Rebuilding Your Credit

[mitbemi]

To build my credit I have to acquire a credit card???  I have applied for a secured card but it is not for sure I get one. My husband asked a mortgage lender how to be qualified for a loan I was told I had to give my Social security number as well. Why?  It is not mandatory in New Jersey for Husband and wife to apply together. We were not applying, only asking How!  But of course it went straight to my credit inquiry. Why would that affect my credit score? I was not asking for anything,  I am really frustrated. Apparently I need two credit cards. I don't want any, but feel forced to. Otherwise my credit will never recover. 

[RobertEG]

Apping for new credit to improve FICO score is often a catch-22.

You need revolving to build long-term FICO scoring, but a low current score will often prevent approval, add inquiries, and create much frustration.

The first step, in my opinion, is to do all you can to clean up your file prior to apping.

The usual culprit are major derogs, which kill the highly-weighted payment history category.

What old derogs are reporting?  What is their severity and age?  Is the debt now paid, or still delinquent?  Which were discharged under the BK?

If you can provide info on specific derogs, there are many methods to address their deletion.

[llecs]

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mitbemi wrote:

To build my credit I have to acquire a credit card???  I have applied for a secured card but it is not for sure I get one. My husband asked a mortgage lender how to be qualified for a loan I was told I had to give my Social security number as well. Why?  It is not mandatory in New Jersey for Husband and wife to apply together. We were not applying, only asking How!  But of course it went straight to my credit inquiry. Why would that affect my credit score? I was not asking for anything,  I am really frustrated. Apparently I need two credit cards. I don't want any, but feel forced to. Otherwise my credit will never recover. 

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You don't have to have a credit card reporting. It's harder to hit 700 without one though. You can definitely be in the 600s without one.

Usually when you ask a mortgage lender about a mortgage, they'll push the mortgage app on you and that's probably why they asked for a SSN and other info...to see if you'all would be pre-qualified.

Are you trying for a mortgage (you and hubby)? If so, are you trying inside the next month? If so know that FICO is assuming you are rate shopping and will take all of your mortgage inquiries and ignore all but one when scoring them, if pulled within a given time frame (generally 30-45 days). So, the impact of one inquiry is negligible and the ding from that inquiry won't hit until that inquiry window expires, 30-45 days out. In other words, you can apply 100 times and FICO will ignore 99 of them. 

Were you planning on using your husband's credit only? If so, lenders will only consider his income only.