What do you do?

[gbwhite1]

What are some sure fire ways to raise your Fico score? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

gbw

[Anonymous]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2014/05/02/11-ways-to-raise-your-credit-score-fast/

Read the above link for simple tips. But keep all credit card balances under 10% to see the biggest score increase. Depending on how many cards you have, you would only want 1 card reporting a balance and having that card be the one under 10%.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@gbwhite1 wrote:

What are some sure fire ways to raise your Fico score? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

gbw

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Stick to the basics. If you have an established credit history, only get new credit when you need it [inquiries for new credit can hurt your score for a year]. Always pay on time - no exceptions, never default on a loan and don't max out your available credit.

More specifically, keep your aggregate utilization (all cards combined) under 9% and don't let any individual card report a blance of 50% or more - best to stay under 30% on every card.. Also, always report at least a small balance on one card to avoid a substantial score drop due to "lack of credit use".

It is advisable to report a balance on less than 50% of your open cards. Typically reporting a balance on one card only is optimal for scoring - but not essential.

[NRB525]

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@gbwhite1 wrote:

What are some sure fire ways to raise your Fico score? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

gbw

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As noted, there are general tips.

However, each file is different, so listing out your situation will get you more specific, more actionable comments.

What are your FICO scores now? If you are at 800 it's a different set of actions than if you are at 600.

If you have credit cards, how many, what are their limits, and what did they report on the last CC statement?

If you have any installment loans or mortgage, note those.

If there are any negatives such as lates or charge offs, those are a big factor by themselves.

[SouthJamaica]

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@gbwhite1 wrote:

What are some sure fire ways to raise your Fico score? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

gbw

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One can't tell from your brief question.

Certain actions would cause one person's score to go down, another person's score to go up, and another person's score to be unaffected. So we would need to know a little more about the person.

If you want general principles: keeping utilization as low as possible, limits as high as possible, credit mix varied, and everything paid on time.