Tricks to boosting your credit
 

does anyone know of any? i have perfect credit from paying me credit card bill and cellphone bill every month on time, but i dont have much more than a few thousand dollars on my credit line. i want to buy a house soon and wont have trouble making the payments but im afraid since i dont have a "steady job" they might not give me much of a mortgauge. does anyone know any tricks to boosting up your credit more than im getting by just paying my credit card bill on time. i understand it wont happen overnight, but anything to make it go along faster will help.

Secured loans.

take a small personal loan from the bank.
pay it off.

Watch your mail.

how much are the rates on those loans? should i just get like a grand and pay it off a month later?

Any payments you make go on your credit but most banks and car dealerships want a minimum of 1 year credit history and 2 is required at many. If you do a secure loan you are putting up your own money against it so the interest rate is as low as they get. Usually just a couple of percent I believe. It takes a while but it's well worth it.

you don't want to get a loan just to repay it a month later. You want to make the payments on it so that the bank can see that you're able to make the payments on time. Lender's are really weird and it just depends on the requirements that each one has. For instance, my mom was going to go get a small 2000 loan now she's 60 with the bets credit i've ever seen in my life. Absolutely no flaws or late pays ever. She owns 3 homes free and clear, a cadillac, a new dodge pickup and a small economy car for in town quick trips, she also owns two large boats and a number of things smaller and just as valuable. She has got assets all over the place and she has credit cards that have no limit on them. If she wanted to buy a house or car on a credit card it would be approved. Anyway, when applying for this loan for 2000 to try out a new bank's people skills/loan policies, they asked her for collateral on the loan because she didn't have an account with them. Needless to say she told them to :321GFY So I guess it depends on the company you deal with for the loan. If you have a specific company in mind just call them up and without giving out too many personal details, ask them what they look for when reviewing applications like job time, credit history, etc. etc.

It all depends what your FICA score is if its 700+ then you won't have any problems getting a home loan.

Keep your balances at less than 50% of credit limit for all accounts. I was able to push up my credit score 90 points in two months by doing this.

where can you look up your score? can you look it up without dropping you down a few points for the credit check?

It drops you a few points. I think freecreditreport.com is one. You'll have to cancel a free trial to something else before it rebills though. :winkwink:

That's absouletly true about your credit score above 700.

Order your credit report and score this way you'll know if something in your past { maybe something thats 6 years old} is somehow effecting it your score.

For me it was my old student loan, that I paid, but the company changed ownerships and never reported my payment to the new owners causing damage on my credit that I dod not know about till 5 years later.

Your credit report should tell you this. Then you can take steps yourself to get it deleted, or hire an attorney to do it for you. {only if there is serious damage}

I hope this was some help.

If you order a copy of your credit report directly from the credit bureau, it's free and doesn't affect your score.

When making a credit approval decision, the most important thing they look at is your total debt ratio.

To calculate that, they look at the limits of all your open credit cards and calculate what the minimum payment would be if you maxed them all out. They add to that whatever other payments you have to make (rent, mortgages, loans, car payments, etc) and then they determine if you'll have enough of your salary left to pay mortgage payments.

So even if your credit score is golden, you probably won't get it unless you can afford to payment.

Job tenure is looked at, but it's not super important. Preferably, one of your last two-three jobs should have been for at least a year.

As for not having a "steady job" being self employed is as steady as anything else.
If you have proof of income for the last few years (i.e. tax returns etc) then that's as good as if you work for someone else and got the same check every week.

If you haven't been reporting your income then now is a good time to start :winkwink:

I used to have shit credit, due to things my ex wife inflicted on me without my knowledge. Anyway, that's a long story....

but the way I built my credit back to absolutely near perfect was a combination of a few simple things:

1. Get some kind of loan... doesn't matter what kind really. Personal loan, car loan, student loan, whatever works for ya.... and plan on making steady payments to it for a long damn time. Pay a little more than the minimum everytime, on time. Don't miss a payment.

