A student trying to optimize their credit score

Hello, I am a 26 year old student with a credit score of 700 that hasn't really been increasing (or decreasing) over the past year. The only form of credit I currently have is a discover it credit card. I will soon be taking out about $10k in direct subsidized student loans as well. Besides that, I have a checking account with chase and discover. I don't have an income, but will be living off of student loans and grants for the next couple of years, and would prefer to be building credit with a CC during that time rather than paying by debit card. Currently, on my discover card, I keep my utilization below 10% but above 0%, and make sure to pay on time. I don't really know what else I can do besides that, and I would like to raise my score, at least to the 750 range. I can't take out home or auto loans because I don't have an income (and don't need either home nor auto). The only other things I can think of doing are opening another CC or taking out a small personal loan and paying it back vigilantly. Does anybody have some advice on where I can go from here? I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

I agree with Axe. If you can let us know when you opened your Discover card, that would be helpful for us to know in order to give you advice. Axe gave you some other good advice. Acquiring two more credit cards in the next year is a good idea too, as Gdale said. With three CCs and the occasional installment loan (you will be starting a student loan soon) you can achieve VERY high scores. That's all I had for a long time and my scores climbed into the 820s. You gave us an essential piece of information which is that you are NOT trying to prepare to buy a house (or even a car) for a while. Those purchases sound very low on your own emotional radar too -- at least for the next 4-5 years. Following up on that, can you tell us what you think your own credit-related goals are? Here are two different goals as an example, but you might have others: (1) I'd love to get my scores higher so that I can get more and more credit cards. My goals is to eventually have ten (or more) credit cards, with a number of them being really prestigious rewards cards of different kinds -- the kind you need high scores to get. (2) I'd love to get my scores higher since down the road I will eventually want to buy a house. Credit cards are great but I don't need more than a few. Getting more CC's is fine but only as a tactic if it helps me achieve the goal of raising my score. These are two very common goals people will often have here. As I said, you might have other goals, such as "I want 10 prestige cards and to buy a house in the next 12 months." (Arguably an unrealistic goal, but it helps to know if that IS your goal.) The reason to get clear about your goals is that the advice you get should differ depending on which goal you have. Final note: your 700 score is a good one. Great job, great place to be starting. With that starting place and your attention to careful credit maintenance, you should have a bright future ahead of you. Can you confirm for us that the 700 score you have is a true FICO score? I assume that it is the free score you are getting through your Discover card?

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Credit Score Tanked - Feeling Hopeless

Alright, I'm 21 years old, gong on 22 very shortly, and my credit scores are 484 TU and 493 Equifax. Around October of last year my credit scores were in the mid 600s. In that time I got a new job and went a little crazy, and got into more debt than I should have. Moreover, because I wasn't budgeting my moeny I would end each month with zilch in my checking account. I was late on almost every payment I had to make. That would include my car payment, a private student loan (Discover), my federal loan (which almost went into default), a best buy credit card (which nearly charged out, but I am on my way back to paying off), and a parking ticket which went into collections. In the last month, I've been trying to get my sh*t together. I made a budget and was able to cut my unescesary expenses (I was spending around $400/month just going out to eat/drink) and save some money each motnh. I was able to get my Federal loan, on the cusp of default, back to a balance of $0 by retroactively puttign the last 7 or so months of missed payments in forebearance (god knows how I made that happen). I paid my parking ticket. Everything is basically up to date now except my Best Buy card, which is still behind but I should have paid off in a couple months time. The question is, where do I go from here? I applied for a Capital One secured card and was declined, so I'm feeling quite grim at the moment.

First off, take a little time. Some of those things you have done, probably have not yet shown up on your reports yet. Let everything shake out. Work within the budget you have set up. It sounds like it is working, so let it allow you to build some savings up. I know thefeeling of wanting to get going, NOW! But takeyour time, you are 22, many of us have had to build or rebuild far later in life, there is an end, and you will get there. Work on writing good will letters to the negatives on the reports. Use these forums, get a couple of secured cards (try cap1 again in a few months) if whoever youbank with has a secured card they would also be a solid choice. You are 22 and taking control, well ahead of the curve just stick with it.

