@Insomnia wrote:I've been trying to build my credit as of last year. According to one of the sites I used online for credit monitoring, my Length of Credit History is - 1 Year 3 Months. And my Average Age of Accounts is - 10 Months. I have the following cards / accounts - Sportsman's Guide (Commenity), Capital One Secured, Fingerhut, Victoria Secret and Express. I've already had a few credit line increases between all of them. My credit score seems to be at a halt right now though. It's around 670. I'm just wondering how to get my credit score to increase soon. I know the process takes time, but any tips on what to do would be greatly appreciated as I'm still kind of new to the credit world.
Thanks!
Hi there.
You have an extremely thin file (no big deal; ALL of us had a thin file at one time 
).
You need to step away from any applying for at least a year. Let everything age. In the meantime there are things you can do to help and improve your scores.
First no matter what make every payment on time every time. Payment history is 35% of your total score so this is your #1 priority.
Second there are ways to manage CC utilization to help your scores. That utilization is 30% of your score so it's a very important to "first do no harm". Everyone's situation is different and there is no one size fits all approach to this and therefore no "ideal" number but what seems to work well for most people is to have only one of their cards report a small (<9% of it's credit limit) balance each month and then pay in full before the due date.
You can use it as much as you want during the month but what's important is the reported balance because for most cards whatever is reported on the monthly statement is what is used to calculate utilization for the month.
You might have to play around with the percentages for a few months to see what works best for you. Some people say that 1-3% utilization helps the most. For others it might be 5-9%. As I said it's not one size fits all.
On any other cards always try and have them report a zero balance each month. That doesn't mean you can't use them just make sure that the desired zero balance on these accounts is achieved several days before their statements post.
Along with individual and overall utilization, FICO also scores the number of all types of accounts reporting a balance.at any one time Making sure less than half of all your accounts report a balance helps most people.
Now this approach really isn't necessary if you're not looking to apply for any credit in the near future or unless you are trying to tweak your score for maximum effect but some folks do this as a hobby just to see how high they can get their score.
Third don't apply for credit just because you can. Do your research and find out what card(s) will help you in the future.
Good luck to you. Let us know how your journey goes.
