@credit8502020 wrote:Hi All,
I hope you're doing well. I am working on a strategy to increase my scores as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. I'm preparing for a round of funding and also want to add a few credit cards to my line up. I know the inquiries on my EQ & TU cost a "few" points, but outside of that I'm looking for the best ways to increase my scores. I use AZEO (4% or less) and right now the main 2 things I'm thinking will help increase my score is potentially getting a pledge loan and paying it down (8.9% correct?)
No. The SSL is only for folks who have no open loans. You're not in that category. Won't help you at all.
& increasing the average age of accounts (using an AU).
Sure if you want to do that, but the other person's account might have higher utilization, which won't help you, or possible other baggage. I think you should stay away from that.
I have a student loan, but will not start paying on it again until May. Any other suggestions for other way to increase my scores?
Main thing is to not make any credit applications, or do anything else that might trigger a hard pull, in the interim.
Before I do the pledge loan, are there any cons to it that you can share? I want to make sure I consider everything as much as possible.
Thank you in advance for your feedback! It is much appreciated.
Below are more details:
Current Scores
755 - EXP
756 - EQ
769 - TU
Inquiries:
EQ - 4 Inquiries
11/21 & 12/21 - Business1/21 & 7/21 - Personal
TU - 3 Inquiries
1/22 - Business9/20 & 1/21 - Personal
Average Age of Accts (A little higher than this. I'm waiting to update my MyFico report.)
EXP 8 yrs 7 months
EQU 9yrs 5 months
TU 8 yrs 7 months
After I paid off my car (I didn't rush to do so), I anticipated a lost of point and it below is the outline:
Exp - Lost 20 points
Equ - Lost 28 points
TU - 33 points
I know I'll regain those points over time, but I'm looking to increase my scores over 780 as soon as possible.
@credit8502020 wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@credit8502020 wrote:Hi All,
I hope you're doing well. I am working on a strategy to increase my scores as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. I'm preparing for a round of funding and also want to add a few credit cards to my line up. I know the inquiries on my EQ & TU cost a "few" points, but outside of that I'm looking for the best ways to increase my scores. I use AZEO (4% or less) and right now the main 2 things I'm thinking will help increase my score is potentially getting a pledge loan and paying it down (8.9% correct?)
No. The SSL is only for folks who have no open loans. You're not in that category. Won't help you at all.
& increasing the average age of accounts (using an AU).
Sure if you want to do that, but the other person's account might have higher utilization, which won't help you, or possible other baggage. I think you should stay away from that.
I have a student loan, but will not start paying on it again until May. Any other suggestions for other way to increase my scores?
Main thing is to not make any credit applications, or do anything else that might trigger a hard pull, in the interim.
Before I do the pledge loan, are there any cons to it that you can share? I want to make sure I consider everything as much as possible.
Thank you in advance for your feedback! It is much appreciated.
Below are more details:
Current Scores
755 - EXP
756 - EQ
769 - TU
Inquiries:
EQ - 4 Inquiries
11/21 & 12/21 - Business1/21 & 7/21 - Personal
TU - 3 Inquiries
1/22 - Business9/20 & 1/21 - Personal
Average Age of Accts (A little higher than this. I'm waiting to update my MyFico report.)
EXP 8 yrs 7 months
EQU 9yrs 5 months
TU 8 yrs 7 months
After I paid off my car (I didn't rush to do so), I anticipated a lost of point and it below is the outline:
Exp - Lost 20 points
Equ - Lost 28 points
TU - 33 points
I know I'll regain those points over time, but I'm looking to increase my scores over 780 as soon as possible.
@SouthJamaica Thank you for your feedback. I'm ok with the AU. It is my Mother's and her credit is excellent. She doesn't have high utlization on any of her cards and has excellent history.
