Credit Newbie,

[Anonymous]

Hi, guys, I am new to the credit score and today, I just got my first Fico Score! 

I was really excited, but it got me a little confused. 

I ordered my Fico score from Experian because today was my 6 months mark. I ordered and I got

Ex - 678

Eq - 676

Trans - 697

But I could not order my scor from myfico site. I guess I will have to wait couple more days or week to get my score from myFico. 

Currently, I am in need of a vehicle and I would like to finance.

Can you guys give me some advices for me to build more solid credit?? 

Thank you and happy new year!

[Anonymous]

I am sure the folks here will be happy to give you advice.

They can help you best if you tell us the following:

List each credit card that you have, along with the current balance and the credit limit.  Something like this:

Card 1.  Current balance = _____    Credit Limit = _______

Card 2.  Current balance = _____    Credit Limit = _______

Card 3.  Current balance = _____    Credit Limit = _______

etc.

Do you have any open installment loans?  These would be things like student loans, personal loans, auto loans, home loans, etc.  It also includes financing you get from a store to help you buy a product, like a sofa from Rooms To Go or a big screen TV from Best Buy.

Have you pulled all three of your credit reports yet?  (Reports are different from scores.)  If so, do you have any derogatory or "negative" information on them?  This would be things like lates, collections, chargeoffs, bankruptcies, liens, judgments, etc.

Telling us those three things (credit cards, installment loans, derogs) will help us advise you best.  Without knowing this there is not much we can do.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for reply!

Currently, I have two accounts and they are all credit cards. I have no bad info and installment loan.

Balances are all zeros

Captial one Quicksilver - $400 limit

B of A - $300 Secured card. 

I was a little confused since I could not order scores from MyFico, but I was able to get one from Experian (they were Fico).

[Anonymous]

I am not sure why you were able to get scores from one but not the other.  It may be a blessing in disguise though.  Right now the myFICO will not do much for you, aside from costing you $30 per month.  What you want to do is build up your scores some more before you invest a lot of money pulling a punch of low scores that will be changing very soon as you improve your reports.  You can pull your FICO scores and track them for $1-2 a month.

Here are the things you should be doing ASAP.

(1)  Make sure you have used each card at least once (if you have not used that card at all yet).

(2)  Make sure that one card continues to report $0.  You can still use it, but make sure you have paid it to $0 at least a few days before the statement prints.

(3)  Allow the other card to report a small balance each month, like $10 say.  Always pay the amount owed at the top of the statement in full.  Wait till after the statement prints, then pay that amount a week or so after.

Doing these three steps will improve your score a fair bit.  Your score is being hurt because both cards have a $0 balance.  You want exactly one card to have a positive balance with all other cards at $0.

While you are doing steps 1-3, you should also open a savings account at Alliant.  Your goal will be to execute something we call the Share Secure Loan technique.  It should raise your scores another 30 points.  You can read about it here.  All you need to do is read the first three posts.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...

What is your timeline for buying a car?