Thanks so much to this board and the wonderful posters. My Barclay ........

[Anonymous]

This board has helped me in ways I cannot properly put in the words to describe.  Once I finally was determined to follow the advice here credit started flowing quite nicely.

[Anonymous]

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@Ghoshida wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Could you briefly outline how you achieved 100 pts increase in a year?

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While OP may have their own method, here's mine:

1) Garden for at least 6 months

2) While in garden and balance not less than 10% do

          begin

                   3) Freeze all credit reports

                   4) Prepare tight budget with savings to planned to pay down cards

                   5) Act according to budget

                   6) Ask for SP CLIs from existing lenders

          end

7) Get out of garden, app for better cards, get higher limits

8) Bring utilization further down with the help of these new cards, enjoy great rewards

9) Enjoy new higher FICOs

10) Repeat from (1)

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I now have plenty of available credit, measly 3% util, only a few inquries, and no baddy whatsoever, but my FICO 04 score (which some lenders use) has been below 700, and I don't see how I can actively improve it.
Not getting SP CLIs because of "too may recently opened accounts". Although some of them are AU accounts, lenders don't care.

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Ghoshida wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Could you briefly outline how you achieved 100 pts increase in a year?

---

While OP may have their own method, here's mine:

1) Garden for at least 6 months

2) While in garden and balance not less than 10% do

          begin

                   3) Freeze all credit reports

                   4) Prepare tight budget with savings to planned to pay down cards

                   5) Act according to budget

                   6) Ask for SP CLIs from existing lenders

          end

7) Get out of garden, app for better cards, get higher limits

8) Bring utilization further down with the help of these new cards, enjoy great rewards

9) Enjoy new higher FICOs

10) Repeat from (1)

---

I now have plenty of available credit, measly 3% util, only a few inquries, and no baddy whatsoever, but my FICO 04 score (which some lenders use) has been below 700, and I don't see how I can actively improve it.
Not getting SP CLIs because of "too may recently opened accounts". Although some of them are AU accounts, lenders don't care.

---

Gardening for 6 months or so will increase your AAoA as well. 

I'm in a similar boat as you; but with higher utilization across the board. CLIs have been coming - 1 every 2-3 months, small but not bad. TU 08 is 750 (Discover) while EQ 04 is 710 (DCU).

Sometimes simply aging your accounts will help. MY EQ 04 got to 730 by bringing down util to ~5% on one card only while all others showed zero. Then I added one new account and utilization got spread across cards. 

I'm hoping to get that up to 730-ish again by summer. 

If you want further avenues you can try opening a secured installment account with a CU as some posters here have claimed to have done and gotten their scores improved. I haven't done it yet, don't see an immediate need for it. Last year I was 620-650 and where I am now, it's a big improvement.

[princessminor]

WOW!!  CONGRATS!!

[Anonymous]

"Sometimes simply aging your accounts will help. MY EQ 04 got to 730 by bringing down util to ~5% on one card only while all others showed zero. Then I added one new account and utilization got spread across cards. "

IMO this is only useful right before applying for credit, othewise.. it's not really realistic day to day for the REST of us.

PS I thought CreditAddict said it was 9% or under

[Existentialist]

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@Anonymous wrote:

My article title looks terrible on the front page.  It should read "posters",    NOT  "POS" .  

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Yeah... think I'm gonna direct Jon Stewart to this page.

But nice job - pretty significant. And I'm sure more ppl wish they could say the same.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Could you briefly outline how you achieved 100 pts increase in a year?

---

Yes, always willing to help but please remember that everyone's journey is different.  Started with Barc Rewards card w/500 CL, Credit One Visa w/700 CL and Credit One MC w/500 limit one year ago.  I had 3 INQs at this time but I don't know if they appeared on all 3 bureaus.  My first step was applying for Costco Amex 6 mos ago and got 1,600 CL.  Then PIF all 4 cards every month after starting on this board.  My fico no. jumped up a bit there.  JOINED MYFICO.  Then I applied for the US Airways card and got a 4K CL.  From this point it seemed everything started to roll.  In the past 2 months (remembering I always report 36K income), always PIF each cycle, I received the following in this order:  CSP - 5K, Ritz - 7K, JCrew - 1600, Macy's 1K, Cap One 10K and DCU 9K after joining.  There was only one more thing I needed to do and that in fact caused 1 more HP from DCU.  Asked for carloan and was approved for 27K.  My EQUIFAX score crossed the 700 line March 1 and I'm at 746 today.  Here is what I am taking away from this exciting journey 1) Now in garden for 1 year, 2) always PIF if possible, 3)if not able to pay in full, never ever go above 30% utilization, and 3) an app spree (in all moderation, of course) is OK followed by 1 year gardening.   Remember, this is my trip and any advice I gave is coming from me alone, not the  board.  Best of luck to you, mate.   One more thing, never had any baddies on Equifax.  Only  baddie i have is CA state tax lien and for whatever reason it only shows on Experian.  And if I can give just one plug - the people at DCU are really, really very nice.  I talked w/ 5 diff people re: the credit card, then the auto loan.  I mentioned that I was going on vacation 5/12 and wanted to know if CC would arrive by then and I could close on auto deal by then: every one of  them answered every question that I had AND  at the end said they hoped I have a great vacation.  Now THAT is customer service!!!

[Ghoshida]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Sometimes simply aging your accounts will help. MY EQ 04 got to 730 by bringing down util to ~5% on one card only while all others showed zero. Then I added one new account and utilization got spread across cards. "

IMO this is only useful right before applying for credit, othewise.. it's not really realistic day to day for the REST of us.

PS I thought CreditAddict said it was 9% or under

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Agreed, I just posted what's the status I had then. 9% or lower is the right threshold.

True, a day-to-day util-chasing is difficult. A better way to high FICO is simply waiting and watching; time adds a few dozens of points, all else being equal.

[princessminor]

Thanks BrianPan for the kudos!!  Quick question, what is kudos?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...score rose 100 points in the past 12 months.

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That's wonderful - congrats!!