Which is a better idea to improve my credit score

I am trying to rebuild my credit from years of neglect and stupidity as of now I have a 521 through equifax but a 601 through trans union (no idea how the big difference is posible but that's a different matter) most of the reson it's so low is a very poor payment history. I am now on track with all my bills that aren't in either charge off status or collection and only have one 1 more collection to take care of. And one care off( thinking of trying to do a debit consolidation loan for that thoughts?) But 2nd and main question is which is better to pay down a current revolving debt, pay off an installment loan or get a secure cc to increase my available ratio/ usage ? Thoughts please this journey is just beginning

Thank you for your responce and recomendation Below I will itemize my credit report, I just pulled m free anual report. I will also list the current actions that I am curently taking on each account and see what you all recommend. Thank you again Good reports Navy fedral auto loan Balance $8394 open Feb 2013 reports monthly total of three 30 day late payments back in jun, sep, and oct of 2013 since then payed on time Personal credit plan instalment loan balance $324 reports only pays as agreed nothing else no monthly payment history Military star card revolving credit balance $1,456/1,775 Reports as pays as agreed but is listed as potentialy negative due to 3 30 day late payment 3 60 day late payment I am disputing 5 of the late payments because after the 1st one it began paying automaticaly our of my paycheck Chase Card-- This one I am confused about I was an authorized user for a while on someone elses account and it went well but this just has date reported 2008 pays as agrees Les schwab revolving reports as open but no credit limit and last reported 6-2007 DSHS support enforcmenttype: open pays as agrees 2 120 day late report back FEB 2009 and DEC 2008 but they only report every other month Closed acounts several installment accounts that were paid and they closed when they were paid offexcept these Pioneer/mac instalment loan Status Charge Off Balance $5 353 CO since Nov of 14 oct 180dl sep 150 DL aug 120 DL jul 90 DL Jun 60 DL may- Jan 2014 30 DL which isnt correct. USA discounters installment account CO since nov of 2012 late since nov of 2011 but NR from the open of the account in jun 2010 untl the late report in nov 2011 --- This one I am fully disputing I payed this off early and the decided that After I payed it off they were still going to charge me the intrest that would have accumulated on the account if paid as planed despite their contract having no early pay off penelties. Midland creditwas a colection account that I paid of jan 2013 Navy fedral revolving" Balance $5642/ closed for change of intrest rate from 17.99% down to 6% several 30 date late payment last one dec of 14 Collections Stellar recover: random $696 from century link. --Disputing this as not my account as i havent had century link. a medical bill for $43 trying to investigate this one CBE group for $903 for a direct tv bill-- Disputing and trying to validate I had D-tv but cancled it correctly and dont know why this exist Credit managment paid collection in 2-2014 OK so that is my god awful report. A few courses of action that I am curnently look at. Debt conslidation loan at least for the pioner loan and try a PTRto improve my score which If I understand correctly is 521 ( reported from a lender)Also 2 other things Im milling aroundoption A - scrape up $300 some how and get a secure CC and use it for something small everymonth but paying it offoption B - taking that same $300 and pay down the military star card to improve my ratioWhat say you all ?? Thanks and sorry for the horible and long winded post

BT Mobile - Problem with Erroneous Credit Score an...

I have been a BT Customer for 35 years and have always paid my bills on time. I have a monthly direct debit for my landline and Broadband and have just added BT Mobile to my account. I have to say that I should have paid more attention when setting up BT Mobile online as it did flag through the process that there would be a cap of £50 spend outside the monthly plan and that roaming would be turned off. On receipt of the confirmation email on 2nd April this limit to my account was restated and was put down to my credit score. I called BT on the 2nd and was told that this was not a problem and the limits could be changed once the service had started. The service commenced on 8th April and on entering MYBT I am able to increase the monthly cap to £100 (not that i want or need to). However, the real issue I have is that I cannot activate Mobile Roaming. My account is flagged (Sorry, but you can’t use your phone abroad at the moment. You need to be a BT Mobile customer for six months first and have paid all your bills on time).
I rang BT on 10th April to find out what the problem is and was told that it was my credit score and there was nothing that could be done to change what had been done. I was told that I would need to find out for myself what adverse information was held by Equifax who BT use. After paying £14.95 to Equifax for a full report and credit score I found that my credit score is 527 which is deemed to be excellent against the UK average score of 380, and there is absolutely no adverse information whatsoever which is of no surprise to me. So what on earth are BT looking at. I have tried in vein to get somebody in BT to check my file as there must be an error. I suspect that when I applied on line the process is automated and the system has made a mistake. Rather than investigate my case I am just being told nothing can be done to let me use my phone whilst abroad. After several hours on the phone to various people over a few days I have come up against a brick wall.
Is there anyway a moderator could help me please. If I had known that I would encounter this I would not have signed up for BT Mobile and Ported my number which I would be loathe to loose.

