topic Re: Student wanting to improve credit in Credit Cards

Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:33:28 GMT

Hello...I'm a student pharmacist with a load of student loan debt and a new mortgage

EQ 589

revolving balance 13271 (10K of which was just today changed to student loan designation...score not moved yet though)

mortgage 103566

installment 67635 (with about another 60K to go)

I've only got one major credit card (Citi..$3200 CL) but it's about maxed since I've used it for books and school stuff. I'm finally in a position to begin paying that down (which I plan to do...I'm going to pay about 50% down in the next three months)

Any suggestions? I thought about applying for a hooters card or another easy card you would recommend and just buy gas on it and pay off every month...

Anything..anything will help. I know drugs...not credit

Message Edited by Monahans on 12-25-2007 01:33 PM

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:35:38 GMT

Okay Hooters does offer averything from the prime T&Cs to the subprime but you have what would be considered a card from a prime issuer. Are there any benefits that your are looking for? Not sure why your scores are 589 tho. Seems there must be a baddie or two reporting. Once you pay down your balance you should see some increase.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:40:17 GMT

I don't know either...I only have one 30 day late on a JC Penney and that was 2 years ago in undergrad when I just clicked over it in my quicken as if i had paid it and forgot to...I'm not sure why my credit score is as low as it is either. Any suggestions on finding that out will be lovingly accepted also. I assumed it was due to my massively high debt to income ratio (lots of debt vs being a student) and the fact that my one card (about 3 years old) is pretty much maxed out. I had a couple of cards and once I paid them off I cancelled them (I KNOW NOW!!! but I was listening to credit advice from family...BAD IDEA!)

All I'm really looking for is a card which can increase my CL, thereby reducing my usage % in addition to me paying it down. I'd also like a small card in case of emergencies. So no real perks I'm interested in.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:43:00 GMT

Monahans wrote:

I don't know either...I only have one 30 day late on a JC Penney and that was 2 years ago in undergrad when I just clicked over it in my quicken as if i had paid it and forgot to...I'm not sure why my credit score is as low as it is either. Any suggestions on finding that out will be lovingly accepted also. I assumed it was due to my massively high debt to income ratio (lots of debt vs being a student) and the fact that my one card (about 3 years old) is pretty much maxed out. I had a couple of cards and once I paid them off I cancelled them (I KNOW NOW!!! but I was listening to credit advice from family...BAD IDEA!)

All I'm really looking for is a card which can increase my CL, thereby reducing my usage % in addition to me paying it down. I'd also like a small card in case of emergencies. So no real perks I'm interested in.

OK your income does not factor into your FICO scores. Do you have a current copy of your reports? If so, whats there? One thirty day late is not going to drop you like that. Are you maxed out across the board? IF you are depending on new credit to lower uti, that is the very time you really don't need it. It can also very well backfire on you by reaging your file.

If the Citi is the only card you have, yes, go ahead and open a new one....

Message Edited by Brammy on 12-25-2007 04:43 PM

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Creditaddict — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:46:32 GMT

I would say if your just looking to bring util down and not really use the cards:

Hooters

Kay Jewelery - they will probably be your highest credit line

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:51:16 GMT

what about asking citi for a soft or guidline increase. also, you can click the cli button and it may come up with a cli offer. if you hit the button and get a form, then it will be a hard (citi may pull a cra other than eq, so check your other score and find out who they pull in your area). also, if you have any balance transfer offers on your account overview, check there as well. sometimes those offers have cli's associated with them.

i wouldn't app w/a hard inq until you've pulled your fico's/reports and see if there is any surprises there.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:52:38 GMT

I have a copy of my CR from last month

30 accounts (most of them student loans or accounts that have since been bought out or closed)

13 accounts with balances

10 of these accounts opened in the past year (I think this is the BINGO)

(8 of these are student loans...one is a mortgage, one is the home equity loan since my home was purchased this way with a 90% mortgage and a 10% HELOC to avoid partial mortgage insurance)

This accounts for 10 of the 13 accounts with balances. The other three are:

my one Citi card

my undergrad student loan debt which is deferred

my car lease

I have 10 inquiries posted...most of them I don't know where they came from. I recognize 4 of them being from when I bought my house...the rest I don't know where they came from? I did apply a couple of times for new credit trying to get that second card...but I don't recognize them. I can give you the codes listed if that helps: Glelsilnpr Cbcinnovis Landsafe Sterling

Those are the ones I don't recognize.

And yes, Citi is my only card

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:55:08 GMT

cbcinnovia and landsafe are from the mort.

are the 10 inq one 1 report or are they spread across all three? what are your tu and ex scores?

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:56:14 GMT

dnm45227 wrote:
what about asking citi for a soft or guidline increase. also, you can click the cli button and it may come up with a cli offer.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Sorry, I'm new to all this

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:57:53 GMT

The 10 are all on this equifax report. I haven't purchased the other two. Is there a cheap way to do this? Remember, I'm a poor student haha

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:01:36 GMT

This is twilight zone Here's my report

Accounts [?]	30
Accounts with balances [?]	13
Accounts opened in past year [?]	10
Recent inquiries [?]	8
Collections [?]	0
Public Records [?]	1

But you are still showing a 100 or more point diffrence in score. That could be it combined with the High uti as a maxed out card can hurt you as much as a collecton. I'm shruging my shoulders on this one.

