@Anonymous wrote:Hello all!
So recently I switched to part time and I make about $22,000 per year. The reason why I went PT is because I enrolled in school, but that's another topic altogether. Anyways, my data points are as follows:
- FICO score is in the low 700s
- About $15,000 available credit. $2,000 utilization.
- One personal loan of $2,400 that I just got approved for. 36 months at 7.89% APR.
- AAoA is 2 years. Oldest is 4 years.
- No derogatory, late payments or bad marks.
I've 5 credit cards and 1 charge card:
- Bank of America: Cash Rewards and Americard
- Capital One: Platinum
- Discover: It
- Amazon: Store Card
- American Express: Gold card
I want to have a game plan to improve my score and make it to the 750s and also have a shot at being approved for premium cards such as the Hilton Honors Aspire. Is this a realistic goal given my income?
1. In my opinion you already have 5 premium cards.
2. Probably the best thing you could do for your scores would be to not apply for anything for awhile.
3. In my opinion you would probably get the Hilton Honors Aspire if you applied for it. But if you do, make sure your use of the Hilton hotels would warrant the huge annual fee. I was offered an upgrade to that card with a big signup bonus, but when I looked at its features I realized that I just don't travel enough to make use of the benefits for which I'd be paying through the nose. My present Hilton Ascend card is suitable for the amount of travel I do.
A few thoughts and questions:
- Has the personal loan started reporting on your credit report yet?
- Low 700's would indicate either some negatives on your report or high utilization. So, more info would be helpful. In particular, what is each card's limit is as well as the current balance, so that a recommendation can be made on how to eek out additional points
- How many inquires <12 months old on each report (TU, EQ, EX)
- Assuming the loan has reported, you are getting dinged for the new account and the AoYA <12 months. If you do not apply for any more credit, once your AoYA >12 months you should see a nice +/-20 point gain
- The high utilization of your installment loan is also costing you points. Once this is <8.9% (but not 0) you'll see a nice score bump