it may well be nothing to do with your credit score, but more to do with bt internals
ie: I purchased a new second hand car last year (December), my bank who i have been with for over 10 years, have a current loan with (that ends this year) and have had previous loan with, never been overdrawn, wages paid in each month and bills paid on time said I could not have a loan and if they did offer one it would be at a very high interest rate (i am still waiting to fine out from them why), even though I got a loan through another company at a very good deal, I upgraded my 3 accounts with EE from T-Mobile in December and January which all required a new credit check went through without issues (and they offered me another line on my contract on Sunday, saying that my credit rating is perfect) . My credit rating from experian when I checked (because of my bank) was Green and in Excellent condition.
The only thing I know was 11 years ago I got in financial debt (the bank purchased the debt from another company, but I paid everything off by scrimping and scraping for a number of years) - it may be that they are still using against me, but every other company has said they find nothing wrong with my rating, but what I have heard is that they reset ratings every month, so you may be fine to get something on the 1st of the month, but if applied on the 2nd they would refuse it.

Credit Score & Monitoring Questions

Hi everyone! I am new to here.. I paid Credit Check Monitoring w/ Free Credit Score every month for $13.95. I also paid Lexington Law for $79 every month to repair my credits. I know it is relatively expensive but they have removed 15 items from my credit since I joined. I began to check several website to check for my credit score such as Credit Karma and AnnualFreeCredit, I noticed that my credit scores are not all same. I am beginning to wonder why they are not the same and which are creditiblity? Can anyone tell me which website is accurability? I have yet purchase MyFico because I alread paid Credit Check Monitoring w/ Free Credit Score. Thank you

EarthyTx wrote:
Hi everyone! I am new to here.. I paid Credit Check Monitoring w/ Free Credit Score every month for $13.95. I also paid Lexington Law for $79 every month to repair my credits. I know it is relatively expensive but they have removed 15 items from my credit since I joined. I began to check several website to check for my credit score such as Credit Karma and AnnualFreeCredit, I noticed that my credit scores are not all same. I am beginning to wonder why they are not the same and which are creditiblity? Can anyone tell me which website is accurability? I have yet purchase MyFico because I alread paid Credit Check Monitoring w/ Free Credit Score. Thank youThere are 10's if not 100's a proprietary credit scores out there and they are all "correct" based on their own score model. Asking which is "accurate" is not the right way to look at it. What is importnat is what credit score matters to the company you are applying to. Basically there are FICO scores and Non-FICO scores, or "FAKO's" as they have come to be known. FICO reports that 90% of top lenders use FICO for credit decisions. It is clearly accepted as the industry leader. If you want to use others that's fine but they are not FICO scores and are not used by the majority of lenders. As well, your FICO score, any credit score, is based on the information in your credit report, you have 3 credit reports from the 3 main credit agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and you will have a FICO score for each of those 3 credit reports. Your credit reports may have different info in them thus your scores may not be the same. In addition, the info in your 3 credit reports is always changing, even on a daily basis, thus your FICO credit scores are not static and will change with time, sometimes daily based on new info added to your credit reports or simply due to the passing of time (time is one of the major factors taken into account in you credit score). Feel free to view all the other credit scores but in the end they do not matter, they are not used by Lenders thus they are just a guide, a guide that can be way off (or it can be close as well, it's a toss). Not something, well, to bet the house on... Additional info:http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/questions/different-scores-for-3-credit-bureaus.aspx

Trying to update my credit card for Creative Cloud account but chat support is always repeating the same thing?

