@Ghoshida wrote:
I want to know the following (all suggestions are welcome):
(a) I am interested in "gardening". How long should I wait before I apply for another trade line? I am not looking at a mortgage in next 2-3 years. An auto loan, maybe. But I want to at least achieve a score of 750. It will take me 7-8 months to become zero balance on current CCs.
(b) How to go about increasing my credit limits without getting denied and / or hit by a HP?
(c) Is there any stated / unstated maximum credit limits to income ratio?
(d) Also, any ideal debt-to-income ratio?
(e) What kind of impact should I expect my current credit profile to have on auto insurance rates? (This also helps me decide + plan my auto loan.)
(f) Any general suggestions about credit (links to relevant sections will be helpful as well. I have read the intro sections on scoring.)
(g) Is that 2-year waiting thing correct about MyFICO? There was no such guideline on the intro sections.
Thanks for reading (and replying, in advance).
(a) You have a decent number of cards now, and good cards at that. That being said you should garden for at least 1 year before you start looking for that mortgage. So if you do end up wanting another card for some reason, be sure it's not closer to when your considering a mortage.
(b) You can always keep trying for CLI from amex with soft pulls, and just check which ones cards you can get soft pull CLIs with over the next 2-3 years and keep trying those. Discover I believe does soft pulls as well, rest I'm not sure about. Chase I know always will be hard pulls, so can just wait for auto-CLIs.
(c) -(e) idk
(f) Only apply to credit when you need it. Don't ever miss payments. PIF to avoid carrying over a balance and paying interest. Check your CR often to make sure there are no mistakes and/or new accounts that you didn't create. Best way to increase score is time.
Helpfull threads Frequently Requested Threads
CMS info(free and paid) CMS Guide
(g) no clue
Hopefully someone else can help with letters I skipped
@Ghoshida wrote:Hi community members,
I'm new to the community. Started posting in another thread, but following the suggestion of a member, decided to open one of my own.
About me: Less than 2 years of credit history (and SSN). MyFICO rep cited that as the reason for not letting me get access to the MyFICO scores.
I get TU FICO scores through Discover and Barclaycard. They are around 670 as of last month's statement. Experian FICO is 663. Credit Karma is 615 and Credit Sesame is 663. Experian Plus (through US Bank) is 690. I understand that the last three are not real FICO.
I got my first CC through my local credit union. It has a CL of 2k. Other cards are (in the order of opening dates, oldest to latest):
Cap One Quicksilver MC: 2k (was a Platinum, converted 2 months ago)
Citi Dividend Visa for students: 2k
Discover It: 2k
US Bank REI Visa: 1k
AMEX Blue Cash Everyday: 1k
Barclaycard Sallie Mae MC: 3k
Chase Freedom: 0.5k
Chase Slate: 1k
My APR on all except the CU card are on the higher side, but the last six are in different stages of their 0 APR period. I don't pay interest.
I have got two CLI so far: Cap One and Discover. Four rejections on CLI: AMEX, Citi, my CU, and Cap One subsequently.
I am also on the higher side on utilization, mostly because I am greedy about the 0% thing. I don't miss on payments.
I want to know the following (all suggestions are welcome):
(a) I am interested in "gardening". How long should I wait before I apply for another trade line? Your recent approvals are in the lower range of your overall limits, so that should be an indication that you should cease applying for credit, particularly if your interested in an auto loan soon.
(b) How to go about increasing my credit limits without getting denied and / or hit by a HP? Your utilization will play a role in this. Unfortunatley CCCs are only willing to extend you extra credit when you don't need it. Ideally, you want to be well below 10% utlization for any traction. Chase will be HP for sure - the others are variable depending upon your account use. Generally you want to have at least 6 months of payment history before any CLIs.
(c) Is there any stated / unstated maximum credit limits to income ratio? Nope. My current CLs exceed my stated income by $10k.
(d) Also, any ideal debt-to-income ratio? < 30% DTI. This is calcualted by your minimum monthly payments on CCCs. This is of most concern for installment loan (mortgage, auto) purposes. Although more CCCs are starting to account for DTI in your ability to pay so be careful. Most people get hit with student loans crushing their DTI.
(e) What kind of impact should I expect my current credit profile to have on auto insurance rates? (This also helps me decide + plan my auto loan.) No idea. I know there are "auto-enhanced" scores. Hopefully someone else will chime in.
(f) Any general suggestions about credit (links to relevant sections will be helpful as well. I have read the intro sections on scoring.) Time, time and more time here. You'll learn a lot.
(g) Is that 2-year waiting thing correct about MyFICO? There was no such guideline on the intro sections. Never heard of 2 years for FICO. Typically it is 6 months of revolving history.
Thanks for reading (and replying, in advance). Welcome!!
@Ghoshida wrote:Another topic:
Credit limit reduction (without any negatives on report such as missed payments)
Given my current number of cards, will any of the cards reduce their limits because
(a) I have high utilization on their card? or,
(b) I have multiple cards?, or
(c) I use their card infrequently?
Is there any warning before a limit reduction? Can a bank reduce credit line so much that current balance exceeds limit?
They can at anytime reduce your limits. (a) and (c) are possible explanations they may give. Never heard of them reducing because of having multiple cards, only heard of people getting denied credit because of that.
There isn't typical a warning as far as I know, but I have no experience with that so maybe someone else has knows better.
