Here's is my interesting situation... I have fair credit with 2 active CC accounts (1 secured) and I'm the co-signer on my mom's credit card which has been around for like 10 years. I defaulted on some student loans before and my score hit rock bottom at 580 ish 2 years ago. Since then I've become much more responsible and even started making a lot of money. So I was thinking how I can use some tools at my liberty to improve my credit score.
The plan is to lease a nice car exactly 1 year from now and perhaps buy a house in 2010. Here's what I have at my disposal:
1. Merchant credit card processing for free. This means I can charge my own card... and pay myself back without losing any money in between.
2. Cash. I can get a secured personal loan for something like $50,000 by depositing whatever is necessary. I can also get any number of secured credit cards in the same way.
My question is, do these items help me at all? I know increasing the credit limit on my credit cards can drive down the debt ratio, but does having a really high limit credit card really help? (I was thinking of charging myself $1,000 a day and paying it back every day until my limit hits $50,000). Also, is there a difference between having had a loan for $20,000 and paid in full after 1 year vs. $500? And about that car... Do dealers only consider previous auto loans as a measurement for a lease? I've never had an auto loan before but I want to be able to get good leasing rates next year.
Thanks for any advice and inspirations!
Message Edited by Ashley78 on 07-03-2008 08:58 PM