I'm just trying to update my credit card info for my Creative Cloud account, it's been 6 times I've contacted chat support.
Every time they repeat the same questions & answers over & over.
"What's the name on the card?"
-I give it to them.
"It will take 4 to 5 hours to update."
-I wait a day, same problem, then contact them again, same question & same answer. They don't give me a reason or any indication why my card didn't get charged.
I re-phrase my questions, always same answer:
"Your payment details are updated, your account will be activated in 4-5 hours."
Are they robots?
Is there actually somebody on the end of the chat, is it possible to talk to a supervisor or someone that could help me give you money so my account doesn't expire?

Well, today my tools are going to be deactivated because my account is expiring.
Still no solution or feedback on the status of the issue relating to the fact that my valid credit card is stuck in a processing limbo in their payment system.
The biggest lesson learned is that subscription software & cloud based services are too risky for a professional production pipeline.
Imagine if I had employees and a huge deadline this week, I would have to explain to my clients that the reason I can't deliver is because Adobe can't process my credit card for whatever reason, and they deactivated my tools.
Now, I probably won't be able to work today but at least this situation as forced me to re-evaluate how I'm going to build my new workflows and those of my clients.
I was actually planning to convert my video production pipeline to Adobe Premiere but now, it's guaranteed I'm staying with Final Cut.
Same thing for my photo retouching & motion workflows, I'm stripping out every Adobe Cloud tool from it.

I am a student trying to purchase creative card with a maestro card but won't allow anything other than master card or visa, is there any way around this?

I am a student trying to purchase creative cloud with a maestro card but won't allow anything other than master card or visa, is there any way around this?

No, not that I know about... but you might check the credit card page to see if there is an option
Change/Verify Account https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1465499 may help
-Credit card https://helpx.adobe.com/utilities/credit-card.html

What was your credit score when you did the shopping cart trick?

Hey everyone! I have removed all but two charge-offs and am paying monthly payments on one of those(Springleaf). My credit score is still terrible....a whopping 505....but, by removing 4 charge-offs it brought it up 36 points. It was 469. Gotta start somewhere. Lol. I have been reading about the shopping cart trick and wanted to ask y'all what was your credit score at when you succeeded? I have two judgments that I will file a Motion to Vacate this fall when I have them paid in full. Thank you very much. :-)

Tietza wrote:
Hey, SandiBeach22! I looked at your siggy and I am only seeing.... TOTAL CREDIT LINES: $166,750.00
EQ FICO: 744 (6/2015) I see a little plant which I think means that you are in the 'garden'? Which three did you try and your score is excellent at 744. Mine is barely over 500. Heck, I can't stay in the garden! Just started gettin the SCT to work! Have to many cc's. Maybe 18/19? Got Overstock recently with a 16k limit! I try to check out as a guest. It seems to work better for me. Got the Sportsman Visa the same way. No hp's at all and around 28,250.00 in cl's. Worth a shot or two. Keep trying. It took me about 2 months to get Overstock to work. VS should give you a card. Probably a few more too. Scores not excellent. Not until it's over 800.

My credit Score is 2 - 0 negs - 0 transactions - 0 bankruptcies

10 years ago, I had a student loan in default, and a debt with the IRS.I paid these off in 2011. I don't borrow money, have no debt, no cc's, no bankrupcies. I just ran my credit score for the first time ever. euiqifax = 2 transunion = 2 experian = 698They all show 0 debt, 0 transactions, 0 negatives, 0 banrupcies (this is all basically true, except paying off old debts) None of the reports have information about my IRS debt or the student loan. However, only Experian has a relatively current addresss listed, whereas the other two agencies have 10+ year old address' listed. I sent all three agencies a letter to undate my address, and remove a public record ($600 from 2006). Is there anything I can do to improve my score? or is my domancy with inaccurate addresses starting me at a 2 with 2 agencies? I need a loan for the first time in 20 years. Thanks

First you need to open up three lines of credit to maximize your scores. Ideally two and then the third one later on. You have to begin some where. Even though you may not use the credit cards atleast it will give you the score boost you need. Good Luck

Three days trying to verify my credit card

Hi there. I've been trying to verify my Saudi Arabian credit card, and haven't managed so far.
I've never had trouble using my credit card anywhere else. I contacted the "24 hour response" support, and they just told me to check my information. Other people here had no trouble verifying their credit cards. A couple of possibilities is that there's a problem with my account, or the Saudi Arabian App Store.
I checked my billing information many many times. The only thing I could think of was that my credit card has no 'phone' information registered with it, so I just provided my mobile phone number. Is that enough to cause a problem?
What bugs me so much is that iTunes provides me with NO details on why my credit card was declined. Can you at least tell me if my billing information is correct?

