Best way to increase my credit scores???

[Firstladywilson79]

Hello everyone. I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place but I'm working getting my credit scores up; EX: 657 EQ: 608 TU: 639. My total credit line is $2550 and my credit cards are:

Avenue $107B/$250CL

Amazon Visa Rewards: $77B/$1,000CL

Meijer:$30B/$300CL

Credit Union Line of Credit:$100B/$1,000CL

The credit union loc I got in Feb 2014 and the rest I got last month. I feel like on one hand I should let these accounts mature and gain some payment history and on the other hand I feel I need either more credit lines or increases. What do you guys think? Are these cards in a good range of credit utilization or should I go lower for the best score boost?

[jamie123]

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@Firstladywilson79 wrote:

Hello everyone. I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place but I'm working getting my credit scores up; EX: 657 EQ: 608 TU: 639. My total credit line is $2550 and my credit cards are:

Avenue $107B/$250CL

Amazon Visa Rewards: $77B/$1,000CL

Meijer:$30B/$300CL

Credit Union Line of Credit:$100B/$1,000CL

The credit union loc I got in Feb 2014 and the rest I got last month. I feel like on one hand I should let these accounts mature and gain some payment history and on the other hand I feel I need either more credit lines or increases. What do you guys think? Are these cards in a good range of credit utilization or should I go lower for the best score boost?

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We would need more information to give you accurate advice. Like, what the rest of your credit report looks like.

How old is your oldest account?

Do you have a mortgage? Student loans? Auto loans? Baddies? 30,60 or 90 day lates? Charge-offs? Collections?

One reason your scores are low is that they have been knocked down with all those new accounts. An account is considered new if it is less than 2 years old but if it is less than 1 year old it can really knock your scores down.

You need to "garden these cards" as we say on this forum. Use them all gently each month, keeping the reporting balances less than 30% of the credit line and let time do its work. Your scores will rise every month that you demonstrate good credit behavior.

I would highly suggest that you not apply for any more credit until your youngest card is at least 6 months old. There really isn't a fast way to get a good score. It takes a couple of years and smart decisions as to the kinds of credit cards you apply for and how you use them.

[myjourney]

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@Firstladywilson79 wrote:

Hello everyone. I don't know if I'm posting this in the right place but I'm working getting my credit scores up; EX: 657 EQ: 608 TU: 639. My total credit line is $2550 and my credit cards are:

Avenue $107B/$250CL 40% UTL 

Amazon Visa Rewards: $77B/$1,000CL 7% UTL

Meijer:$30B/$300CL 10% UTL

Credit Union Line of Credit:$100B/$1,000CL 10% UTL

The credit union loc I got in Feb 2014 and the rest I got last month. I feel like on one hand I should let these accounts mature and gain some payment history and on the other hand I feel I need either more credit lines or increases. What do you guys think? Are these cards in a good range of credit utilization or should I go lower for the best score boost?

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You have to many cards reporting a balance.

The general rule is to have only 1 card report a balance all others should report a $0.00 balance.

In your case you have 4 cards reporting a balance and 1 of them the UTL is 40% (high) all key factors when it comes to scores.

[Florida1990]

Pay on time and leave about 1% utilization on one card. Let them age and it will slowly improve.

[Firstladywilson79]

Hi Jamie,

As far as the rest of my report;

I have 17 student loans that's reporting positive and negative. Some that's reporting negative are well over 7yrs old of 120 days late.

I have 3 collections account reporting negative

I now have the 4 credit lines reporting positive and an old Sam's club credit line that's still reporting positive but is closed. Was wondering if I could get that reopened even after it being closed.

I do not have any mortgages or auto loans.

I got denied the Discover IT card because of my collections. I'm currently getting those taking care of now.

In the past 7 yrs I haven't had any credit except.for the samsclub.

[Firstladywilson79]

Ok so now I know to have a balance on 1 card. I also was hearing that carrying a 0% utilization on credit is not good also. I am thinking of having my Amazon card as my prime card since its a rewards card. I also keep seeing the words slowly increase lol. I guess I need to be patient in this. Hopefully if I can get rid of those negative accounts my score will increase closer to the 700s.

[myjourney]

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@Firstladywilson79 wrote:

Ok so now I know to have a balance on 1 card. I also was hearing that carrying a 0% utilization on credit is not good also. I am thinking of having my Amazon card as my prime card since its a rewards card. I also keep seeing the words slowly increase lol. I guess I need to be patient in this. Hopefully if I can get rid of those negative accounts my score will increase closer to the 700s.

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Correct balance on one card and time is your best friend to increasing scores 

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[jamie123]

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@Firstladywilson79 wrote:

Ok so now I know to have a balance on 1 card. I also was hearing that carrying a 0% utilization on credit is not good also. I am thinking of having my Amazon card as my prime card since its a rewards card. I also keep seeing the words slowly increase lol. I guess I need to be patient in this. Hopefully if I can get rid of those negative accounts my score will increase closer to the 700s.

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You are correct! The best way for you to increase your scores is to work on getting rid of the collections. Now, keep this in mind: The last collection you have on your report is the most important. What I'm trying to say is, as long as you have 1 collection on your report your scores will be knocked down by about 50 to 75 points. You might not gain much point wise by getting rid of the 2nd and 3rd collection. As long as you have one collection your scores will suffer. You need to get rid of ALL the collections.

You have plenty of time to work on removing the collections because the earliest I would suggest apping for any new credit is 6 months from now. You need to let your new cards age a bit and let your scores rise a bit before apping for new credit.

You could also try GW (Good Will) letters to get rid of those 120 day lates on your student loans. There is plenty of information in the Rebuilding Credit forum in how to do this.

You are doing great! Just keep it up! You can do this!