Raising Score

[Anonymous]

Good morning all,

for the past year I've been working on my rebuild. As of a few days ago I had raised my score by about 170points (more or less) to 703 but almost immediately it dropped back by about 70 into the 630's. I had a $1000 secured personal loan and when I paid the final balance the account closed and hit my credit hard. I have a very low credit utilization score because I only have a couple of secured CC's. (1- First National of Omaha $1000.00 limit and 1 - USBANK for $1500.00). I don't want to pad it with a bunch of cards that I'm then obliged to use even if in small monthly amounts.

How can I add some lines of credit with soft pulls to improve my overall score?

[Anonymous]

Adding lines with SP's is hard - the only one I know that doesn't pull is OpenSky secured.

Don't think of HP's as the enemy - getting some isn't the end of the world by any means and if you have few on your report - you are looking at 5 pts maybe......sometimes I never lost a point at all.  

Go to the CapOne Prequal site(SP) if it says Congratualtions - you will probably have a pretty good chance of being approved with a true application -but it will be a hard pull - on all three bureaus....

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good morning all,

for the past year I've been working on my rebuild. As of a few days ago I had raised my score by about 170points (more or less) to 703 but almost immediately it dropped back by about 70 into the 630's. I had a $1000 secured personal loan and when I paid the final balance the account closed and hit my credit hard. I have a very low credit utilization score because I only have a couple of secured CC's. (1- First National of Omaha $1000.00 limit and 1 - USBANK for $1500.00). I don't want to pad it with a bunch of cards that I'm then obliged to use even if in small monthly amounts.

How can I add some lines of credit with soft pulls to improve my overall score?

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First off - STOP WORRYING ABOUT HARD PULLS. You simply are NOT going to rebuild without getting them, and they only effect scores for twelve months. This is a LONG term game and twelve months is NOTHING. Start thinking long term and stop worrying about the short term.

Apply for a couple of unsecured Capital One cards, if used right they will grow quickly.

You can also do a $500 secured loan (at longest terms they will go), and secured credit card from SDFCU. Pay the secured loan down immediately to under 10% and then just let it sit there, you won't have any payments due for almost 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone willing to add you as an authorized user to their credit card? I added my boyfriend as an authorized user on a couple of credit cards and it helped a little bit! 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good morning all,

for the past year I've been working on my rebuild. As of a few days ago I had raised my score by about 170points (more or less) to 703 but almost immediately it dropped back by about 70 into the 630's. I had a $1000 secured personal loan and when I paid the final balance the account closed and hit my credit hard. I have a very low credit utilization score because I only have a couple of secured CC's. (1- First National of Omaha $1000.00 limit and 1 - USBANK for $1500.00). I don't want to pad it with a bunch of cards that I'm then obliged to use even if in small monthly amounts.

How can I add some lines of credit with soft pulls to improve my overall score?

---

First off - STOP WORRYING ABOUT HARD PULLS. You simply are NOT going to rebuild without getting them, and they only effect scores for twelve months. This is a LONG term game and twelve months is NOTHING. Start thinking long term and stop worrying about the short term.

Apply for a couple of unsecured Capital One cards, if used right they will grow quickly.

You can also do a $500 secured loan (at longest terms they will go), and secured credit card from SDFCU (you essentially use the same $500 for both). Pay the secured loan down immediately to under 10% and then just let it sit there, you won't have any payments due for almost 2 years.

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You really need to have three or more revolving accounts to get the best out of FICO's score models. The reason is that FICO penalizes you for not carrying ANY balances, but it also penalizes you for carrying balances on half or more of your revolving account. So if you only have two accounts you're in a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" position regarding balances.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good morning all,

for the past year I've been working on my rebuild. As of a few days ago I had raised my score by about 170points (more or less) to 703 but almost immediately it dropped back by about 70 into the 630's. I had a $1000 secured personal loan and when I paid the final balance the account closed and hit my credit hard. I have a very low credit utilization score because I only have a couple of secured CC's. (1- First National of Omaha $1000.00 limit and 1 - USBANK for $1500.00). I don't want to pad it with a bunch of cards that I'm then obliged to use even if in small monthly amounts.

How can I add some lines of credit with soft pulls to improve my overall score?

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BTW, where are you getting your scores from?

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all for the info! Especialy NormanFH, that's the info I was looking for.

I've been using Credit Karma and Credit Sesame free versions mainly because I don't need another monthly bill from the paid sites.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply. Great info and I will put it to use.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks to all for the info! Especialy NormanFH, that's the info I was looking for.

I've been using Credit Karma and Credit Sesame free versions mainly because I don't need another monthly bill from the paid sites.

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CK and CS both tend to be "drama queens" when it comes to two things - UTI changes, and AAoA changes. Unlike FICO, they do not include closed accounts in your AAoA, and as a result, your AAoA may drop signifigantly under their scoring system whenever you close an account. Use CCT's 7 day, $1 trial to see your real FICO 8 scores. Just make sure you cancel it at 7 days.

I saw my CK scores swing 75 points on balance changes while my actual FICO scores only moved about 20 points.

[Anonymous]

You're a great help NormanFH. I don't have a lot of time to read through all these post and subjects but I'm trying to put in a few minutes now and learn some of the acronyms like UTI & AAoA. I think I read something about CCT it's Credit Check "something" right?