What is the best route for me to take so that my FICO score goes up to ~850?

[haulingthescoreup]

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shniku wrote:

Total Limit:                               $31,250           ------> $33.800    (my goal is to get $2,000,000 as a total limit...)

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Why?

Seems a bit quixotic.

We had a member here who announced that he was going for a $1 million total CL, but he found that each new account brought incrementally less of a CL. And this was before the big credit crunch. You're free to try, of course, but it won't be long until you start getting the message "adequate credit already available." Even the big dogs here on the forums don't have total CL's like that.

My total CL is $183-something K, including a HELOC, and that's nearly 3X my income. I've already had one CL reduced due to not using enough of it, and I had to do some fast-talking to get it back.

[shniku]

The thing is, I find myself needing to make really large purchases. In the card with a 20k limit, I had to split a payment in 5 pieces. I paid 20k, then paid off the card, did that 5 times in a row. It's annoying having to do it that way. The only reason the limit is 20k in the first place is because They saw that I had spend ~120k in an 8 month period. When they raised the limit to 20k, I spent that in about two months.

The reason why I would like to have such a high limit is so that even when I do use the cards, I will only use a small percentage of the total limits. This would ensure that my credit score remains high, and that the creditors would not think I am a risk to them and take actions such as CLDs. Like if I had 2m in total limits, I could borrow 10% of that (200k) indefinetely and it wouldn't seem like a big deal. Since the interest rates are probably going to be high anyways, I will try to take advantage of promotions and never pay more than 5%.

Although I doubt I will reach 2m on my personal side, I think it's easier to do it with corporate credit, so that may very well be my next endeavor.

[haulingthescoreup]

I'd say that if you're buying stuff for that much money, you need to look into business credit. That's a chunk of change to be running through every month.

One possibility you might want to investigate: American Express Blue Cash. I don't think it works for most people, but certainly if you're charging at this level, you'd clean up on rewards. Whether AmEx (a rather conservative bank) would give you good limits from the get-go, I don't know.

btw, on the $200K reporting on a $2M total credit, FICO scoring also looks at total $$$ balances, not just util. And I'd say that your creditors would be softing the heck out of your reports and adding up balances for themselves, wondering if you're getting ready to vanish off the credit grid with all their cash or something. Interesting thought, though.

[BBYGRL]

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@shniku wrote:

If I upgrade my Macy's card to a VISA card, would this make a new account, or just the same account with the ability to use it in other locations? I would like to do the same for the Best Buy card, and make it a MasterCard. 

For the Macy's card, I told the associate to put in the application for the Visa card, but she didn't think I would get it, so she just put for a regular card without me even knowing. I doubt there is anything I can do about that.  

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The upgrade to a Macy's Visa is a hard pull and will report as two separate trade lines. I found out the hard way.

[shniku]

Hello all,

I was at the mall today, and I couldn't help but go and apply for a Sears MasterCard. To my surprise, they gave me a 9k CL. I kind of guessed that if I wanted another card in the near future, I should apply for it very soon since there is a chance that when they pull my credit reports, the new Sears inquiry would not show. Then I went to BestBuy and applied for a their MasterCard, and got a 10k CL there. They told me that there is like four different MasterCards that I could possibly get. They were a regular one, a gold MC with a fee, a gold MC without a fee, and a platinum card. They said that only the people with the best credit scores get the platinum, so I was very surprised when he said that I was approved for the platinum. I also went to Macy's and spoke with their customer support. They called the credit people and I spoke to them for a while. They told me that I rank very high in Macy's credit rating system, and that I should request for a Visa upgrade (since I only have regular card). They told me that it probably will just be an internal credit check, or just a soft inquiry. 

In summarizing today's events, my total credit limit went up by 19k for a total of 52.8k. It made me go from a  1.69% to 2.64% of reaching my goal of 2M in total credit limits. The downside, two, maybe three, new inquiries, and the average age of all accounts went down by 27% if three new accounts are added.

Do you guys think I did a good thing for opening these accounts, or was it a foolish mistake? 

These are all of my OPEN accounts:

Chase Credit Card              - $20,000 limit        

Chase Credit Card              - $900 limit            

CITI Credit Card                  - $2,800 limit     

CITI Credit Card                  - $1,700 limit         

PayPal Credit Card             - $4,300 limit

AmEx Credit Card               - $500 limit            

Best Buy Store Card            - $2,800 limit

Macy's Store Card               - $800 limit           

Sears MasterCard               -$9,000 limit      (new card - opened 2/20/2010)

BestBuy MasterCard           -$10,000 limit     (new card - opened 2/20/2010)

Total Limit:                               $52,800   (my goal is to get $2,000,000 as a total limit so any advice will help)

[Anonymous]

Shniku i say stop before you hurt yourself.   It seems you are getting a high from applying and being approved.  It will take a good dose of denial to get you sober.    Your credit is good   darn it excellent  do not ruin it in a self  fulfilling spree. 

start to credit garden and rid yourself or some of the weeds ....Good Luck

[xchap]

hey good luck. might be looking for a whole lot of problems..... need bigger limit go to biz cards .......or like one said  amex plat. gold. green etc....

[shniku]

Just got a AmEx Business Platinum. I'll try to spend ~40k/month in hopes of getting Centurion invitation. 

After I get the invitiation, my next goal should be to masterfully negotiate with AmEx and convince them to give me the Centurion card fee free. Does anybody have any tips on negotiating?

[GregB]

It is not going to happen unless Amex drops their requirements dramatically.

You might start by trying to get Amex to waive the fee next year on your new card. That will be difficult.

[Anonymous]

The fee is going to stay there and as far as wanting to have 2,000,000 in credit I was about to suggest Centurion. Based on your spending habbits as stated, I wouldn't see any harm in calling AMEX and seeing what they would say you need to do to be accepted. Correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard you can now call in and inquire for their black card instead of them needing to invite you. Another option would be the Chase Palladium. The only requirement is being a private bank client (you'd have to contact them for those req but I read somewhere the avg client has 30M in their accounts) but it's JP Morgan's version of the Centurion that is structured very simularly.