Something seems wrong with my new score

[Anonymous]

Recently, I've decided to start rebuilding my credit. As of 4/12 my scores were 545 and 530. I had no credit. I destroyed it when i was younger and let it all fall off. All that was on there were medical bills from when I had no insurance. Anyway.. In having no credit, I applied for a secured mastercard through capital one and got approved. My wife put me as an authorized user on her two credit cards. Capital one reported those three accounts to my credit in the next week. Now, my credit has gone up 140 points!!! Its now 680 and 689!!!!! I applied and was approved the capital one quicksilverOne and was approved for 2K.. Has anybody else heard of such a drastic swing in credit??

This seems wrong or odd to me and am looking for some insight from you good folks. Thank you. Any advice is welcomed!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Recently, I've decided to start rebuilding my credit. As of 4/12 my scores were 545 and 530. I had no credit. I destroyed it when i was younger and let it all fall off. All that was on there were medical bills from when I had no insurance. Anyway.. In having no credit, I applied for a secured mastercard through capital one and got approved. My wife put me as an authorized user on her two credit cards. Capital one reported those three accounts to my credit in the next week. Now, my credit has gone up 140 points!!! Its now 680 and 689!!!!! I applied and was approved the capital one quicksilverOne and was approved for 2K.. Has anybody else heard of such a drastic swing in credit??

This seems wrong or odd to me and am looking for some insight from you good folks. Thank you. Any advice is welcomed!

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That is great!! Congratulations!! Nothing wrong or odd about it, you've gained positive tradelines and age to your credit history and then gained some more revolving lines. You better use one of those cards to take your wife out to dinner.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I will be!! I hope that the only way is up from here! I don't even really need cards, but we will be buying a house in the next few years to hold our ever growing family. I hope that my credit limits increase significantly in the next year or so. It would really help with utilization!

[takeshi74]

First off, what specific scores are you referring to?  Where did they come from?  What's the scoring model and CRA for each?  Keep in mind that for any scoring model you have a score with each of the 3 major CRA's.  Also keep in mind that creditors use a number of different scoring models so the scores you're relying on may or may not be what they pull for you.

Second, none of that is beyond the realm of possibility, depending on the specifics of all your changes.  If you have any derogs remaining then hit the Rebuilding subforum to see what you can do about them.

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@Anonymous wrote:

This seems wrong or odd to me and am looking for some insight from you good folks. Thank you. Any advice is welcomed!

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Do you understand the various factors and their relative weights?  If not, read up before trying to assess whether it's right or wrong.  Start here but this is just a starting point and it doesn't quite cover everything.  Also don't overlook the Understanding FICO Scoring subforum and its stickies as well as other credit resources out there.

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

Advice?  Considering the data in the link above, the biggest slices are Payment History and Amounts Owed.  That's why addressing derogs is always the first recommendation as they tend to kill Payment History and keep scores down as long as they're on your reports.  Do whatever it takes to avoid derogs in future.  100% of your payments must be on time.  Not most, not even 99% but 100%.

Revolving utilization falls under Amounts Owed above so keep it in check.  Do not allow more than 30% to report but note that lower is generally better (ideal is typically under 10%) as long as you're not reporting all 0 balances.  Most cards report on statement date so whatever your balance is on report date is what is reported to the CRA's.  If over 30% then pay down before the report date to reduce the reported balance.

Pay your balances in full.  If you leave part of the statement balance to report then pay the remainder in full by the due date.

Being an AU can help but you definitely need to build your own tradelines which will take some time.

[Anonymous]

The scores came from credit karma. I'll read into the link and start learning about all of this. I'm pretty uneducated in credit. Thank you very much for responding and I'll get back with some answers.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The scores came from credit karma. I'll read into the link and start learning about all of this. I'm pretty uneducated in credit. Thank you very much for responding and I'll get back with some answers.

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While Credit Karma is good for reviewing what is on your report, do not go off of their score. They do not use Fico, they use Vantage. Most lenders do not use Vantage.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the QS & your new scores!!   It's normal when someone adds you to their accounts.  Enjoy!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Recently, I've decided to start rebuilding my credit. As of 4/12 my scores were 545 and 530. I had no credit. I destroyed it when i was younger and let it all fall off. All that was on there were medical bills from when I had no insurance. Anyway.. In having no credit, I applied for a secured mastercard through capital one and got approved. My wife put me as an authorized user on her two credit cards. Capital one reported those three accounts to my credit in the next week. Now, my credit has gone up 140 points!!! Its now 680 and 689!!!!! I applied and was approved the capital one quicksilverOne and was approved for 2K.. Has anybody else heard of such a drastic swing in credit??

This seems wrong or odd to me and am looking for some insight from you good folks. Thank you. Any advice is welcomed!

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Not too crazy, my father had a blank credit file, I added him to my Discover and 2 store cards, and his scores went from the 540's (According to Credit Karma) to 670 (According to denial letter from Bank of America that listed his FICO score-Denied for no credit history).  So your not alone in your insane score jumps.

EDIT: Just talked to my dad, he said the letter from BofA stated a score of 643, not 670)

[Anonymous]

Well, understand vantage is not fico. I didn't know that, and I thank you all for the info. I haven't applied to any others to be denied to see my fico. I believe for now I'll be happy using my new cards. I did however call and request that both AF be waived for my two cards and they happily waived them for the life of my accounts. Feels great to learn about these things

[Anonymous]

Either way, congrats on both the approval and the AF waivers. Everyone has to start somewhere. It takes time, but you will get where you want to be.