2. Get some credit cards. Doesn't matter what the limits are. Buy everything you can with credit cards instead of checks or cash. Run your limits up to the top on some of them, and float the rest either somewhere in the middle or down at zero, but keep them active. You can just pay the annual fee if you have to. When you top one out, pay it off. If you charge $4k, pay it off. Charge $2500, pay it off. Repeat. Your limits will gradually go up and the interest rates on them will go down.

3. Get some kind of recurring bills (not loans) like a cell phone or something... something that isn't a huge sum of money, but that you get billed for every month. Pay it on time every time.

4. Don't put unnecessary inquiries on your report. Don't randomly apply for more credit cards or other credit if you think there's a chance you won't be approved.

Do all these things simultaneously, and you will end up with immaculate credit. I did.

Good luck.

That is good advice. Your debt to income ratio is actually responable for 30% of your credit score. Also the number of inquiries you have is resposable for 10% so stop applying shit. Self checks of your credit do not contribute at all to your credit score. Soemthing around 20% is calculated by the number of revolving accounts you have and how recently you opened them. So if you get approved for a credit card, it will drop your score.
the other 40% is length of credit history and payment history which you can not really effect in the short term.

you can get instantly your credit report with your current score at icreditreport.com

This guy knows his shit. So does Amp.

Very, very true.

and it'll drop your credit score if you order it from them.

order your score directly from the credit bureau. it'll take a few days, but it won't affect your score.

How about this?

For every $2000 you can spend....

Take the $1000 and open an account with Bank A.
Take out a secured loan for $900 (against your account)

Take the $900 to BankB open an account,
Take out a secured loan for $800

Take $800 to Bank C
Secure a loan for $700

Take $700 to Bank D
Secure a loan for $600

Take $600 to Bank E
Secure a loan for $500

((stop with 5 accounts))

Now pay 30% of your balance each billing cycle for a year...

Ie BankA balance is ~$900, so pay $270. THen then balance is ~$630 so pay ~$189 (second month) etc.

All the banks want to know is that you are capable & responsible enough to pay your bills on time.

So... my credit was around 680 the last time I checked. Here's my current situation...

Visa #1: $500 with $1,500 limit.
Visa #2: $900 with $1,500 limit.
Discover #1: $1,400 with $3,500 limit.
Best Buy (Visa): $1,000 with $1,200 limit (just got this one.)

For recurring fees, I have AOL, Netflix, and Phat Servers spread out on two of the cards. The only other recurring fees I have I usually pay cash (cable, phone, cable Internet at about $100 monthly).

I was planning on paying a couple of these off this month, but after reading some of the advice on this thread, maybe I shouldn't.

What should I do from here on out to keep my credit score up and improve it?

How do the credit companies know your income?

For example, if you make double this year, what you made last year, how would they know?

I don't know about in the USA, but in Canada, pre-authorized payments for utilities (cable, electricity, etc) mean jack shit on your credit report. They don't show up.

They ask your income. If it's unbelievable, they ask for proof.

Once your balance is = to or less than 1/3 of the available credit on that account, it will look the same as being at zero to your Fico score. Meaning if you have a credit limit on card A for $1000 and owe $500, pay it down to $333. Paying it down to zero will have the same effect on your score as paying it down to $333. Apply the remaining $167 to pay down another card. You can expect to pick up a few points this way, but not a whole lot.


It will take about a month after the payment is received for the credit bureaus to reflect your new balances, as creditors submit data on your account to them only once a month.

You can use equifax to pull your credit report and run a fico score on it.

https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/co...landing.ehtml?^start=&orderSource=HPG

Getting an automatic report every time there is a change to your credit file is well worth the money. Its much easier to dispute an error right after it has happened than 18 months down the road.

680 is not a bad score Sly...

but, to keep building, what I'm doing is, like I said, pay everything you can with a credit card. Then pay down the cards. Minimum payments aren't going to help you on credit cards. Yeah, it may add some stability to your report, but it'll cost you too much in interest to do that. So, I like to mix it up a little and pay some in large chunks, and others in full. Then run 'em up again, and pay 'em down again. I'm doing one right now... I just ran one up to $5700 and I'm gonna sit on that with minimum payments until Sept 15th, then pay it down in full.