Another factor to consider is that, according to this article, the initial impact of being added as an AU is usually negative:
https://wallethub.com/edu/cc/authorized-user-credit-card/24717
I have no expertise on this subject but I have a vague recollection that people have written in this forum that it depends on the lender; i.e. some will report it as an old account, some will report it as a new account. You may want to research that, or maybe someone can chime in with some information on that.
Here's a post from @K-in-Boston on that subject as it relates to American Express:
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Authorized-Users/m-p/6476479#M655396
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@credit8502020 wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@credit8502020 wrote:Hi All,
I hope you're doing well. I am working on a strategy to increase my scores as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. I'm preparing for a round of funding and also want to add a few credit cards to my line up. I know the inquiries on my EQ & TU cost a "few" points, but outside of that I'm looking for the best ways to increase my scores. I use AZEO (4% or less) and right now the main 2 things I'm thinking will help increase my score is potentially getting a pledge loan and paying it down (8.9% correct?)
No. The SSL is only for folks who have no open loans. You're not in that category. Won't help you at all.
& increasing the average age of accounts (using an AU).
Sure if you want to do that, but the other person's account might have higher utilization, which won't help you, or possible other baggage. I think you should stay away from that.
I have a student loan, but will not start paying on it again until May. Any other suggestions for other way to increase my scores?
Main thing is to not make any credit applications, or do anything else that might trigger a hard pull, in the interim.
Before I do the pledge loan, are there any cons to it that you can share? I want to make sure I consider everything as much as possible.
Thank you in advance for your feedback! It is much appreciated.
Below are more details:
Current Scores
755 - EXP
756 - EQ
769 - TU
Inquiries:
EQ - 4 Inquiries
11/21 & 12/21 - Business1/21 & 7/21 - Personal
TU - 3 Inquiries
1/22 - Business9/20 & 1/21 - Personal
Average Age of Accts (A little higher than this. I'm waiting to update my MyFico report.)
EXP 8 yrs 7 months
EQU 9yrs 5 months
TU 8 yrs 7 months
After I paid off my car (I didn't rush to do so), I anticipated a lost of point and it below is the outline:
Exp - Lost 20 points
Equ - Lost 28 points
TU - 33 points
I know I'll regain those points over time, but I'm looking to increase my scores over 780 as soon as possible.
@SouthJamaica Thank you for your feedback. I'm ok with the AU. It is my Mother's and her credit is excellent. She doesn't have high utlization on any of her cards and has excellent history.
Another factor to consider is that, according to this article, the initial impact of being added as an AU is usually negative:
https://wallethub.com/edu/cc/authorized-user-credit-card/24717
I have no expertise on this subject but I have a vague recollection that people have written in this forum that it depends on the lender; i.e. some will report it as an old account, some will report it as a new account. You may want to research that, or maybe someone can chime in with some information on that.
Here's a post from @K-in-Boston on that subject as it relates to American Express:
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Authorized-Users/m-p/6476479#M655396
My oldest AU account, his Lowe's card, back dated to the date of opening when he added me. That's a Synchrony account, of course. I was added when the other accounts were open, on the rest of my AU accounts. I know Amex used to back date, but they no longer do that.
Amex is the sole lender I am aware of where an authorized user does not inherit the full account history on their credit reports.
OP's average age of accounts is aged enough that adding older AU accounts probably isn't going to add any points. Actually depending on how old the accounts are in comparison to OP's oldest account, it could possibly result in a rebucketing if the AU account(s) is/are completely factored into scoring and may even result in a score decrease as a result if the profile is weaker in comparison to other profiles with the same age metrics.
Having a substantially paid loan would likely be the best approach if that is feasible.
The part of the article where they state "The initial impact is likely to be negative, as is temporarily the case whenever a person opens a new credit account, but that will reverse itself with time and responsible use." is patently false in most cases. As stated earlier, the sole lender I am aware of that would report an existing account as a "newly opened" account when an authorized user is added is American Express. And depending on someone's credit profile, even the addition of what reports as a newly opened AU account with Amex could actually result in a net positive scoring increase.