@OnAMission89 wrote:Hi! New here, I've been lurking for a while. But I'm interested in just getting my scores up and maybw applying for 2 more CC's within the next 2 years. Tell me what you think..... Before applying for any new credit, calculate your AAoA so you know what opening a new account will do to it. Opening new accounts lowers your AAoA so you have to be careful. If yu have an AAoA of 4.5 and open a new accounts that drops your AAoA to 4.3, you still have an AAoA of 4 years. BUT, if you were to drop to 3.9, then your AAoA is now 3 years (AAoA rounds down) and this will hurt your score. AAoA is comprised of all your open and closed accounts on your report. Doesn't include collections or public records.
Here are my stats (repost from Aug gardgen club)
*Bank of America Student Platinum Visa: CL $2,100-Opened 5/2007. -$0 balance.Started at $600 and they gave me auto CLI over time. My first and oldest card. I usually only use this card if someplace doesn't accept Discover.
*Discover More (Student): CL-$1,500-Opened 5/2010. $0 balance. Good cards. Let them continue to age and try for CLI's. Also, let a small balance report on one of them instead of both of them at zero. Whichever card you choose, let a small 1-9% balance report. With zero utilization your score is adversely affected. Play with the % to find your sweet spot for your score. Start in the middle with 5%, if you get a small score bump, drop to 3% and see if it goes up or down and sdjust from there.
I use my cards maybe once or twice every couple of months. I always use my debit card but I should start using my Discover card more for the rewards. Duh! As already stated, let one of these cards report a small balance every month.
Other
* I do have one collection on my account from an old T-Mobile account ($58...can you believe that? LOL) My contract was from 07/07-07/09. When my contract was up I decided not to renew. I paid everything down to a $0 balance. I made sure of that with the CSR and she told me I was good to go. I closed it and that was that. So...around Sept. 2010 I started getting calls from a collections agency demanding this money that they claim I owe from T-Mobile. I was like I don't owe you anything. I paid down to a 0 balance. They were like they bill different so instead of paying for your next months service, your paying for a previous months bill. Or something like that. I was like OK...but when I asked the CSR she said that EVERYTHING was clear and I was free to close. But I guess that wasn't the case (clearly).
So that baddie is still there. I haven't paid it. I was going to pay it until they kept badgering me about getting access to my Checking account (hell no). I was like I'll send you guys a money order. I asked for the address so I could mail it, they refused to give it. I spoke to 3 different agents and they kept giving me the same "We need access to your bank account or the world is going to end, ESPECIALLY when we put this on your credit report." I kept saying I'll mail you the payment, they refused to give me the address (Still confused by this). I considered that as a refusal to accept payment so I ignored them. The address for this CA should be on your reports if they are reporting. Get the address from there, DV them, if they verify and validate, offer PFD at that point. Paying it won't get them to delete. And the paid collection will be the same as the unpaid collection score wise. As this is a fairly recent collection, it is hurting your score. You can also try and get in touch with Tmobile directly and try to pay through them and get them to recall the collection. May or may not be possible but worth a shot.
I still think I don't owe them the money since the T-Mobile said I was free & clear to cancel but its $58. But...Collection agency sucks. They probably bought my debt for
like $10 or something.
*I've never been late so I have none of those. Not sure how much that means in the overall calculation but whatever.No lates payments is a positive factor in your score.
Student Loans
*I owed like $22,000 in student loans (I'm a senior in college) but I just paid $15,200 on that balance. I worked my ass off for that money. I was sad to see it go but I hate debt. I feel a lot better. Didn't want to wait until I graduated and they all started charging interest.
I owe like $7,200 on the remaining balance so hopefully I can get that paid off within a year or a year and a half. I wonder what that is going to do for my scores. I'm going to wait until Jan 2012 to check from EX, EQ & TU. Give it some time to report the changes. Being debt free should always be your number one priority. BUT, to live in this world you need credit. To get credit you have to have credit. You'll always want a good mix of credit, open revolving and installment tradelines. Your student loans are installment loans and carry less weight than revolving and are not factored into your utililzation. While paying down your installment loans provides great personal satisfaction, it doesn't do much for your score. Having no open installment loans can even negatively effect your score. Good news is you don't have much left on yoru loans.
As for checking your scores, you won't be able to check your EX score unless things change in the next 4 months or so. Consumers can't get their EX score unless they get it from a lender or a credit union in PA. You can purchase your TU and EQ FICO scores here. Don't buy any of the scores from equifax, transunion, or experian directly or annualcreditreport. They are not your FICO scores. EQ does sell the FICO score, just hard to find it on their site and most people end up with the wrong score. Those other sites are fine to monitor your reports, but that's it. Ignore the scores and advice on those sites.
Inquiries
*I'll know what inquiries I have once I check in Jan 2010. I shouldn't have a lot on there. I can hardly remember. Maybe something from DirectTV & some other services like that Don't sweat inquiries to much. They carry very little weight in your score. Doesn't mean go apply for anything and everything, but people tend to think this is a bigger deal than it really is. Also, inquiries stay on your reports for 2 years but only factor into your score for one year. Few creditors pull inquiries from each CRA, most pull only from one. So when applying credit, do some research and see what CRA they pull from and try to spread out inquiries too.
So....what do you think?? Suggestions, criticision welcome.
