Increasing score and MyFico simulator

[rngrwalker]

Hi all! I'm very happy to have found this forum. I'd love to purchase a home in the near future, the sooner the better since we have outgrown our rental. My scores right now are 590 Equifax, 677 TU and 597 Experian. The reason for the low scores is because my student loan reported me 90 days late in all 6 of my loans even thought it's only 1 account number (don't really know how that works) and my credit took a huge dip from the 680s to this. I wrote a GW letter hoping they can remove those, but in case that they don't, what would be the quickest way to get my scores mortgage friendly? I only have 1 barclay card with a $1400 balance, a $10,000 credit line with a $4200 balance and I'm a co-leaser on my wife's car. Other than that, I don't have anything else credit wise. What do you reccomend I do to increase my credit score? I've use the score simulator on my fico and even if I paid my outstanding debt of $5600 the score will only go 10 pts. How accurate is that tool really?

[tomfromrictmame]

IMO, the Credit Simulator should be used for entertainment purposes.  To get started, it's widely held that one should have 2-3 major credit cards along with a Store Card.  On the reporting dates, all cards should report a $0 balance with the exception of 1, which should report between 1% - 9%.  Apping now and getting them may cause your Score to drop in the short term because AAoA, but will rebound rather quickly.

[Anonymous]

Whats the limit on the Barclays card?

You need to establish two more bank credit card accounts for best scoring juice.

[gdale6]

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@tomfromrictmame wrote:

IMO, the Credit Simulator should be used for entertainment purposes.  To get started, it's widely held that one should have 2-3 major credit cards along with a Store Card.  On the reporting dates, all cards should report a $0 balance with the exception of 1, which should report between 1% - 9%.  Apping now and getting them may cause your Score to drop in the short term because AAoA, but will rebound rather quickly.

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There is also a ding for the inquiry and new account that is recovered over time in addition to the ding to AAoA.

[rngrwalker]

Ok thank you for the replies. The CL on the Barclay is $1700, I know I need to pay that off to lower the utilization. Which credit cards would you recommend I get in addition to the barclays? I will just have them for the purposes of credit building, I don't plan on using them. The only reason I have a barclay is because my wife needed a new laptop and she got it financed on my name.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Whats the limit on the Barclays card?

You need to establish two more bank credit card accounts for best scoring juice.

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