What do I do now? Intend to buy a house in 2 years.

[howyodoing]

Hi people, this is my first post here.

Just need some advice on how I should go on improving my credit score.

A little about me:

I am 26 year old working full time and the goal is to purchase a house in 2 years.

Back in college I messed up and didn't know credit was so important... I'd put everything on my capital one visa.

When my account was cancelled I had a balance of $11000 with the credit limit of $7500. Eventually I settled it for $4500 but my credit score took a hit.

Also, I didn't pay 3 of the speeding tickets in '05 and each resulted in collections. I had paid these off in 06 but TU said it will stay on report til '12

Anyways, currently I only have two credit card with CL $1000 and $950 from Capital One and Household Bank respectively.

The only debt I have is about $13000 for my student loan with interest rate variable from 2.8% to 6.5%.

I've recently paid off my 36 month installment auto loan. It was at 15.5% so I had to pay it off ASAP...

My question is what do I do now to ensure that I will get a good rate in 2 years when I am ready to purchase a house? I do not want to see another doublt digit interest rate!

Thank you in advance!

[llecs]

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

and What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

For CapOne, send a GW asking them to remove and lates and "settled" comments off your CR. It'll be a super-long shot but you have nothing to lose but stamps and paper.

Baddies can remain for 7 yrs from DOFD. If it is the CA that's reporting, then send them a GW letter requesting a deletion.

You have a great start on credit. I wouldn't add anything if you can't help it. You can easily hit an 800 FICO with what you have reporting, provided that the baddies are cleaned and you add some time to your history.

For max points, get one CC to report $0 and the other to report a balance of under 9% of the CL.

Pay the SL as scheduled. If you want to PIF early, that's even better per your finances.

Do the above, and you'll have a good rate. Make sure you are getting a FICO score. It's impossible to pull your EX FICO score from anywhere, but a lender could get that for you and the only place to get your TU and EQ FICO scores together is via myFICO.com.

[howyodoing]

Thanks llecs.

Do you have a link to purchase FICO score? I only see TU and EQ score and they are both $15...

[llecs]

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@howyodoing wrote:

Do you have a link to purchase FICO score? I only see TU and EQ score and they are both $15...

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FICO® Standard is the link at the bottom of this page and is the place to buy each individual FICO score via myFICO.com. If you opt to purchase, be sure to google "myFICO discount code" first or check out twitter.com/myfico and they also have some good discount codes. I pay $10-$12 each via these codes. BTW, we can't post those codes on here...wish we could.

Other than myFICO.com, you can also get your EQ FICO from Equifax.com or from your lender. Other than myFICO.com, you can also get your TU FICO from transunioncs.com (note the -cs) and from your lender. Finally, as of last year, Experian no longer allows consumers to pull their own EX FICO score, but you can get it from your lender or on your checking statement if you happen to have a checking account with a CU in PA called PSECU. Any other score from any other source are not FICO scores, but a knock-off we call FAKOs.

Per price, the scores from the link above are cheaper. Equifax.com and the transunioncs site sell scores at the $15.95 rate and I don't believe there are any discounts available. If you suspect you might pull your EQ FICO frequently, I recommend subscribing to ScoreWatch (link below). You get two free EQ FICO reports with the subscription, but you also get all future EQ FICO reports for $10.95.