Stuck in no credit land

[Anonymous]

I have done all the work and ate Ramens alot to get all the negative things off my Credit from my young and dumb years. I am now all squeaky clean. However, Now i have nothing on my credit report. I do have 1 cc that by some mystical magic I got apporved for and it's hovering around 45% usage and im religious with my payments. My credit is stuck. Not high enough to get approved for anything that will really help it grow, and nothing on it already that i can build on.  Any suggestions on how to get it reved up again would be greatly apreciated. My husband and I are finacialy ready to purchase our first home but my credit scores are proving to be a major major major road block. 

[rmduhon]

Keep the card reporting less than 30%, preferably less than 9%. Does your hubby have good cards that you can be added as an AU on for a bump until you get 2 more cards of your own?

[Anonymous]

What are your scores? 

If your report is "squeaky clean" you should be able to get a couple additional credit cards to start building your history. 

[Anonymous]

45% utilization is still a display of high risk -- get that below 29% immediately.

Then, go and open two more cards (even secured cards) and keep those at 0% while keeping one of your three cards around 9% or less (but not zero on the last one).

Open the Alliant SSL loan -- it costs you about $44 total out of pocket after a few weeks of setting it up.

You'll have a good score after all that.

[Anonymous]

He has 1 that we are still working on, the balance was significatly higher than mine. Should i try to add myself before it's paid down?

[Anonymous]

It appears i was mis informed about what % to keep the CC at. I will increase my payments to get it down more. Thank you for setting that info straight for me. I apreciate the help. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It appears i was mis informed about what % to keep the CC at. I will increase my payments to get it down more. Thank you for setting that info straight for me. I apreciate the help. 

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Be aware that the utilization game takes practice.  MOST credit cards post what your balance is at the end of the STATEMENT DATE but some other cards may post the balance at the end of the month or some other dates.  Keep a spreadsheet of your daily actual balance and then look at your next report and see what it connects to.  Then, next month, make sure to pay it down by whatever that date happens to be.

Under 9% on ONE CARD is the best.  Having 3 credit cards reporting is considered "very good" but actually 4-5 accounts is best although this hurts your score temporarily in the beginning.

Having an installment loan report of some kind helps with the credit mix portion of the FICO, so the Alliant SSL is great and cheap and easy for getting this part of your score maxed.

[rmduhon]

Just to clarify, under 9% of that card's limit, not under 9% of your total limits on 1 card.