jar1154 wrote:
Hi, new at this. Have appreciated all the posts. Got in a CC debt bind about 8 years ago so have no open accounts now, been paying cash for everything. Scores are real low due to slow pay on everything but mortgage. Installment loans are all within 6 months of being paid off. Working on CR errors, any insight? Once errors are corrected, maybe send GW letters and hope to get a CC or two.
I was in the same boat as you when I started repair last August. DW and I had gone 6-7 yrs with cash only, other than our two car loans. You will see a significant score increase by adding about 3 CCs, with one of the three being a store charge card.
Repair now. Get any CA removed. Tip toe around any COs or even lates on closed accounts, as the OC may opt to remove them which could hurt your history and your score. If at all applicable anyway. GW any lates on any open accounts anyway.
Pull your CRs, each of them from this site. Use your FICO scores to compare yourself to others via sites like whogavemecredit.com. When ready to get a CC, selectively apply using your strongest score. That first CC will be hard to get. Once you get that first one, let it report to all 3, then go for a second, then the last one. All my scores bumped about 40-50 points just by adding the first 3, as it improved the mix of credit.
