topic Re: Why still so low in Rebuilding Your Credit

Why still so low

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:58:43 GMT

So I need a little help understanding my credit score and why it hasnt improved much at all. So back in 2006 i bought a new car and house in the same year and everything was going well as i always made my payments on time. In 2010 i lost my job do to cutbacks and went into a downward spiral money wise. I ended up only being able to make my house payment. My car was eventually reposessed after 4 month of not being able to pay. Also during this time i wasnt able to pay my student loans off(there was only $1600 left on them). They went into collection quickly after i missed my first payment. This was all in a 4 months span. Luckily i got a new better jobs and quickly paid the collection agency and got my car back. I paid the last year off without issues. Sadly the damage was done and my credit score droped to 530. From 2010 to 2014 i had two different personal loans to try to rebuild my score. One was from 2010-2012 for $3,000 whichi paid off with no issues. The second was from 2012-2013 for $4,000 and i made payments for the first year then sold my house and paid the rest of the loan off. Then last july i bought a new home but was a little frustrated that i had to go to several lenders to get a decent loan. I also started using a credit card to pay for gas and groceries. I pay the entire balance off every month. After all this my credit score has only come up to 620. I havnet had any issues in almost 6 years is this normal to be this low. Sorry for the novel this is my first post. Thanks for any advice.

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:11:55 GMT

Personal loans seldom help rebuild your credit very much - credit scoring is *mostly* about revolving credit.

It would appear to me that you simply have a "thin" credit file. Since it looks like you have one credit card, I'd suggest getting at least two more opened up. Capital One and Barclays would be my first suggestion. After that its all about proper management - use them a lot but keep them paid down (pay multiple times per month) on their statement date. You want one card to report a small balance of less than 10% of its limit, and the others to report $0. Request CLI's periodically to get the limits up as your scores climb.

You can get a few extra points with an installment loan. This can be an auto loan or a small personal loan (secured loan is best since the interest rate is generally very low). I did a $500 secured loan with SDFCU for 36 months at 3.99%. You only need one open installment loan for FICO scoring purposes, so if you have an auto loan don't bother with personal loans.

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:21:09 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply! So the card i currently have is the capital one quicksilver. I make a payment every payday then at the end of the month pay the remainder off. So i just want to confirm this i should also get a card and only put up to 10% of my limit on it then a third that i dont really use? Sorry if this is incorrect im somewhat new to the credit repairing. Thanks again!

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:45:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply! So the card i currently have is the capital one quicksilver. I make a payment every payday then at the end of the month pay the remainder off. So i just want to confirm this i should also get a card and only put up to 10% of my limit on it then a third that i dont really use? Sorry if this is incorrect im somewhat new to the credit repairing. Thanks again!

The idea is to put as much of your monthly living expenses through your cards as possible, but have everything paid down when the statement closes. Cap One statements close three days after the payment due date. You can literally charge them to their limit and pay them back down as often as you can - as long as they are paid down or paid off on their statement close date. Obviously if the card has a low limit, then it will get run up quickly and paid down more often. The idea is to use your cards in place of cash, checks or debit cards whenever possible. For example, my net take home pay is around $2700 per month - I put about $1800 of that through my cards - pretty much all but my rent and my car payment. I have not even pulled out my debit card in at least 7 months now.

If you have two cards its fairly easy if you stagger the statement dates about two weeks apart. That way, as your statement date approaches on one of them, you can stop using it about 5 days before, and switch to the other card, using it until 5 days before its statement date. That way you always have access to a card for whatever you may need, and you don't have to worry about charges posting after you make your payment. In my case I also use the Barclays card for Gas and groceries because those give my double points. So all of my cards see usage every month.

Re: Why still so low

Jeff532003 — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 09:14:52 GMT

TGC, how long have you had the quicksilver? You can request an increase every six months but sometimes even earlier. Capital one will let you have several cards so you may want to apply for the Journey student card (they don't really care if your actually a student) or the capital one classic platinum. Barclay is probably going to want to see a 640 and very few inquires. They're inquiry and AAOA sensitive and honestly if you read the credit card board not nearly as easy to get as they where 2-3 years ago. You would also be able to get fingerhut and gettington with your scores although I'm not sure you'd need them. If you get that second capital one card and then let them both grow for 3-4 months your score should move up and once your in the 650 range you'll be good for discover, an AMEX charger, and some of commenity or Synchrony banks store branded visas or MC.
You should take a look at the the credit card board, card approvals and card applications forums on here. You'll learn a lot about building up your file and also learn which banks are most likely to give you a chance.

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:18:00 GMT

Go to cap 1 and see if you pre qual for any other cards.

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:58:59 GMT

@Jeff532003 wrote:
TGC, how long have you had the quicksilver? You can request an increase every six months but sometimes even earlier. Capital one will let you have several cards so you may want to apply for the Journey student card (they don't really care if your actually a student) or the capital one classic platinum. Barclay is probably going to want to see a 640 and very few inquires. They're inquiry and AAOA sensitive and honestly if you read the credit card board not nearly as easy to get as they where 2-3 years ago. You would also be able to get fingerhut and gettington with your scores although I'm not sure you'd need them. If you get that second capital one card and then let them both grow for 3-4 months your score should move up and once your in the 650 range you'll be good for discover, an AMEX charger, and some of commenity or Synchrony banks store branded visas or MC.
You should take a look at the the credit card board, card approvals and card applications forums on here. You'll learn a lot about building up your file and also learn which banks are most likely to give you a chance.

Define "very few inquiries". I was approved for a Barclay Rewards MC in march with a TU score of 616 (FICO 8), five inquiries (since last August), and AAoA of three years. If OP has a payment history of at least two years, and no recent derogs he has a decent chance of being approved, based on my own experience.

Re: Why still so low

Jeff532003 — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 23:51:31 GMT

5 or less inquiries and less than 2 in the last 3 months. Theres always exceptions but as I said get off the rebuilding only forum and go look at credit card apps. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Re: Why still so low

Jeff532003 — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 04:56:15 GMT

I recant my above statement. I guess barclaycard is unpredictable. Reading the CC apps forum I hadn't applied because I have 15 inquiries on my TU and my AAOA is in the crapper right now because I have many new cards with in the last year of my rebuilding. I really wanted to start a relationship with Barclay as I intend to apply for the JetBlue card when they pick it up so I did an app spree the other day and then was going to garden until next spring. I decided I was 3 for 3 the other day so why not hit up Barclay. Only one I wanted that I didn't have. I thought for sure it was a no but to my surprise instant approval for 1300. I was shocked and I wanted to put this info here so OP can see what I was approved for and decide for himselfif the HP is worth it. Good luck!

Re: Why still so low

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:07:31 GMT

@Jeff532003 wrote:
I recant my above statement. I guess barclaycard is unpredictable. Reading the CC apps forum I hadn't applied because I have 15 inquiries on my TU and my AAOA is in the crapper right now because I have many new cards with in the last year of my rebuilding. I really wanted to start a relationship with Barclay as I intend to apply for the JetBlue card when they pick it up so I did an app spree the other day and then was going to garden until next spring. I decided I was 3 for 3 the other day so why not hit up Barclay. Only one I wanted that I didn't have. I thought for sure it was a no but to my surprise instant approval for 1300. I was shocked and I wanted to put this info here so OP can see what I was approved for and decide for himselfif the HP is worth it. Good luck!

I was shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you, when they approved me in April. To paraphrase the great W.C. Fields, "I'm not sure I want to do business with a company that would have a person like me as a customer!" LOL.

I decided to apply with them when I was looking at the credit pulls database and saw some approvals with scores close to mine.