@Anonymouswrote:So I recently became determined to get our credit score up to 800 lol Well thats my goal anyway, not sure if its possible! But we shall see!!!
After pulling our credit report it is looks like this (bare with me, this does belong in the credit card section):
0 late payments, 14 percent utilization at this moment, but this is about to change with next reporting, 3 open accounts which are a bank of america cash rewards through our bank, a menards store card and our car loan, 3 closed accounts paid and closed. We also have 4 collections that are paid and closed, which I am sending validation and verifications for hoping to get removed. Those will be sent out today. Why? If you've paid them and they're closed there's no need to get validation, unless they aren't yours. If they are yours, your best bet is doing a goodwill removal campaign (see the goodwill saturation technique in the rebuilding part of the forum). Knowing who owns the collections would help - there are some that do NOT like to delete them from the CRAs.
Our total accounts is low, and our length of history is low. We have had our bank of america card for 5 years, menards for 3 years and car loan for 3 years. Low, but not too bad.
Reading through all of these posts and posts from FB groups I realized we really needed more accounts, but our score isnt bad. I applied for a chase freedom card a couple weeks ago and was approved and the paper they sent was a 701 score.
I decided to apply for one more for a total of 3 credit cards which is the highest number I am comfortable with. I did apply and I was approved, but I am now freaking out lol. Those are the only inquiries on my credit for 2 years. We dont ever use credit or apply for it. Is it really bad that I did 2 a couple weeks apart? I will not do anymore. They are they chase freedom and the discover it. Nah. You're ok.
My other question is that discover approved us for way more than i imagined and doubled our available credit over all. We in all reality dont make much, so I am wondering if its possible to have too much avaiable credit. LIke if we want to buy a house next year, will they say you have too much available credit for your income? Not usually. I would not worry about it unless it's equal to your income.
Speaking of buying a house... what should i do to specifically get the best credit score for buying a house next year? Do NOT apply for any more credit! Use your cards responsibly, pay everything on time and you're good. There are advance tricks to get the highest FICO score as you get close to talking to a mortgage lender. bought a house 4 years ago with a 640 score.... we sold it and moved out of state 2 years ago now. I just want to raise our score the highest we can lol!
Any advice on how to make our score go higher? At 701 with collections and higher utilization do you think adding those extra inquiries and shortening length of credit hisotry will be offset if I get 4 collections removed and lower utilization? SHould i expect a raise in score? Thanks! Removing the collections, maybe. If they are paid, they are aging off your credit reports now. Utilization will get you the most points right now, and those recent approvals will help.
@Anonymouswrote:Depends on when you want to buy that home ... hard inquiries impact the score for a year and are completely removed after 2. Also 2 hard inquiries is not that big a deal. I'd assume that if they see 10+ inquiries the previous year on your report they might be a little concerned even if they don't impact your score but i might be totally wrong. Still the most important thing is getting those collections of the record if you can.
As for the amount of credit cards, don't do what every one here is doing. For most of them this is a game, so have as many credit cards as you're comfortable with. However i'm pretty sure for maximum scoring you need at least 4 credit cards and an installment loan reporting with low utilizitation. So it seems you have everything you need on your profile and if you remove those collections and keep perfect record and low utilization you'll be probably at the excellent score ranges in a few months or the next year when those inquiries drop off
Nope. For the most "free" FICO maximun points from credit cards, it's three revolving accounts and a loan. ABCD2199 has excellent numbers to back this up in his rebuilding thread.
@Anonymouswrote:I def will NOT be doing what I see people here doing lol! I have alot of bragging rights in life but my amount of credit isnt one that I care about lol we went our younger married years with bad credit from not knowing what in the world we were doing and now I want to keep good credit! and raise it! So if and when the need arises we have it!
You don't need to do what everyone else is doing, only what's comfortable to you. You have everything in place you need for improving your score to get a good interest rate on your mortgage. If you'd like help tackling the collections, please make a new post about them in the rebuilding thread. You'll get plenty of advice!