I currently am trying to get a car loan at a low interest rate also. This has been my journey: I did not have much credit history, I first applied for a card through capital on $300 credit line. I also had a friend add me as an authorized user (I do not have access to his credit card, only his history is mine) my score increased 30 points immediately. I thought I needed to use the capital one card to increase my score, I was wrong. I would actually max it out and pay it off before I was charged any interest but found that I needed to pay it off before a statement went out and cap one could not report it as 98% utilization. I am now only useing it for small purchases and pay it off in full before my statement cycles. I had 23 negative items on my report, I paid the majority off and disputed the old ones. I am now down to 6 from 23, pretty good huh? All of my negative items were do to medical only, I found that the majority of collection agency's will not report you as long as you can pay something. ($10 a month) the rest I paid off and requested a Universal letter be sent out to each agency and requesting it be removed , not paid but removed, this was part if the deal when i paid it off.. I would then dispute it, some agencys will just not respond to your dispute from the credit agency it ill then have to be removed..each Credit agency has 30 days to respond and if they do not it has to be removed. (Make sure you get EVERYTHING in writing) I now need to wait and be as patient as possible while I start to build back some credit. I started at 554, i am now 584..i asked a family member to add me as an authorized user also and am waiting to see a change there ..I will keep you posted when I see an increase.
CS 728- 01/13 from 554-12/11
Goal: 800