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Making cc payments monthly on time may be even before the closing of the statement for 6 months; would this increase your credit scores? What else would increase FICO points? I know keeping UTL low but looking for other factors....
paying before statement cuts for one full month or even a week if all your cards reported a zero balance would improve your score. credit scores are point in time, they have no memory of your previous actions.
Getting rid of baddies, having negative tradelines removed via PFD's. GW late payments can help as well, Having at least 2-3 credit cards can help, Time as your cards get older your score increases. Add a car loan or a morgage if you don't have one currently gives a boost in credit because it shows a more rounded credit usage.
@AvaMommy wrote:Making cc payments monthly on time may be even before the closing of the statement for 6 months; would this increase your credit scores? What else would increase FICO points? I know keeping UTL low but looking for other factors....
Edit: I type too slowly, James beat me on pretty much every point.
Payment history is the largest component of your FICO score. Far more important actually than utilization, as if you miss a payment, it's a straight negative and those are huge penalties in the algorithm.
You've established your credit cards, the only thing you can do there besides managing your utilization is just never being late, and never paying less than the minimum. Do that and your score will increase over time. Also as the prior poster mentioned, if you can get rid of any negatives that can help immensely.
More advanced, if you don't have any installment loans on your report, it's worthwhile getting one or two for a short and medium term bump. Longer term almost everyone will have a car loan and possibly a mortgage of some sort which takes care of things nicely, but if you don't have installment loans now (Student loans don't count for all things the same anecdotally) it's worth looking into a secured loan potentially.
Beyond that simply refraining from frivilous applications, and letting time pass is the path to gold-platedness. Increasing FICO isn't exciting nor is it short-term, but it is emminently worthwhile there's just no instant gratification anywhere in the model (possible exception of getting a negative removed).
@AvaMommy wrote:Making cc payments monthly on time may be even before the closing of the statement for 6 months; would this increase your credit scores? What else would increase FICO points? I know keeping UTL low but looking for other factors....
If those payment would keep your util under 10%, it would help.
Paying before the statement cuts saves you interest that otherwise you would be paying.
Just keep your payments on time and pay more than the min if you can. Never ever miss a payment
Ok...Thansk everyone! I have refi'd my car loan but that was becuse NFCU had the member appreciation, I have a mortgage since 2008. I open 3 new lines of credit starting in Aug to Sept....going into hibernation (gardening that is) was trying to see what 6 months of gardening would do for scoring purposes. Since I plan on apping in Jan/Feb timeframe. As far as the baddies...I will continue to get them removed...3 so far but 3 more than I would like. Scores are decent but I'd like that jump...but as you all stated patience!!!