topic Re: Increase credit score in General Credit Topics

Increase credit score

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:42:38 GMT

I need to ncrease my create score 100 points, how long will that take and what do I need to do?

Re: Increase credit score

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:53:27 GMT

It really depends. It can take either a week, months, and years depending on your situaiton. What's your FICO right now? What type of accounts do you have? Do you have any collection or charge offs? Etc.

Re: Increase credit score

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:26:28 GMT

my Fico score is 520 I have credit cards, car loan and a revolving credit of 15000. I had a motgage that was paid off in August because we moved. I we.nt bankrupt 3/2001. No collections

Re: Increase credit score

llecs — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:54:57 GMT

jenn9710 wrote:
my Fico score is 520 I have credit cards, car loan and a revolving credit of 15000. I had a motgage that was paid off in August because we moved. I we.nt bankrupt 3/2001. No collections

Which CRA does that score belong to? What are your scores on the other two? And why do you need to increase by 100 pts? Remember, if it is for a new mortgage, lenders will choose the lesser of the two medium FICO scores (if apping jointly).

Do you have any lates? Is the $15k the balance total or the CL total? If CL, what are the total of the balances? If balances, what is the total CL (calculated on all open CCs and/or any closed CCs w/ a balance)?

Re: Increase credit score

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:52:55 GMT

The CRA is with Equifax. I don't know the scores on the other two. My husband and I are looking to buy a house in June. His Equifax is about 550. We have aome lates for this year. The revolving credit is at the CL. The total balance for outstanding credit is 38,000. 21,000 is auto loan, 15000 is revolving credit, the remaining 3000 is 4 credit cards all at their limits.

Re: Increase credit score

SCF — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:49:48 GMT

Hey jenn,

It sounds like the first place to start improving your scores is by decreasing your utilization. Utilization is the percentage of your total available revolving credit your are using (so your credit limits on your cards, plus your line of credit). It sounds like you have a total of 18,000 in revolving CLs and that you owe nearly 18,000, is that correct? If so, your util is almost 100%, the ideal util is 9% or less, and you should see score boosts as you drop your util below ~85%, ~50%, and ~35% (roughly anyway). Utilization accounts for about 35% of your FICO score, so dropping your util significant could cause a big boost for you.

You may also want to head over to the Rebuilding Your Credit forum and learn about goodwill letters (GW for short), these are letters that ask your creditors to adjust their reporting of lates on your account in light of your relationship with them and the rest of your (positive) payment history. Dropping even one or two lates may also help.

Here are a couple of resources for you to get started: Credit Scoring 101 and the myFICO PDF Booklet

Once you've read those you'll know the basics of what goes into your FICO score and what on your reports is causing your score to be low, and then you can ask for help with those issues.

Good luck!

Re: Increase credit score

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:55 GMT

Lowering your utilization needs to be the First, Second and Third things you do ! That will increase the scores quite a bit.

The other issue is the late payments. How late were they? And they need to STOP immediately. You will never get your scores to where they need to be without on time payments for at least a year.........

Good advice from SCF regarding goodwill letters.....