The Discussion Group contributors are users like yourself. We are not Apple employees and could not answer if your billing info is correct. You will need to contact iTS web based Customer Service to see if there are any problems.
Use the links on this page to get assistance - http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/
MJ

My Apple ID has been disabled after I tried to change my credit card details.

Hi,
My Apple ID has been disabled after i tried to change my credit card details on my iTunes Store account. I am being charged money for purchases that i have never made even when the apps that i tried to download are free. I am being charged €1.98 every time. When i checked with my bank everything was in order from their end. I am changing the details and doing my purchases from my iPad. Being in Malta i use the Maltese iTunes Store for the purchases.
Can somebody help me out with this?
Thanks!
Jeremy

You'll need to contact support for this.
https://expresslane.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

Trying to rebuild my credit

Back in 2009 I went through a terrible divorce. I became a single father and my credit took a huge hit. My exwife walked away from the kids and I. Money was tight raising 2 kids so i let my credit cards go. i had gotten those in 2011-2012. Since then Ive has no other forms of credit except the vehicles i financed.Those credit cards and a couple doctor bills ended up in collection. I have since paid them off reciently. I didnt kow about the PFD thing so i just paid them. It wasnt much 1700ish total.Now im trying to rebuild my credit, within the last month I have gotten 3 CC. I have had no CCsince 2011/12 1 for 300, 1 for 500, and a secured one for 1000 for my credit union. I have also went on as an authorized user on my wife now american epress 10,000 limit and her goodyear CC 2600 ( i dont know if this will help )I have tried to dispute some of the negitive things on my credit report and it pretty much all came back as comfirmed it belonged to me.This was hard on me as before i was able to pretty much get whatever I wanted and now with my credit score its almost impossible unless i put down a huge down payment I,E i put down 20,000 on my truck just to get finaced and still ended up with a 24,99 intrest rate.Ive been really tring to get these removed from my credit. they say they are do to fall off in 2019 but we are looking to hopefully by a home soon as with the combned family this one is a bit small. my fico8 scored ived gotten up to EQ 517 TU 489 EX 589 My advantage scores are EQ 519 TU 556 EX 556. These are coming from a low 400 score a little over a month ago.Ive read alot on the diffrences, am i allowed to ask a finacial instituation what they use as it seems my advantage score would really help me out. It was just a real difficult time in my life, and now im just trying to find a way to fix it. Divorce put a BK on my credit too that falls off in 2017.I know time will fix it but is there anything else i can do? I read about GW letters but I imagine that the CC companies and the CA could really care less about difficult times.I can say its been very humbling coming from someone that had credit that could get anything they wanted to having to pay huge amounts just praying to get finaced.Sorry for the long post.

also i will add i have 2 tax leins that are paid on my credit from 2010, im filling out the form to have those removed.I also have a judgement that i paid in full on my credit from 2012 from wells fargo. Im not exactly sure how to remove those, since 2012 i have had no new credit. everything i have bought has been cash. so my payment history sucks its why i really want to remove those 2 years of bad things.

How will helping my parents affect my credit score?

