Stuck in the mid 600's

[Yortster]

I'm looking to increase my credit score but I've been stuck in the mid to upper 600's for years. I am a responsible bill payer and have no debt nor any negative marks on my credit report. I rent, I own my car, I pay all my bill's on time but I feel like i'm being punished for being frugal. I've had a Capital One Visa for about 7 years and have never missed a payment. My credit limit has always been $3500 which I feel is low for a person that makes over $72,000 a year, but they refuse to increase it which is ok with me since I don't use the card much.

 It's time to buy a house and I need to get my score over the 720 mark. I now know that my score is low because of a lack of credit. I've read that a person should have at least 2 credit cards to increase the score - so my question is, should I apply for another credit card through Capital One or should I get a different card all together or does it matter? Any other suggestions to get my score up would be greatly appreciated.

[JasonBourneOfCredit]

I'd suggest a Chase Freedom card. Usually decent limits and good rewards. Got to have more than one card though. I think the ideal amout is 3.

[rckstrscott]

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@Yortster wrote:

I'm looking to increase my credit score but I've been stuck in the mid to upper 600's for years. I am a responsible bill payer and have no debt nor any negative marks on my credit report. I rent, I own my car, I pay all my bill's on time but I feel like i'm being punished for being frugal. I've had a Capital One Visa for about 7 years and have never missed a payment. My credit limit has always been $3500 which I feel is low for a person that makes over $72,000 a year, but they refuse to increase it which is ok with me since I don't use the card much.

 It's time to buy a house and I need to get my score over the 720 mark. I now know that my score is low because of a lack of credit. I've read that a person should have at least 2 credit cards to increase the score - so my question is, should I apply for another credit card through Capital One or should I get a different card all together or does it matter? Any other suggestions to get my score up would be greatly appreciated.

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Well -- you will probably need two lines of credit, or alternative credit, in order to get approved for a mortgage...

Might I ask, why the need to get over the 720 mark? What kind of financing are you thinking of going with?

-scott

[jamie123]

You need to get 2 additional credit cards from prime banks. Some of the so called prime banks are as follows:

Bank of America

Citi Bank

Barclays

AMEX

Chase

Discover

Wells Fargo

Apply for 1 card each from 2 of these banks. Stop back here if you are not approved immediately. (You receive a message that says you will receive a response from them in 7 to 30 days) If you are denied you will have to call the backdoor number and hopefully get approval that way.

Apply for a Walmart credit card. You get a free TU score every month!

Before you apply make sure your Cap1 card has been paid in full and is reporting that way.

You should not get these cards if you are planning to buy a house in the next six months. Opening them now might hurt your score too much for it to recover inside of six months.

You do need to use these cards and pay them in full each month to maximize your score.

[jamie123]

Just some more information....

A large part of your FICO score has to do with having credit cards, OCASSIONALLY using those credit cards and paying them in full each month.

Auto loans and installment loans also are a part of the score but not as critical as having and using credit cards.

If you have 3 to 6 credit cards reporting good behavior for 6 months you will be golden.

[Yortster]

Thank you all for the good advice. I think I will apply for a Chase Freedom and maybe an Amex - they seem to be the most popular.