Greetings everyone 
Well, I'm in an awkward position in life right now...I'm 21yo, married for two years (military wife), and going to school part time on scholarship. Before I met my husband, I really knew nothing about credit/loans/credit cards etc. He is extremely credit savvy, but he asked me to look at this site to learn how I can improve my credit myself...I guess he wants me to learn how to do it instead of being spoonfed everything--sounds exactly like something he would have me do 
Well here goes...Before I was married, I took out a student loan for college...luckily it wasn't one of the giant student loans I hear about, but I still have it listed on my credit--although the account is now current, I did miss a couple of payments before. I also have a medical bill of $404 in collections (failed to pay).
Time since negative status is .8 years (althought this accident happend before I was married, I think it must have just recently gone to collections??)...Oldest account is 5.9 years (authorized user), and average age of account is 2.8 years.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was able to, with the help of my husband, get accepted for two credit cards within the past 3 months. I have a credit card soley in my name from USAA with a $1k Limit, and a capital one credit card with a 1k Limit. I also hold several authorized user cards that you can view in my signature. All cards in his name are spotless, PIF, etc...Mine are PIF as well, but new.
Credit scores: USAA Credit Check Monitoring: 695 (24 Feb), Credit Karma: 624 (20 Mar), Transunion REAL FICO: 623 (21 Mar)
My husband is flirting with the 800s, he has 15 or more credit cards with over 170k of available credit....he also plays the manufactured spending game, typically flies for free, or at least gets free upgrades...I don't want to take it that far, but my question to you is, are there any more cards that I should apply for? Should I wait and see what these newer cards do to my score over time? Should I have my husband add me as an authorized user on more of his cards? I know he has two 25k limit cards that I am not a user on...
How should I go about getting credit limit increasing on the two cards that I currently have?
@Priya1992 wrote:Greetings everyone
Well, I'm in an awkward position in life right now...I'm 21yo, married for two years (military wife), and going to school part time on scholarship. Before I met my husband, I really knew nothing about credit/loans/credit cards etc. He is extremely credit savvy, but he asked me to look at this site to learn how I can improve my credit myself...I guess he wants me to learn how to do it instead of being spoonfed everything--sounds exactly like something he would have me do
Well here goes...Before I was married, I took out a student loan for college...luckily it wasn't one of the giant student loans I hear about, but I still have it listed on my credit--although the account is now current, I did miss a couple of payments before. I also have a medical bill of $404 in collections (failed to pay).
See what you can do to get these removed. GW letters for the late payments, PFD on the collection. The rebuilding forum has alot of great advice/info.
Time since negative status is .8 years (althought this accident happend before I was married, I think it must have just recently gone to collections??)...Oldest account is 5.9 years (authorized user), and average age of account is 2.8 years.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was able to, with the help of my husband, get accepted for two credit cards within the past 3 months. I have a credit card soley in my name from USAA with a $1k Limit, and a capital one credit card with a 1k Limit. I also hold several authorized user cards that you can view in my signature. All cards in his name are spotless, PIF, etc...Mine are PIF as well, but new.
Credit scores: USAA Credit Check Monitoring: 695 (24 Feb), Credit Karma: 624 (20 Mar), Transunion REAL FICO: 623 (21 Mar)
My husband is flirting with the 800s, he has 15 or more credit cards with over 170k of available credit....he also plays the manufactured spending game, typically flies for free, or at least gets free upgrades...I don't want to take it that far, but my question to you is, are there any more cards that I should apply for? Should I wait and see what these newer cards do to my score over time? Should I have my husband add me as an authorized user on more of his cards? I know he has two 25k limit cards that I am not a user on...
You could have him add you on his oldest card(s) to increase AAoA. The credit line won't really matter but the age could help you bring your score up more. Discover and Walmart both provide free FICO scores and can be obtained without great scores. You may be borderline now but get everything paid off and stay current and you will be fine. More cards will not really increase your credit score as long as you have a few positive tradelines reporting that's all you really need. They can however help you build a thicker file that looks better to lenders. I believe in a slow and steady approach of adding 1 account or so per year, maybe two if you need a loan or a 0% intro APR. Some people love to go on app sprees and apply for a multiple cards but that can scare lenders if you have a thin file.
How should I go about getting credit limit increasing on the two cards that I currently have?
Use the cards responsibily each month and don't miss any payments. Depending on how much you use them you may see auto CLI, if not don't be afraid to call and ask for one or try online. If they want a HP just don't go over board, I limit myself to a couple per year.