The trick is to put the credit card companies in YOUR pocket... not the other way around. If you have more than a few cards, don't be afraid to call the one that you have the worst interest rate on, and tell them, "look... I really don't need your card anymore, I have plenty of others. Either drop my interest rate, or bump my limit, or drop the annual fee or just cancel the card." 9 times out of ten they will hook you up with something. You can usually do this like, once a year or 18 months with these companies. But you need to be in the right place before you do that. Don't call them when your other stuff is maxxed out, because you got no leverage.

I know this works, because I had a bankruptcy on my report, and within 5 years of the bankruptcy, I had unsecured Platinum and Gold cards with limits in excess of $5k each.... and that was several years ago. :winkwink:

and I still have that bankruptcy on my report, (they last ten years now) and I was able to buy this house based solely on my credit.

Well I think the basic idea is that they want to lend money who they know will pay it back -- usually people who don't really need it.

So if you have $10,000 in credit over a few card, just sitting there not being used.. I'm sure that more people would like to give you their card in case you decide to use one some day.

$10,000 in unused credit is considered the same as $10,000 in debt.

Amp, when you say "run up your card", how high are we talking? Maxing out or close to? I always thought that it wasn't good to be over 50%, that's why I spread everything out on a couple cards.

I'll run one up to within a couple hundred bucks of the limit.... BUT... don't do that unless you fully intend to pay it down in a couple months... if you can't pay it back down, you'll fuck yourself on a high interest card. Long term high interest CC minimum payments are where they make their bread and butter cuz the principle is barely touched.

But they're alot more likely to boost your credit up if they see that over time, you have no problem paying it down in a moments notice... the only problem with your account is your limit is too low... they'll boost it to get you to spend more in the idea that you'll take longer to pay it down and they can get some of that interest.

At least that's my take on it... I've never worked for a credit company so I couldn't say for sure if that's their reasoning, but it does seem to work for me. I have insane limits now.

this is can effect your scorr negatively, but 10,000 unused is worlds better than 10,000 used

This is myth, you want to keep your balances as low as possible. The only truth to this is that having a few dollars on the card is better than 0 dollars but the difference is negligable and having 0% or 10% are both much better than having 30% or over. Credit reporting agencies do not consider your spending history when computing your score. The amount of times you were 30 days late or more is the only thing besides your current blance and the length of the account has been established that is factored.

true...

but that's why I say to 'float' the bulk of your cards at a few hundred bucks or so.... pay 'em down, then charge something, let it sit, pay it down....

basically, you don't want someone looking at your report thinking, "Damn, this guy has 10k in unused credit that he might go out tomorrow and max" You wanna show a pattern of spending that's reasonable and responsible.

I want to add that I have no idea how credit card companies decide wether to raise your limit or not, only how equifax computes scores.

Rule #1: Never ever be 30 days (or more) late.

and I'm speaking from a credit card company's point of view, not the reporting agencies... hehehe....

I'm not the definitive source for this, all I know is what has worked for me over the last ten years, in terms of building my credit with the card companies.

There are things you should know though... you should be aware of just exactly what IS on your report. For instance.... as I was going through the mortgage process for this house, I discovered that Nextcard, Inc is still on my report. It says they're paid off, but there is no reason for them to even be on there anymore since Nextcard went out of business a year ago. So I had it removed.

Basically, you just wanna make sure there's nothing on there that shouldn't be on there.

oh, one last thing. Truecredit.com (and some others) have a fico score simulator that allows you to simulate what your score would be if you paid off your cards or paid on time fore the next six motnhs or whatever.

NextCard is how I got started. Merrick bought all their accounts, including mine. I was just checking out my account online and realized that since January, I've only charged $400 on it.

Should I pay off that $400 and drop the card? Or should I start putting more on the card?

