So Many Tips for Credit Rebuilding But...

[Anonymous]

There is a lot of information on how to boost your score by 100 points but that's only if you have a poor score. What about people whose score is above 740 and want to achieve an 800 score in a short period of time? Are there any articles on that?

[NRB525]

Basically, if you have no negatives then the only remaining factors are:

1) Utilization control, either keeping balances down or finding ways to raise CL.

2) Age of accounts, length of time accounts are reporting (longer being better).

3) Inquiries. Any inquiries will be a drag on scores for at least a year. A variation on INQ is new accounts within the last two years.

If your accounts tend to be low in the age of accounts department, that's the main reason not to expect 800 too soon. 800 is earned over a fairly long time frame.

In my own case, it's the utilization issues and somewhat inquiries and new accounts.

[Anonymous]

I'll add one more thing on to what NRB just mentioned.

If you have no open installment loans of any kind (student, auto, personal, share secure, mortgage, etc.) then you would benefit substantially from doing the following:

Add a Share Secure loan to your profile.  It can be quite small, $500 is fine, and make it a 4-year loan, 5 is better. Once it is reporting to the bureaus, then pay off most of the principal -- but continue to keep it open for the full term of the loan.  You will receive a substantial increase to your score as long as it is open.  Alliant is a lender that seems very friendly to this approach.

The above strategy works for people who have no open installment loans.  If you already have one or more, you can get the same benefit by adding up all the amounts currently owed on your open installment loans.  Call that OWED.  Then add up all the original amounts of each loan.  Call that total ORIGINAL.  Then look at the fraction OWED / ORIGINAL as a percent.  This is the percent you currently owe on all your open installment loans taken together. By keeping the loans open but paying off most of the principal, you will create the same effect as the Share Secure strategy above.

PS.  You seem to perceive a need to get above 800 very quickly.  Can you tell us why?  When people feel a need to get their score to a certain place very fast, it is almost always because they are trying to buy a house or a car, they are on a deadline, and the underwriter needs them to have a certain score.  But no underwriter will need you to have an 800.  Just curious.

[jamie123]

Its really not all that difficult to reach an 800 score as long as you have clean reports.

This is what you need:

3 credit cards, 5 would be better.

An open installment loan (Mortgage, auto loan or share secured loan.) that is mostly paid off.

Time.

You should be able to hit at right about 800 from a fresh start in 3 years.