Mastering the Credit Game

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

First time poster here so please be kind!

I have a few questions that I'm hoping you can all help me out with.

>> I have a few credit cards (Discover Card W/CL@8800,  Credit Union Visa Card W/CL@6500, Bank of America Alaska Airlines Platium Plus w/CL@ 8000, Bank of America Alaska Airlines Platium Plus w/CL@12000, Credit Union Business Card w/CL@2500).    IN ADDITION I have a line of credit(LOC) with $500 available.      This makes my total available credit $38,300 (including the $500 LOC)

My current credit score is 729 (as of last month) according to my Discover Card although I don't know.     What is the best way to get my credit score at it's maximum amount?   Do I benefit from having additional cards (no fee of course) to increase my available credit?

I'm also happy to share balances of the cards and the APR if that helps in this process.

>> Additionally, I started a small business that's less than 3 years old and I'm trying to establish business credit.    How do establish credit for my business without having any affect on my personal credit line?    Is there a strategy to develop business credit without having my personal credit as guaranteed product?  Are any paticular banks better at helping small businesses?

I look forward to input!     Thanks in advance.

[EW800]

Welcome to MyFICO!    

I would suggest that you do post what your current balances are on each of the existing cards.  That will help us understand what your current Utilization is, individually and as a total.  Utilization has a very significant impact on FICO scores, therefore depending on your balances, you might be able to gain some points in that area.  

Do you have any lates or other negative issues on any of these accounts?  If so, you will likely get some good pointers here as to your options of addressing those issues.  

Best wishes and enjoy the community!  

[jamie123]

Yeah, we need more information to give you accurate advice.

You need to answer these questions:

How old is your oldest credit card?

What are the ages of each of your cards?

What is the balance/credit line of each card?

How old is your LOC?

To answer one of your questions...Increasing the number of cards that you have will generally LOWER your score for the first year after you get them. Good credit and good scores will increase with the age of each of your accounts that are in good standing and listed on your reports. The minimum number of credit cards that you need to acheive high scores is 3 so you are already there.