Hi credit experts! First of all, thank you for taking the time to read my post. It means a lot. Here is my situation: My father is retiring at the end of August and my parents are planning to move up closer to me (about three hours away from where they're currently located). They already sold their house, and their closing date is 8/13. We approached a realtor to start looking for a house by me, but wanted to get pre-approved first. I had recommended an FHA loan to them because of their poor credit score (on credit karma my father has 585 and 593 and my moms is 638 and 601). The mortgage broker said that wouldn't be a problem due to their high down payment ($120,000), but they would need to have income in their new location coming in before they get pre-approved for the mortgage. As I mentioned previously, my dad retires at the end of August and will be receiving social security and his pension, however that will not be coming in until at least November. My mom is going to work up until she moves, and then get a job once she gets up to her new home. Therefore, they have no "current" income to report to be approved for their mortgage (because they need to be out by the end of September and my dad's first check won't come until November and my mom needs 30 days minimum of paystubs and even if she gets a job tomorrow, she will not have enough time before they need to move out). I talked to the realtor and she put me in touch with another mortgage broker who offered us the following option: - Purchase the home under MY name (fairly good credit, score of 750), and use their $120,000 as a down payment "gifted" to me. Then, when they move up here and my mom starts working and my dad gets his social security checks, have them re-finance the house and put it back in only their names. My question to you all is - how will this affect MY credit? Assuming they make all their payments on time (which they will). My main concern is that my fiance and I are planning on buying a home of our own within the next 2 years. I am worried this will affect my ability to get a mortgage for myself when the time comes. I would love to help out my parents, but I need to make sure it isn't going to ruin my future first. My main concern is taking care of my credit so that I'm NOT in the boat that they are in now. Any insight would be fabulous! The mortgage broker who suggested it to me said it won't affect my credit at all, but I want to get a couple other opinions before I committ. Thank you again!

I would not do what you are proposing - or more accurately what the mortgage broker and Realtor are proposing. What is the price range your parents are planning for their next purchase? Have you found a house or are you just researching at the moment? This is July 2015. Your parents will have income as soon as they move and your Mother gets a job and your Father's SS starts coming in Nov 2015.You are really only talking about 5 or 6 months gap here. A short term rental is a terrific way to fill the gap. There are a number of ways to handle this without involving you and your credit. If the LTV is low enough with the $120k down payment, your parents can get a bank statement type loan.They can rent a place for six months or so beginning now until your Mother's job starts and your Father's SS starts and then purchase. This gives your parents ample time to settle in the area, scout for a new home and get the right place.Or, if you have found a place, consider offering the seller an installment type purchase. $X down (not the $120k, a much small amount) $Y in rent/monthly payments and a close date in Dec 2015. There are sellers that will do that, but certainly it limits the inventory.There are risks involved from a tax POV if your parents gift you the $120k this year. Talk with a CPA. It is not wise for either of you to do this large gift - it is over the allowed annual limit and there is a gift tax. Get professional tax advice from a CPA so you have the most accurate info.

No increase on Credit Scores- Please Help!

