How did you get your score up?

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

Hello everyone! I am in the process of cleaning up my credit and trying to get a mortgage. My adverage score is 561 or so. What have you done to make your score jump? What helps with raising it? Does getting a credit card help or hurt. Any advice will be greatly appriciated! Thanks!

Jennifer

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

Jennifer:

Before posting, it's a very good idea to read the forum first, especially when there is a sticky topic at the top of the list that says "Credit Scoring Guidelines-START HERE".

If it doesn't answer something then its time to ask questions...

Kevin

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

I did read it. How about before you go assuming someone didn't read something....ASK!

I was generally asking what tricks of the trade have worked for you in making your score jump, as in does opening a credit card etc... I know how FICO is scored. I know what your supposed to do to raise it. I have read lots of topics posted and have been working on GW letters and on time payments.

I think I have a right, just as you..to ask whatever questions I want. Thank you for your help, you are so kind!

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

@Anonymous wrote:
I did read it. How about before you go assuming someone didn't read something....ASK!
I was generally asking what tricks of the trade have worked for you in making your score jump, as in does opening a credit card etc... I know how FICO is scored. I know what your supposed to do to raise it. I have read lots of topics posted and have been working on GW letters and on time payments.
I think I have a right, just as you..to ask whatever questions I want. Thank you for your help, you are so kind!

A little harsh for post #2 jenn.....I think what Kevin was trying to pass on is that it's easier for the peanut gallery to answer specific questions not very very general ones as you posted. It would also help if you could give all of your specifics like ea FICO score, baddies currently on your reports, good TLs, # of credit cards, util % etc. When you ask specific questions people who have gone through what you are trying to do can share their experiences with you. If you can reply with that info I think you will get the help/advice you are looking for.

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

My scores have gone up from low 500's to 585 TU 619 EQ and 624 EX

in the past 7 months.

I basically paid off almost all derogs and disputed innacurate info, I have

a long credit history of 22 years so my upward progress was from that but would not

go much higher due to no new TL'S.

I have no open TL'S so I needed to establish new credit wich in the short term

will lower my scores a little bit but in the long run I will see signifacant improvement

from where I am, in a 6 - 24 month range, without new credit I probably would

creep up very slowly..

If you have cards keep utilization down below 10% and if you don't have cards

then get a secured one or two and start there, if your student loans are all you

have then your utilization is probably too high and you need to offset that with

more TL'S...

I am new also and may or may not be 100% correct so keep reading past posts

and it will come to you.

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

Jenny:

If you had actually read the credit scoring 101 thread then you would know that new inquiries (i.e. applying for a credit card actually make your score go down short term) and don't really help until you they have been aged (or about two years old) so that people can see your payment history, then there is factoring in your utilization (limits vs used credit....so asking those questions is really just repeating things that have already been covered, many, many, many times.

Here's the section I'm talking about:

How is my score calculated?

-35% affects Payment History. Meaning any lates; collections; charge offs; bankruptcies; judgments; liens or the such will hurt the score. All is time based, the older the information the less it is contributing to the scores.

-30% affects Utilization. It is best to have several accounts with low balances distributed then it is to have fewer accounts maxed out. To figure utilization: Balance (divided) by Credit Limit = percentage. Lower then 10% recommended per account, this is one of the fastest means for increasing the over all credit score.

-15% affects Established History. The longer you maintain open accounts with creditors the better.

-10% affects Inquiries. Don't apply for credit unless you know you can get it or that you need to get it; unnecessary credit inquiries are going to hurt the scores - especially if your over all credit file is small to begin with.

Tip: When applying for credit pull your own credit report first (this is a soft hit and won't drop your scores). With credit report in hand go visit your local banks or credit unions. Show them the reports; and don't allow them to pull a credit report of their own unless they can say for sure that you will be approved, this way you save your self unnecessary pulls on your credit report if they decline you. If they say yes, you are approved, then they will need to pull credit report to seal the deal.

Mortgage & Auto industry has special rules for inquiries: all applications for credit resulting in pulled credit reports within a 14 day period of time will only count as one inquiry & will be suppressed from affecting credit scores for 30 days. So if you plan to go shopping for a mortgage or a car, do your research first picking what companies you want to apply with and do this all within a 2 week period of time so that the scores are not affected too much.

-10% affects Mix of Credit. Use different types of credit (revolving; installment; auto; mortgage...) evenly.

---

So, my reply was legitimate. You asked a general question, I gave you a general answer.

If you want specifics then get all 3 credit reports, go over them account by account and see if there are any errors. If there are, then use the FAQ about disputes (again in the scoring and FAQ threads).

Then when you've done that, then you can start doing other things to move your score up depending on what you want do. Did you want to buy a house? Okay, then that's much different that if you just want to raise your score. Different goals require different strategies.

