Credit card payments to increase score

[fico64]

Can you help us?

In December of 2006, we had a short sale on the second mortgage of our home.  The first mortgage went 60 days late before we found a buyer for our home.  The one and only offer was $11,000.00 short to cover the second mortgage which was never late. So we have had two serious delinquent accounts on our credit report since December 2006, 60 day late on the first and a 90 day collection on the second. The second balance was paid off in 2009.

In July, 2009 we purchased a new home, paid off all our debt including one credit card with a limit of $13,000.00.  As of today we have only two open accounts, the mortgage, always paid on time and the one credit card with zero balance.  I understand how the serious delinquencies hurt our credit score.  We last pulled our credit score with Equifax, the most conservative as well as Transunion and Experian 5 months ago and again, just today.  The scores have not moved upward because we have not used our credit card even though we put more distance between the short sale.  We have not made purchases with the credit card because our bank raised the interest rate on the card from 5.9% to 17.9% and because we can afford to pay for everything with cash.

We realize now that we have to start using the card again to improve our score, but it galles me to pay 17.9% interest when we don't need to, just to improve our credit score.

So the question is how many months of paying on time with a credit card will it take to start seeing an increase in our credit score?

[traveler2005]

Hi

You don't have to pay any interest, just purchase something even a small item, and pay it off in full before your scheduled payment date, just to show some activity on your account. Depending on how old your current card is, you may want to consider opening up a second card, keep one card paid off every month and allow the other card to show between 1-9% utilization. There are many blogs in the credit repair forum here on My Fico, that will show you how to increase your credit score.   Best Wishes

[fico64]

That is a good idea.  As long as we show activity, the score will increase. Reluctant to open a new card when we don't need to use the first one. We keep it for times when a debit card is not accepted, like hotels or rental cars.

Thank you.

[fico64]

"So the question is how many months of paying on time with a credit card will it take to start seeing an increase in our credit score?"

Anyone, based on your experiences?