Trying to get to 700

[Anonymous]

New to the board and you guys are great. Here is my credit story. Bad decisions in college and after and been working a couple of years to clean it up.

Current score 673.
6 Active accounts - but only 3 are CC. 1 car loan, 1 Synchrony Bank and my student loans.
My credit cards are a secured Cap 1 for $300, a Quicksilver for 3K and a Citi card for 1K.
I have 4 hard pulls in the last 2 years but 3 will come off by July of this year (May, June and July they will fall off).
I owe $2,400 on my 3K card (not good), but my other cards have a zero balance.
No derogatory marks that I can see (last 2 years).

My score had been steadily rising, but has plateaued for months. Should I apply for some more CCs to up my accounts and limits? Should I wait until the hard pulls fall off this summer before applying or will it even out once they fall off?

Any advice to help me get to 700 would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

You mention that you had some big credit trouble earlier (which I suppose must have involved derogs).

You also say that you have no derogs, but qualify that with "that I can see" and "in the last two years."

Because of all that it's hard to get a really clear picture of your derogs.  The folks on this thread can help you better if you tell them:

(a) if you have pulled all three reports (not scores but reports)

(b) if so, when did you do that and what tools did you use to pull the reports

(c) what derogs appear on the reports (include everything, not just last two years)

You have one card that is nearly maxxed out.  That is certainly hurting your score.  You will benefit a ton by paying off that card completely, and then continuing to have one card reporting a small balance each month.  Opening more cards will not help -- three cards is enough to have a score in the 830s easily.  And opening more cards is the wrong solution to high CC utilization -- far better is to pay off the existing debt.

CLIs are also not needed to have a a stratospheric score.  (Size of credit limit is not a FICO scoring factor.)  Your existing credit limits are consistent with having an 850 score.  You are far away from an 850 largely because of the size of your CC debt.  And as I mention above, you can totally control that.  (You can spend several thousand dollars a month and have a CC utilization of 1-3%, just by making appropriate payments.)

[Anonymous]

Thanks Credit guy! I guess my move will be to continue to pay down my existing balance. I have not actually pulled my report. What tool would you suggest I use to do that so I can see what derogs are showing?

[Anonymous]

If think you'll be working on this and need regular updates I like creditchecktotal.  They have a 1 week trial.  Credit karma is free amd gives limited info. There scores at CK are Faco. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Backwoods. I'm going to try creditchecktotal. Appreciate the feedback. I'm new to the board but it's been very helpful already (and interesting).

[Anonymous]

I have heard great things about CCT.  Their $1 free trial is hard to beat.  My personal advice is to cancel before the trial expires, but certainly save the reports and scores.  At the same time that you do that, I would join Credit Karma if I were you.  Karma will enable you to pull your Equifax and TransUnion reports as often as once per week and it is free.

Finally, this is a good way to get a free FICO 8 score and credit report once per month from Experian:

https://www.freecreditscore.com/

Top of your list should be two simple things:

(1)  Keep paying down that big CC balance

(2)  Start getting familiar with your credit reports. 

Both things won't happen overnight.  It's ok if it takes you a while.  Just keep working on both.