In my case I'm looking to buy my first condo. I had only one credit card and one or two other tradelines. I mostly paid cash and didn't buy anything unless I could pay for it....however thats not what a prospective lender looks for. I had to open a couple installment accounts, a couple credit cards and had to do things a certain way to get to where I am now. I use truecredit to monitor my accounts and trends, but when I'm within 30 days of applying for my pre-approval, I'll pull my real FICOS. Its also been invaluable in seeing the results of my corrections to my report. It's been a couple year process for me, but I started early knowing that I'd have a plan to follow.

But as I said, the first thing I did was go through the forums. I did alot of keyword searches and my problems that I posted about were a bit more specific and people for the most part helped alot....but at the same time, they did expect me to do my own research before I asked the questions...and this is not anything new for any forum that you might go to, and it doesn't matter if its credit scores, tropical fish or motorcycles....The are very few "new" questions, and believe it or not, someone has probably had the same experience you've had so it begs the question, "Why reinvent the wheel when you can get a nice new shiny bicycle instead?"

I did assume that you didn't read the 101 file...my bad, but I did assume because your question would have been answered already and you probably wouldn't have posted such a generic post.

Kevin

Message Edited by KevinB on 08-06-2007 12:37 PM

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

Well thanks for your input. I asked this question because I saw a few threads where someone says “I was approved for a credit card and my score jumped.” I know that when you get new credit your score goes down. That is why I was interested in this topic because it surprised me. I have seen where people open a line of credit and they do a balance transfer and their score went up.

So as far as it being general…I was asking for general. What have you done to make your score go up? (which includes any and everything) I know that paying on time and percentage of credit all plays a part. I didn’t know I had to be really specific.

I am sorry you get tired of seeing the same questions asked over and over again. If it bothers you then ignore them. You don’t have to help me. I see the same answers over and over again and I don't say "That's already been answered...why don't you read everyones answers first to see that!"

People come here for help and advice. They aren’t seeking “hall monitors”. It is frustrating enough to have the bad credit and wanting to purchase a home and can’t, much less coming to a place like this for advice and you feel completely unwelcome. It's even more frustrating! Coming to this site means you are in a step in the right direction and you want your credit to be better, so you can get that house or car that you work so hard for and just can’t get because of a few late payments that happened because you were in a bind and there was no way to avoid them.

So...if anyone wants to help and tell their story they are welcome to it and I don't have a problem with having 1 reply or 1000 replies. It doesn't bother me how many replies I get. I welcome and very much appreciate the 1 reply just as much as if there were 1000!

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

they quick way to improve your is if your score is lower than it should be due to outstanding revovling debt paying down revovling debt is the quickiest way raise your score since 30% is your outstanding debt to available credit ratio or utility. or if you can't paid it off moving it into installment debt prevent it running up you Util which will help some.

fused · ‎08-06-2007

jennip0201 wrote:
Well thanks for your input. I asked this question because I saw a few threads where someone says “I was approved for a credit card and my score jumped.” I know that when you get new credit your score goes down. That is why I was interested in this topic because it surprised me. I have seen where people open a line of credit and they do a balance transfer and their score went up.
So as far as it being general…I was asking for general. What have you done to make your score go up? (which includes any and everything) I know that paying on time and percentage of credit all plays a part. I didn’t know I had to be really specific.
I am sorry you get tired of seeing the same questions asked over and over again. If it bothers you then ignore them. You don’t have to help me. I see the same answers over and over again and I don't say "That's already been answered...why don't you read everyones answers first to see that!"
People come here for help and advice. They aren’t seeking “hall monitors”. It is frustrating enough to have the bad credit and wanting to purchase a home and can’t, much less coming to a place like this for advice and you feel completely unwelcome. It's even more frustrating! Coming to this site means you are in a step in the right direction and you want your credit to be better, so you can get that house or car that you work so hard for and just can’t get because of a few late payments that happened because you were in a bind and there was no way to avoid them.
So...if anyone wants to help and tell their story they are welcome to it and I don't have a problem with having 1 reply or 1000 replies. It doesn't bother me how many replies I get. I welcome and very much appreciate the 1 reply just as much as if there were 1000!

Obviously there are a number of things you can do that can help raise your FICO scores, some are faster and easier than others. In general, if someone has baddies such as collections, charge-offs, late payments and etc., these can and usually do take time to be deleted if at all. Your writing GW letters is an excellent start. Judgments, BKs and public records even longer. If however your CC util is quite high, quickly not slowing, paying them down should really improve your scores. If any of these apply, please explain and give some details: types of baddies, date of first default, CLs and balances and etc. We (especially me

) will be more than happy to guide you.

Anonymous · ‎08-06-2007

jennip0201 wrote:
I did read it. How about before you go assuming someone didn't read something....ASK!

I was generally asking what tricks of the trade have worked for you in making your score jump, as in does opening a credit card etc... I know how FICO is scored. I know what your supposed to do to raise it. I have read lots of topics posted and have been working on GW letters and on time payments.

I think I have a right, just as you..to ask whatever questions I want. Thank you for your help, you are so kind!

OMG Are you my wife? You sound just like her. I can see her responding just like you did. But she managed to put her scores up to the low 600's.