Should we do this to raise credit scores?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I have decided we have had enough of paying rent so we are looking at buying our first home.

We have talked to a few loan officers and 2 have said to apply for a couple of cc's to raise FICO scores. We are only going by my husband's scores since I dont work. So they told him to get a credit card from like Conn's or Target, charge something at like $150, pay half and then start making the monthly payments. Is that going to raise his credit scores and if it does how many points can it get raised?

My image of credit scores is you get like 5 points here 2 points there of an increase but one late payment your score goes down like 50 points. Is that true? Im all new to this game and Im trying to read and soak in as much info as I can.

Our goal is to get his score up to 680/700 and we know its do-able. Man just wish we had started this time last year.

Thanks for any advice!!!

[Anonymous]

Lenders usually look at 2 yr credit history. Yoiu would need atleast 3 credit cards open and active for 24 mos. A car loan would help too. Charge them and payoff every month. Don't bother to open store credits. some lenders would give credit to people with no credit history, but rates r a little higher.

So if you have already 3-4 cards, don't open any more unless you need for some other purposes.

[Tuscani]

What are your scores currently?

[Anonymous]

Any adverse reporting on any of your CRs? Yours or DHs?

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&message.id=2654