topic Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do? in General Credit Topics

I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:00:32 GMT

My fico score now- eq- 620 ts- 609 ex- 610
I have credit card Limit of 14k and balance of 12k so I’m at 85% I know it’s bad.
My dad added me as authorized user on both of his card 16k Limit he have 3% usages on them - I’m gonna pay 4K off my balance in a month or so with my tax return - I have no collection - one late payment of 30 days that I’m trying to dispute now-
What else can I do for my credit to go up and get to the 720 range ? Is That only to pay my balance down and wait ? A waiting game or there’s more tricks I can use ?
Thank you.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Kree — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:28:13 GMT

Do you have an installment loan, such as a car loan, or student loans? Not having one can leave 20ish points on the table.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 17:59:16 GMT

Oh I do have a car loan - the note is $450
Balance at 20k

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 18:05:44 GMT

How old is the 30D late?

You probably could be at 720 after that late ages a little bit and you get your utilization down to below 8%.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:19:14 GMT

The late it a year and a half ago.
When it stop effecting credit ?
I read that a 30d isn’t as bad as 90d and 120d. And %8 is the ideal ?
What’s with the under %30 myth ?

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:20:13 GMT

How did you raise your score from the 500s to the 700s in 9 months ?

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:23:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The late it a year and a half ago.
When it stop effecting credit ?
I read that a 30d isn’t as bad as 90d and 120d. And %8 is the ideal ?
What’s with the under %30 myth ?

The 30% myth is just a myth. It doesn't mean much.

Late payments hurt more or less depending on YOUR profile, but I've been tracking what hundreds of people have submitted to me on their profiles and did an average based on the age of the late. This chart is just averages, and it's only if you have ONE late and no other derogatory accounts:

After 2 years, a 30D late hurts for very little compared to 6 months old!

The best FICO points come from the following:

Having at least 3 credit cards open. FICO gives even more points if you have 5 credit cards that are all 24 months old or more.
Reporting a balance on only ONE card
Reporting a balance of at least $3 but no more than 8.9% on that card (less if you have interest posting)
Reporting a balance on at least ONE installment loan
Reporting a balance of less than 8.9% of the original balance on that loan

So doing all of these things can raise a score anywhere from a mere 20 points to as much as 130 points, depending on how bad the utilization was, how many cards they have open, how many cards had a balance, etc.

In your case, your score may be crushed quite a bit since you only have one credit card (I assume) so your overall utilization and individual utilization are both hammered if you report over 68.9% utilization. 8.9% utilization is THE threshold, but you never want to report $0 balance on all your credit cards as that also hurts for some FICO points (10-20 points lost versus carrying a $10 balance, for example).

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:25:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
How did you raise your score from the 500s to the 700s in 9 months ?

I expect to be in the 800s in about 20 months total from when I was in the 500s.

I had 4 derogatory accounts including a collection, a chargeoff, a late paid account and an unpaid tax lien. I got rid of all of those to bring me to about 620 points with only 1 credit card.

I opened more credit cards (don't do this if you're getting a mortgage in 6 months or less) to help with FICO.

I opened a secured loan for $500 and paid it down to 8% ($40 balance) to help with FICO.

So my scores are about 705 average and in July I believe I'll be at 750 doing nothing else, and I think by next January I should be at 800, doing nothing else. I won't see 850s for at least 4-6 more years of just aging my oldest accounts.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:38:58 GMT

No I actually have 8 credit cards with 14k limit total and 12k balance. I have 2 loans one auto loan and one personal loan.
I also have ONE late payment on the personal loan.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Like I said my dad added me on his cards that have 16k combined (2 cap one cards) and I will pay my ccs balance down by 4-5k in a month or so. The fico simulator shows me that if I pay 500 a month for 2 years on my credit card my score will be at 730
So if I pay it earlier it won’t go up that much ?

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:42:07 GMT

Note -all of my credit cards are 2-3 years old I don’t have any new credit cards.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:45:33 GMT

If you paid all your credit cards to $0 except for one which had a 5% balance reported, you might conceivably be in the 700s. Very possible, actually. FICO simulators aren't very accurate, but they're "close enough" for most.

Utilization KILLS your score. Aggregate utilization over 68.9% kills your score, and any individual cards over 88.9% kills your score.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:52:13 GMT

Yeah I figured that’s the thing that impact my score. How long does it take for the credit score to start going up after the cards are paid off?
And do you know if as an AU cap one will report my dads balance to my credit report? 🤔

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 19:57:03 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah I figured that’s the thing that impact my score. How long does it take for the credit score to start going up after the cards are paid off?
And do you know if as an AU cap one will report my dads balance to my credit report? 🤔

AUs are very complicated now as FICO Score 8 doesn't consider all of them and they have very specific reasons why an AU card may or may not be counted. I don't personally discuss AUs because there are as many horror stories on those as there are successes, so it isn't a viable method I recommend to anyone.

If you pay off your cards before their report date, it'll reflect on scores pulled after they report. MOST cards report the balance on the statement date. Some cards (US Bank) report at the end/beginning of each month. Some cards like Chase will report right away if you pay to $0 (within 1-2 days typically).

You will need a good monitoring website to check scores and score alerts -- I suggest using the CreditCheckTotal $1 trial for a week, and calling/emailing to cancel after pulling your scores, then do the $1 trick again in a month. Note: hold times to cancel can be 2 hours per call.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 20:03:56 GMT

Thank you. For you replies and your time

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 20:15:49 GMT

Certainly! You can help us all by reporting back and updating this thread as you pay things down and see new FICO scores!

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

jlitnns — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 21:34:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No I actually have 8 credit cards with 14k limit total and 12k balance. I have 2 loans one auto loan and one personal loan.
I also have ONE late payment on the personal loan.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Like I said my dad added me on his cards that have 16k combined (2 cap one cards) and I will pay my ccs balance down by 4-5k in a month or so. The fico simulator shows me that if I pay 500 a month for 2 years on my credit card my score will be at 730
So if I pay it earlier it won’t go up that much ?

Edit: I swear I posted this before it was updated and now I see everyone else responded before me lol. Good luck!

How many cards are you carrying a balance on? Your overall util is killing you #1 and if you have multiple cards near max exposure that's killing you #2. You need to start by relieving some of that utilization.

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 01:03:20 GMT

So as AU on one of my dad cards at 10k limit my Fico 8 score went up by 40 points on TS And Ex.
Utilization went down from 85% to 50%
Hopefully when I pay 5k on them it will get blew 20% thank y’all

Re: I need to raise my credit up to 720 how long and what to do?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 02:26:09 GMT

In terms of time, I have two positive reporting accounts. One was maxed out while the other at zero. I paid the maxed card to 5% util and my FICO jumped from 471 to 640. It has jumped again to 676. This is from Jan 4th 2018 to now. So it can make a big difference and fast. I am hoping mine keeps going and will check after the next report to see. Fingers crossed!