How do I pull my scores up?

[Red1Blue]

All right. I am going back to drawing board and see what I can do to bring up my scores into 700's

Where should I start? What is the strategy I should use?

My Scores TU 705 - EX 678 - EQ 669

My util is very less. I bought car recently and I am planning on bringing the balance down to less than 30% by next month.

What other steps should I do to reach my goals?

[Anonymous]

You have a new installment loan and lost a few points... you should gain those back in a few months. Keep cc balances at 1% and payments on time. Try not to open any new credit lines.

[Junejer]

Concord, unfortunately, I don't think you're going to see many, if any points for bringing that installment loan util to 30%. That's not going to do much more than having the util at 90%. You should concentrate instead on revolving util and no more apping. Let the accounts you have age.

[haulingthescoreup]

As ByrdMan said.

What are the positives and negatives on your FICO score reports? They give good indications as to where you should be focusing.

I have tortured my reports into the best shape that I could, and now there's nothing that I can do but to wait for everything from my credit hunting last spring to go over a year old. The majority will happen in February, with two accounts in March and one in April. I had planned to do a little fine tuning of the stuff I have at that point, but with a tanking economy, I'm planning on laying low for now.

Well, I suppose that I can always go back to J.Crew to grovel some more and get the one serious derog (a 90-day from Feb 2006) GW'd off, but I'm not optimistic.

[smallfry]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You have a new installment loan and lost a few points... you should gain those back in a few months. Keep cc balances at 1% and payments on time. Try not to open any new credit lines.

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Time and no new accounts. Other than what you are already doing that is it. Save yourself the money. Don't even bother pulling scores for a year. $13 bucks to see the same number or close doesn't excite me anymore.

[jbh]

1 year of payments, no apps and low utility. The effects of inq's go away and you hit more anniversaries (On top of the natural increase due to multiple consecutive positive payments).

Message Edited by jbh on 11-21-2008 09:40 PM

[Anonymous]

Agreed.  Time is on your side to get all 3 scores to 700.  No lates, no apps, and keep your util % low.  Good luck!

[Anonymous]

As others have said, lowering revolving debt and not opening new accounts is the way to go. In addition, you might want to ask for CLI for your CCs if you have a good payment history with the issuer and haven't had a CLI for a while. However, when you ask for CLI, make sure if the ccc will do a hard or soft pull on your CR, and think it over if they need to do a hard pull. If you haven't been using your CC lately, use it to pay all your expenses and pay the balance (doesn't have to be full, but enough not to hurt your score) before statement closing date, and PIF all statement balances. This will increase your chances of getting (potentially large) CLI later on. (However, if you live in an area with lots of foreclosed properties and/or you have subprime mortgage and you have only used your CC sparingly thus far, you probably want to just keep paying off your debt and not change your behavior suddenly) Also, if you have just one or two CCs, you might want to consider applying for a couple. Your scores will be hit initially, but after a year or so they would help you achieve better scores. Furthermore, if you are paying high interest on CC debt, you might want to consider doing a BT (another reason for opening new CC now). You'll be able to reduce your debt faster and reduce individual util rate. Obviously, this depends on your ability to get approved for a CC with decent CL and low BT rate, but if you haven't had any baddies in the last 24-30 months and you current overall util is under 50%, your chances are good and I'd say it's worth risking an inquiry.