Hello - Need Help Establishing Credit or do I wait until 2015?

[Anonymous]

Hello, my current FICO score is around 650.  What is the best way to raise my credit score?

The score is due to two things:

1.  Poor payment history for 4 accounts between 2006 and 2008.  This is 100% my fault.

2.  Lack of established credit.  

I currently have an HSBC CC, limit $300, with 2% cash back on all purchases.  I use this card as much as I can to earn cash back.

I recently asked for a line increase from HSBC and was denied.  I assume this is because the American CC accounts were just purchased by CapitalOne.  I pay this card off the same day, or next day, after use.

I also have a secured CC from PNC Bank with a limit of $250.  I was thinking about giving PNC $1000 to up my credit limit.  Would this make sense?  I never use this card because there are no perks.

I just applied for the PenFed cashback card that offers 5% cash back on gas purchases.  I was declined due to reasons #1 and #2 above per the custome service representative.

I have paid off a car loan, 2 school loans, and mortage.  All accounts were paid 100% on-time.  All other household bills are paid 100% on-time.  We are not currently carrying any debt and save around 45% of our income so we should be a strong candidate financially.

Is there anything that I can do or should I wait until 2015 when reason #1 drops off the report?

I did type up a letter to mail to PenFed's CEO but I'm not sure if this makes sense or not.

Thank you,

wim

[DaveSignal]

Keep paying your cards on-time and wait, or find someone with a long credit history to add you as an authorized user on one of their cards.

The household card will not give CLI if you request it when your balance is $0.  I know because I have tried many times.   The instant I left a decent balance on there and THEN requested CLI, I got it.  Then I paid my balance.  I don't think HSBC pays much attention to your use of the card unless you don't make your payments at all.  If the statement balances are all $0 and you have $0 current balance, they see it as though "why would we risk giving more credit to someone who doesn't even use the card?"