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History:
2 collections - I sent my first GW to a local one on Tuesday :fingerscrossed:
2 Macy's accounts - 1 is closed with baddies one is reporting OK with old baddies (both are PIF currently)
I make 37K a year
I have recently opened a Chase Slate and a Cap One
I am an AU on my wifes Slate and Freedom card (her slate is not reporting just yet but should be in a few days)
4 inq. On all reports so I guess 12 total.
I applied to GE Walmart but was denied
Garden mode for now
Reporting:
My slate
Balance $0
high balance $41
limit $200
Wifes Freedom
Balance $113
high balance $1329
limit 3300
autoloan that I have not missed a payment in 5 years @ $400/month
Her slate and freedom both have 3,300 limits - She puts on about a grand then PIF on her Freedom and does this twice a month. We just put 2K on the slate from a balance transfer with 0% interest until December 2013 - I will be paying $200 a month on this.
So what would be the best option for me to raise my FICO? My goal is to switch between the two cards (cap1 and my slate) every other week and PIF on Friday.
Will this raise my score? If not how do you suggest I go about raising my score
Keep your utilization painfully low, but use each of your cards every month.
Wait, and be patient.
- The Zen of "Gardening"
Meanwhile, apart from maintaining a spotless payment history, possibly the most attractive thing you could do from a lender's perspective is negotiate or job-hop your way to a higher salary. While the scores are important, so are debt-to-income ratio and net worth. That's why most lenders ask questions that target these two factors on their applications.
Don't take that to mean that I am disparaging your current salary. I have nothing but respect for any working member of society, and I make it a point to never judge a person by a number. But lenders make a point of judging people by exactly that: numbers.
As someone who interviews a lot of job applicants, it has been my experience that few people are asking for what they truly deserve. You may be surprised how readily you can get a raise even in the current economy, and how much it can improve your ability to both secure and manage credit. It's one of the best outside-the-box solutions to financial growth I know. And it is kind of bizarre to call it an outside-the-box solution, but as I said, few people actually do it.
I negotiated a raise and a promotion for myself in the past year, and I consider it no accident that afterward Amex finally welcomed me back into their fold after 2 years of denying my applications. Give it a try...you have nothing to lose!
Im so lost at what you said Conductor. As an update I got my Cap1 secured card today. So in a month I should have 4 revolving credit cards on my statement, waiting to hear back from a GW and I am going to call Macys tomorrow and see what/if anything they can do for my baddies...Seriouly they are bad multiple past 30, 60, 90 and 120 days late. I will call them once a week and hopefully someone will be kind enough to remove them or some. I searched for GW MAcys but all the threads are old.
"Keep your utilization painfully low" means never let your total balance exceed 30% of your total credit limits.
Also, at the phase of rebuilding you're in, I'd apply the same logic to each individual card just to make sure your lenders remain secure in your ability to pay. So, for example, never put more than $60 on that Slate with a $200 limit. Treat it as if the actual credit limit is 30% of what it actually is.
"Wait and be patient" means no applications, no requests for credit limit increase, none of that. Just use all 4 cards every month, and pay them like clockwork. With a payment history as cluttered with lates as you say yours is, the best way to improve your score is rack up a good 6-12 months of perfectly on-time payments.
That is what I have been doing. I know about the 30% rule and I have followed it so far with my slate card. I just received my Cap1 secured card $200 yesterday and I plan to apply the same to it. I have no need for apps or CLI's for the forseable future. Im really just in this to raise my score to match my wifes who is at 750+ so when we go to buy a house its all good.
I have already setup payment options and I have weekly reminders. Plus I am pretty anal about my finances right now since I have some in my checking some in my savings etc... No its time to garden and never ever be late. Thanks for you help.