Stuck. What else can I do before buying a house to raise my score?

[Anonymous]

Hi guys new here!

I currently have a 735 score.

I only have 2 credit cards one with 500 one with 3000. Balance is zero since i pay the bill every month.

I have a car loan never been late

And one normal personal loan never been late half done with it 

I know the easy answer is to apply for another credit card but isn't that a No-No before buying a house because it looks like you're desperate for more credit? I know the age of accounts will go down as well as another hard inquiry I have one other hard inquiry on my report from one year ago for a credit card any tips or ideas on what I should do?

[flexin222]

Hey Gp, you guessed right in my opinion. If you're about to go for a house I wouldn't pick up any new credit cards. Your credit score is good enough, but if you want a higher score for a lower APR I'd pay em down to AZEO and chill. Depends on how many months till you get it. Plus if you get more credit cards, it's gonna affect your Fico score and lower your age of credit and god knows what else. Good luck on the house!

[Anonymous]

A few points:

1 - Under no circumstance should be apply for any credit leading up to your mortgage app.

2 - You referenced a single score, but didn't say which scoring model it came from.  Your focus should be on your mortgage scores.

3 - If you have two CCs, you want to report a small ($5-$20) balance on one of them each cycle while the other reports $0.  If you are reporting $0 on both you are missing out on Fico points.

[Anonymous]

So one credit card keep at 0

And the other one charge 20 bucks or so a month? And pay it off? Or leave 20 as a balance?

Also is there anything else i can do to raise my score?

Experian score is what i originally reported  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So one credit card keep at 0

And the other one charge 20 bucks or so a month? And pay it off? Or leave 20 as a balance?

Also is there anything else i can do to raise my score?

Experian score is what i originally reported  

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Use both all you want. Pay off one before the statement cuts, so it cuts with a $0 balance. Pay the other down to $10 or so, let it report. Once it does, pay it off to avoid interest, then rinse and repeat.

That Experian score is good but which Experian score is it? FICO 8? Auto-enhanced? Bankcard? Etc - there are a lot of scores from each bureau - what you need to pull are your mortgage scores. They can be spot-on with your others, or can diverge wildly. They're the ones you need to know for your home-buying process.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Also is there anything else i can do to raise my score?

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Tough to tell without knowing the rest of your profile data.  What are your age of accounts factors?  How many inquiries per bureau have you had in the last 12 months?

[Anonymous]

not sure who your cards are with but what about asking for a credit line increase WITHOUT having a hard inquiry on your credit reports. (AMEX & Citi typically don't do a hard inquiry for credit line increase but definetly ask the lender before to be 100% sure). WIth higher credit limits on existing accounts that will increase your credit utilization which makes up 30% of a credit score.

another option is having a family member with perfect credit to add you on as an authorized user on a card which exceptional payment history and a high credit limit depending on the FICO model this will also increase your credit score

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:WIth higher credit limits on existing accounts that will increase your credit utilization which makes up 30% of a credit score.

another option is having a family member with perfect credit to add you on as an authorized user on a card which exceptional payment history and a high credit limit depending on the FICO model this will also increase your credit score

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A couple of corrections on your overall good points above.  First, higher credit limits increase available credit which then lowers credit utilization assuming balances don't change. 

Second regarding the AU account addition, there are 3 things you'd want to see from that account.  First, that it's clean.  Second, that it's at low utilization.  Third, that it's old; the older it is than the OPs oldest account the better.  Whoever provides the AU account doesn't have to have perfect credit, they just need that single account to be perfect with respect to those 3 factors since that's all that would land on OPs CR.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi guys new here!

I currently have a 735 score.

I only have 2 credit cards one with 500 one with 3000. Balance is zero since i pay the bill every month.

I have a car loan never been late

And one normal personal loan never been late half done with it 

I know the easy answer is to apply for another credit card but isn't that a No-No before buying a house because it looks like you're desperate for more credit? I know the age of accounts will go down as well as another hard inquiry I have one other hard inquiry on my report from one year ago for a credit card any tips or ideas on what I should do?

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No you should not apply for anything!!!!

The "easy answer" is let one of your 2 cards report a small balance each month -- it can be as little as $10 or so -- then pay it off after the reporting date.

Usually the statement date is the reporting date, but we would need to know who your lenders are to confirm.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:WIth higher credit limits on existing accounts that will increase your credit utilization which makes up 30% of a credit score.

another option is having a family member with perfect credit to add you on as an authorized user on a card which exceptional payment history and a high credit limit depending on the FICO model this will also increase your credit score

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A couple of corrections on your overall good points above.  First, higher credit limits increase available credit which then lowers credit utilization assuming balances don't change. 

Second regarding the AU account addition, there are 3 things you'd want to see from that account.  First, that it's clean.  Second, that it's at low utilization.  Third, that it's old; the older it is than the OPs oldest account the better.  Whoever provides the AU account doesn't have to have perfect credit, they just need that single account to be perfect with respect to those 3 factors since that's all that would land on OPs CR.

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Thanks that's what I meant LOWER not higher