Where do I go from here?

[erickedgar]

Thanks to the myFico community, I've been able to make good progress within the past 6 months. I started with an EQ 510 and TU 526 and now they're up to 603 & 633. I still have a long way to meet my goal of 700's, but what steps do I take to get there? I just got my first credit card a couple of months ago with First Premier ($300 Limit). I've been keeping utilization around 10%. At this point, should I apply for another credit card? Should I apply for more credit to show I'm responsible?

[diztrukted]

I'm in the exact same boat so I'm posting here to see what others may suggest.

(started with a $300 secured card)

[Whitneyy]

Hello to the both of you, what else is on your credit reports? If they are completely clean, you might want more revolving credit. Another secured card would work.

I always recommend Fingerhut, if you're in the FreshStart program they start you off with an installment loan and once it's paid it changes to a revolving account often getting CLIs. 

Good luck!

[erickedgar]

I have a few items in collections for both EQ and TU. I can go into detail, if needed. I also have a student loan on deferment and two inquiries that are almost six months old. Hope this helps.

[gdale6]

---

@erickedgar wrote:

Thanks to the myFico community, I've been able to make good progress within the past 6 months. I started with an EQ 510 and TU 526 and now they're up to 603 & 633. I still have a long way to meet my goal of 700's, but what steps do I take to get there? I just got my first credit card a couple of months ago with First Premier ($300 Limit). I've been keeping utilization around 10%. At this point, should I apply for another credit card? Should I apply for more credit to show I'm responsible?

---

You are going to need 3 revolving bankcards at minimum to help produce the best possible FICOs. I would knock down your util to less than 5% then app for more cards. If your EX is clean I would search the credit pulls database and who gave me credit site to find probable EX pullers in your state. GECRB is pretty forgiving of lower scores and they usually pull TU so you could try to get a Walmart card even with the CAs on there but not before you have 6 months reporting on that FP card. The WM card will give you a free TU08 FICO score every month as well.

[erickedgar]

Thanks @gdale6! I'll wait the six months and try to clear up a couple of the CAs.

[myjourney]

The longer you wait to apply for more credit while working on your CR's the better.

Scores will continue to climb during that time and if your successful at getting any baddies removed then the faster you could see results.

[diztrukted]

I wish I had read all this sooner. Some really good advice here. I recently applied and got approved for a cc yesterday. I have a secured card from capone already and was approved for cc unsecured for a 1000, also from capone. I was pretty pumped about it until i checked my FAKO score and it went down 24 points because I had reached 3 inquiries in the past 2 years. I think one was a student loan but I'm not sure what the other one was. I did one of those credit score predictions from capone and it said with a new cc with a 1000 dollar limit that i would jump up to 581. I'm not sure how accurate that is but at least it would soften the blow of losing 24 pts. Not sure if I should do some digging and try to dispute the hard pulls or to just wait it out. Ideally I would like to get one more card in the future and try to build these up over a few years (looks like 8 years of good standing is the magic number) time.