I will say from my (only) two years of trying to raise my credit ratings is this.
You must,must use your cards. But don't max them out. Yes they like to see under 10%.
If you go over 50% and it reports your gonna take a hit in score. (if you use your card either a little or a lot and pay it off before it reports they wont even know you used it.) If your worried about interest ,,, straddle that time frame by just a few days. You have to let it report,,, find out the day each month that they send it in. Think of them as doubting Thomas. You gotta prove you can use your cards and then do what you say, and pay them back on time. Don't ever ,,,ever close an account. Unless you wanna take a hit.
The longer the credit history the better you look. Put the cards in a drawer or cut them up,, but don't close them. I just had a conversation with my banker/loan officer. Old people have the best credit scores. Well some old people, ones that don't close accounts. And pay their bills on time. >TIME
And get as many positive reports as possible. Gas/electric/storage,,,etc. If they don't report...ask them to. There are companies that you can set an account up with that will report for you/them. It cost around 6 bucks a month. Not sure you can advertise in here so you will have to research this. I use it to report my rent on the house, & rent for my hangar. I pay rent to both places to private people each month. The company will call them and ask if I payed, and then they report to the dark side of the force each month.
I have raise my credit score 200 pts. in the last year. yep even Equifax. with this.
...you think they would add Equifax to the spell check dictionary in here of all places...
Diddly