Hello, I am new to the " building up credit world". After college I did not realize that you had to immediately start paying back student loans. So after 4 months of missed payments I started recieving calls to have loans consolidated. Although the loans were consolidated they still show 4 months of missed payments on 6 separate loans about $2000.00 each starting in 2007. I went back to school in 2014 and the loans are now defered. The loans were consolidated in 2009. I had a mortgage in 2007 with 3-30 day missed payments, but was transferred to a new bank in 2012 with no missed payments. I recently sold the house in March 2015. I puchased a car in 2008 and paid on time until 2013 when I had a balance of $1077.00 left on the car and gave the car to my brother. The car was repo'd and I had to pay the remaining balance of $1077.00 on the car to get it out (and yes, still gave it back to my brother). I did dispute it because it had never been late before, but they denied it and it is still on the credit report. I have 3 credit cards, one secured with a credit union. The limit is $500.00 on the secured credit union card, and I have had this account since 2009. 2 Capital One cards with increased credit limits from $500.00 to $2750.00 and from $300 to $500, both opened in September 2014. I have not missed any payments. The balance on the secured card is $41.11. I only make 1 transation on this card a month. The Captial one card with the limit of $500 has a balance of -.36 and the capital one card with the limit of $2750 has a balance of 67.00. The minimum payment is $25 a month for all 3 cards and I have paid $30.00 each month. I recently bought a new car in March 2015 with no missed payments. I'm bothered because my FICO score shows Equifax at 614 and TransUnion at 603, which is not much of a change each month, only about 1 or 2 points. What can I do to increase my scores? Everything has been paid on time (all cards since 2014 and current car-since March) and I do not see an increase in scores. Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Tankee wrote:
After college I did not realize that you had to immediately start paying back student loans. For any credit account read the terms and make sure you understand them when you open the account. If you have questions, ask. you don't want to get in trouble in the future because you didn't know X. Tankee wrote:
What can I do to increase my scores? Everything has been paid on time (all cards since 2014 and current car-since March) and I do not see an increase in scores. Any advice or help would be appreciated. I'd suggest starting by reading up on the scoring and risk factors. This is just a starting point and does not cover everything.http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx Given that Payment History is the biggest slice and is affected by derogs, which tend to have a significant impact and hold one's scores down as long as they are on reports, you need to focus on working on your derogs. Hit the Rebuilding subofurm and carefully research before taking action as it is possible to make matters worse in some cases. Your payment history going forward needs to be 100%. Not 90%, not 99% but 100%. Every payment must be made on time or else you're going to kill your scores. Do whatever it takes to avoid derogs in future as you can already see the impact that they have and you shortly find out how difficult and how long it can take to clean them up. Make sure you're budgeting and sticking to your budget. If you need autpay to cover at least the minimums as a safety net then make use of it. Your revolving utilization falls under Amounts Owed, the second biggest factor. Make sure your reported credit card utilization is in check. Do not exceed 30% individual or overall. Optimal is much less. If you're not paying your statement balances in full then work to get to that point. Most other factors really just take time and responsible usage. Building and rebuilding are a long, slow process and you can't just expect your scores to increase unless there are changes to your profile that would lead to an increase, Tankee wrote:
The minimum payment is $25 a month for all 3 cards and I have paid $30.00 each month.The minimum is irrelevant for scoring purposes. Revolving utilization is what matters. The minimum is just the requirement to keep your account current. Again, work on getting to paying statement balances in fulll each month to avoid accruing more debt and interest. Definitely keep an eye on revolving utilization. It's simply balance(s)/limit(s). If you have a card with a $1,0000 limit and it reports a $300 balance then that card is at 30%. Please use paragraphs as it is difficult to read posts that run on and on like that.

Credit Score and Loan Rate

Hi Everyone, I posted here a couple of weeks ago regarding whether or not I should look into buying a larger car and taking advantage my credit union's good rates. So I applied for the loan earlier today and I'm waiting to hear back. The loan is for 1.99% for 60 months on any new car (2010-2015). I decided while I wait to check my credit score on Experian since that's the bureau the credit union said that they would check. My credit score is 743 which is pretty good given I had a short sale 5 years ago due to my divorce. The short sale is the only bad mark I have no other lates. So given this score what do you think the chance are of me getting the 1.99% interest rate? Thanks!

Lmbolling wrote:
Hi everyone!I have an accepted offer on a house and the contract is being re-reviewed by the seller's agent. I had previousy received my pre-approval from Close Your Own Loan. The initial rate quote was 4.125. A few days ago, they pulled my credit and my middle mortgage score is 709. The loan officer then told me my rate would be 4.5% with a $1275 lender credit. Today, my hubby told me to try one more mortgage company... so I received a rate quote from Sebonic Financial. They quoted me 4.125% with $615 in lender fees and no lender credit OR 4.25% with $0 lender fees and $1500 lender credit.I reached out to Close Your Own Loan and the loan officer there is telling me that there is no way I could receive that lower rate only putting 5% down. Has anyone recently put down 5% on a conventional loan with a similar credit score and received a decent rate? I think 4.5% sounds high for a 710 credit score. Looking forward to your thoughts/experiences. Thanks!Don't believe everything a competing LO tells you. Sebonic is known for good rates, and solid service based on some of the reports I've read here. Rates don't matter until you lock, personally I'd have grabbed onto the Sebonic offer immediately as that's not a bad rate quote from the sounds of it. Looks like my own employer (I don't work in their lending arm) would have you at 4.125% base at 5% down and no closing costs, but we do charge a bit based on size of the mortgage and don't know what your purchase price is: that variance would be either .125 or .250 if you fell into one of those categories which sounds to be in the middle of your two; don't think we're necessarily as low as Sebonic though historically.

A student trying to optimize their credit score

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