Nextcard was the first card to actually give me a credit acrd with a decent interest rate and no annual fee. I was pissed when they went out of business.

Note: my Merrick account blows ass. I'm paying $10 monthly for the card and the rates aren't very nice.

If you want to increase the chances of getting a house in the next few months. pay all your credit cards off. if you have a 680, it will most definetaly boost you over 700. check truecredit.com and see.

This is a good article

http://www.onestopmortgageshopping.com/creditscore.htm

This worked for me about 10 years ago when i was a bumb playing in metal bands and needed to get a car,house and some credit.

Not sure if it still works now, but it is a way to get instant long term good looking credit. You need someone who trusts you with a long term of paying their bills to their credit companys on time. I had it good that i had my girlfriend(now wife) at the time had over 10 years of paying on her credit cards on time. Just have them call up the cc company and have them issue you a second card on that account (this is where the trust thing comes in,not many will do this for someone). AS soon as the card comes in the mail give it back and tear it up. In a couple months i had that "good credit" rating from the cc company on my credit record, it appeared i was the one owning and paying on that card all those years.

Not sure if this is still a valid method anymore, but at the time it worked for me and many others (who read the same book as i did ;-))

fuckin US credit pisses me off...


back in Canada, I got a HOME paid in time everytime..

cell phone of over 250$/month..

TV/Satelitte
Internet..

etc...


Got 2 Credit Cards totalling 23,000$ in credit, and they keep bugging me to increase it...


NOW... I get to work in the states...

they can't import it from canada..

so I'm here, getting declined everywhere because my SSN is new...

so I have to get a secured Credit Card..

so I go and spend as much as I can, with staying under the max I can spend...

so I stay 8$ from the limit the first month....

BAM, these fuckers hit me with the 25$ anual fee... I go OVERLIMIT... charge me 35$ in fees...


then, I ask for a CC at Macy's cuz they had that 15% with new card shit..

Credit refused... saying I overcharge my credit cards, and some other shit cuz of that..


it's so much fuckin bullshit man... makes me sad LOL

:1orglaugh... From the Equifax site:


Privacy and Opt Out Notices. We understand your desire to know how YOUR information will be used AND in our Privacy and Opt Out Notices we describe how we, the Suppliers will collect, use and maintain your information.


-----> By clicking below you may exercise your right to instruct us not to provide your non-public personal information to non-affiliated third parties, except as permitted by law.



So like if I don't click below, they are going to break laws? Wtf is the point of checking below if they are going to sell the information anyway?

:321GFY Credit reporting agencies.

When do they ask? Other than when you apply for a loan or a credit card, they never ask. So, if you last applied for a loan 6 years ago, do they assume your income is the same as it was back then? Do they calculate your credit score based on the old income information?

great advice here, i appreciate it too guys..

im working to build my credit, i have no real outline on how to do it.. i just pay my bills on time, and keep everything under 50% of the credit line.. getting a cell phone in my name tommorrow (got one under a girlfriend now) for another form of credit..

one question though, all my CC's are Capital One VISA's.. would it be in my best interest to diversify alil, with maybe an American Express or Master Card? or it doesnt matter.

also i have a Capital One Platinum card with a fucking credit line of $500 bucks, whats up with that?

credit cards don't establish your credit. if you're not using a card or don't plan on using it, cancel the card.

typically a loan will establish your credit, like an auto loan or something. if you make a big purchase like a vehicle or something, even if you have the money to buy it in cash take out a loan after putting 60% down. pay it off in a few months. a secured personal loan would work fine for building your credit up. try to take out a loan of some kind every year and pay it off in a couple months. could pay off when you actually need the credit to get a home.

banks rule the world,i see everyone here is an expert on loans,mortgage etc :-)

thats my ultimate goal, buying a home within the next 3 - 4 years.

i guess my question was more directed at if there were any credit institutions that hold more weight on a credit scale (i.e. bank of america over fleet) ?

like you mentioned banks on personal loans, but what about financing from places like dell (which i have done, and paid off), does this appear on my credit report?