a good job. Though I wish I had gotten a card or two a few years ago just to hold onto to build my credit.

My end goal is to purchase a house. I am currently planning on purchasing this June. So a secondary question is will my credit be good enough to get a good rate on a $60-70K loan putting up 20-30%? By June I will have 1 years worth of credit but nothing much else will have changed unless you guys can make a worthy recommendation to me.

Thirdly as I currently pay rent would it be beneficial for me to use a service such as rentreporters.com to boost my credit by reporting my rent payment to the credit bureaus?

Any well thought out advise would be immensely appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Re: Brand New to credit scores, need advice building from where I am.

GregB — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:56:50 GMT

If your oldest credit is 6 months old it is unlikely your FICO is 711. This would be the first month that a FICO score could even be calculated. Where did you get that score? If you want to know one of the 3 FICO scores that will be used for a mortgage, purchase the EQ FICO here.

No need to pay interest if you charge on a card and then pay it after the statement is generated but before the due date.

You need to get a normal credit card of some sort. You will have a problem with short history and a lack of accounts.

20% down is the minimum required to avoid PMI, which is an additional expense every month. More than 20% certainly helps you qualify.

Re: Brand New to credit scores, need advice building from where I am.

thephpguy — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:35:30 GMT

Equifax and TransUnion are both at 711. I don't know what Experian is reporting as.

According to "Score Watch" the best thing I can do right now is wait 24 months. It says that if I open a card (using the "what if" calculator) that my credit will plummit to 650-680.