Message Edited by Brammy on 12-25-2007 05:00 PM

Message Edited by Brammy on 12-25-2007 05:01 PM

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:01:44 GMT

a guidline increase is one that you may qualify for, but have to request. cli = credit line increase

as for cheap ways to purchase scores, google myfico discount codes. you can usually find a 20% discount code.

w/10 inq on eq, unless they are all from the mort and within 2 weeks to 30 days i wouldn't app an eq puller.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:09:39 GMT

Not a terribly cheap way to purchase, but always check the home page here for discount codes (they had 25% off at Thanksgiving), plus go on line and Google FICO discount code or FICO coupon. You'll be able to get 10% off at a minimum, and probably more. You might have to make a couple of stabs at it.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:16:34 GMT

I'll purchase the other two scores/reports guys and get back to you in the next day or two

I don't know what's bringing it down either...if you guys can come up with some explanation, i'm all ears.

For now, off to eat some dinner and give a present or two!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:34:28 GMT

Also, at some point, you should get your free credit reports from annualcreditreports.com. They will give you a more complete picture of what's on your history.

Happy munching, and Merry Christmas!

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:08:46 GMT

Got the reports from TrueCredit (who uses the TU scoring method which is supposed to be very close to the FICO method...which is evident in the fact that their EQ was 581 and FICO EQ was 589).

TU 605

EX 622

EQ 581

The EQ scores vary by ~1% (I'm a science nut haha) so I call them statistically significant.

I found that TU had a duplicated account and on the duplicate showed me 30 late and that is now in dispute...but I'm not sure why the scores are as low as they are.

Do old paid off accounts still hurt you? like on a couple my max balance shows a little (like 5 or 20 dollars) over the CL. Will that hurt my score? I'm reaching at straws and sticks here now people.

Message Edited by Monahans on 12-26-2007 07:08 AM

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:14:28 GMT

Old paid accounts are a good thing-
Being over your CL only hurts you if you still were maxed or over CL.

When you can pull FICO's for the other 2 CRA's.
Don't get attached to the idea that these scores will stay insynch- they won't.

I have seen FAKO scores 100 points higher and lower than FICOs.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:18:25 GMT

Monahans wrote:

Got the reports from TrueCredit (who uses the TU scoring method which is supposed to be very close to the FICO method...which is evident in the fact that their EQ was 581 and FICO EQ was 589).

TU 605

EX 622

EQ 581

The EQ scores vary by ~1% (I'm a science nut haha) so I call them statistically significant.

I found that TU had a duplicated account and on the duplicate showed me 30 late and that is now in dispute...but I'm not sure why the scores are as low as they are.

Do old paid off accounts still hurt you? like on a couple my max balance shows a little (like 5 or 20 dollars) over the CL. Will that hurt my score? I'm reaching at straws and sticks here now people.

My TC scores are frequently hilariously different from my FICO's. They sometimes get sort of close, and then veer off again. And I don't think that you can claim statisitcal significance with a sample of 1!

Your free full reports from annualcreditreports.com have a lot more detail on them, and they are the same ones that you get when you buy diferctly from the CRA's. These are the ones used for scoring purposes and credit approval. I have TC and love it (until they kick me off), but they are often a bit different from the real things. A lot of that has to do with the way that the data fields were set up, and info from the source documents (the full reports straight from the CRA's) doesn't necessarily flow correctly over to the fields on the secondary documents (the TC reports.) Also, you can see softs on your full reports. Save your bucks, though, and don't buy the scores. EQ is the only one that will sell you your FICO from their site.

If you do find errors on your freebies, I understand that you should dispute off of a different report, as it gives the CRA's less time to dilly-dally around. I think TU is an exception, though. What few disputes I've done were done electronically on the CRA sites, and my knowledge is a bit fuzzy on this.

Can you go ahead and post what's on your reports with CL's and balances on the revolving stuff, and dates and baddies on everything? I know that the maxed out card is hurting, but those scores seem awfully low...

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:45:55 GMT

I wouldn't recommend applying for any new CC's now. I'd wait 3 months until you paid down your Citi card, because that alone will increase your scores. Once you have new scores from that, then you should apply.

If you apply for Hooters today, you'll probably have an annual fee and a low credit limit. If you wait until Citi's paid down, you might be able to avoid an annual fee and get a better limit.

Re: Student wanting to improve credit

ccaddict — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:21:35 GMT

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Your free full reports from annualcreditreports.com have a lot more detail on them, and they are the same ones that you get when you buy diferctly from the CRA's.

Its annualcreditreport.com without the "s". DOn't mean to be picky but I spent the better part of half an hour trying to figure out why my browser isn't working lol.