Hello, what would you do if you were me? My credit score (acording to myFICO) started out at 630. I have zero debt, but also very little credit history. To help build some payment history without dinging my credit with an inquiry, I loaned myself money through my bank..that is, my bank gave me a 600.00 loan which I pre-paid up front. My score jumped up to 640 within a month. Myfico.com then suggested that my debt was too high, lol, so I paid off half of it. I also activated my first credit card, which just has a 300.00 limit. So far, I have used it to purchase a can of catfood. I really don't want to use it for anything other than itty bitty monthly purchases purely for the purpose of establshing different types of credit. Anyway, within another month my score jumped to 669! I would of course like to see the score continue to rise, so I was wondering if there is anything else that might be helpful. Besides making monthly small credit card purchases and paying on time, is there anything else I can do that would be helpful in improving my score?
Starting Score: 630
You just have to let your card age. Ideally though you'd have at least two credit cards and let one of them report between 1-9%
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If you need a new account but don't want an inquiry I'd recommend the shopping cart trick.
Shopping cart trick: Does it matter if the new card is the same brand of card as the one I have now? For instance, my current card is a Visa journey. Does my second card need to be a master card, or is another Visa just as affective?
Comenity backed store cards have a nifty feature where you put something in your cart at one of there stores fill out everything like you're going to buy something and when you get to the payment section it may offer you a pre approved store card. If you accept and it does not ask you for a full SS number you get a brand new store card with no hard inquiry. There's a list on the forum but off the top of my head j.crew, Victoria's Secret, express, limited, buckle. The list goes on
Welcome to the forums msshellt !
I'm confused are you saying you want a second store card ? I doubt they will give you two for the same retailer but many have had success getting multiple different retailer comenity cards.
I'm confused are you saying you want a second store card ? I doubt they will give you two for the same retailer but many have had success getting multiple different retailer comenity cards.
No, I would not have two store cards because my current card is not a store card. But my current card is a VISA so, my question is, is it ok if the store card I accept is also a VISA, or should the store card be something other than Visa?
ohh okay I see. as far for scoring purposes it doesn't matter what kind of logo it has. you can have 10 visa's if you want lol
Thank you for your advice! I tried the shopping cart trick at Buckle.com and it worked! ...I don't really understand HOW they pre-approved me though. I NEVER gave them my full social security number. Without it, how can they guess my credit score for pre-approval?
