What's your guys credit score? I've recently began to establish my credit history and I'm just wondering what you guys have. I'm also interested in various stories,if you have em. My score is 685 since I began 6 months ago.
My FICO score is 790. You should look at your FICO as opposed to your credit score. There are 3 major bureaus that each have their own credit score. Transunion, Experian, and Equifax. Your FICO is sort of like the average of all 3.
685 isn't too bad, but try to get it to 720 at the minimum.
I did the free credit report thing and I paid for the whole report.All three have the same amount for me.
just make sure u pay more than the minimum payment everytime u carry a balance on ur CC bills, & don't be late sending them in... easiest way to avoid that is to set up automatic payments online w/ur checking account & u won't ever have to deal w/late payment charges ever again.
also always pay off your highest APR cards first if u have multiple accounts & pay a little more than the minimum for your other accounts until that high APR account is fully paid off... also make sure when u pay off things like credit cards, school loans & such, that it gets reported to the appropriate credit reporting agencies... i dunno how often it happens but i once had an old charge account still on my credit report as being open long after i had closed it out... that can effect ur credit score.
i did a good job of fugging up my credit during my college years but slowly got my credit score to be above 800... it was a long arduous process but don't ever feel like u'll never have good credit again if u mess it up once.
A way to increase your credit is by using less and paying it back every time on time. Example--don't go beyond your 25% maximum and pay that amount back every time on time. Let's say your max is 5000--don't EVER use more than 1k for that credit card and pay the 1k or less back each month on time using the same card. You'll get points for using the minimum +20 or so and then paying back monthly +25=35 etc..and you also get longer term points for keeping that account open.
I personally use a debit card. I just load a couple of thousand and just transfer money over when it drops down a bit. What it does is it provides security. If you lose your card or someone swipes the number--your downside is 2k. Same goes for a brokerage account. Use two or three accounts and just transfer over the large amounts to accounts that don't get use. It's good to have more than 1 bank and 1 brokerage. On the other hand it's NOT good to have multiple credit cards. Try to use only 1 and have a debit account as well.
Thanks for the info guys. I am doing all of that, I just want a bigger limit. But, I think that 685 over the span of 6 months is decent.
If you have multiple credit cards, destroy all but one IMMEDIATELY! Keep the one that offers you more options, if there is such a thing.
If your in debt, get that thing paid off AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Use one card and don't go beyond a reasonable limit.
Debit cards are great, if you can keep an account. Hook up with one that has a flier miles plan on it. Cost you about $25.00 a year, but you'll be building free miles towards free flights. At least your getting something back for your money.
But this is really about credit scores.
i thought having open credit cards w/o a balance actually helped ur credit score?
You have to destroy the cards but not the account,because it basically removes all credit history you had with that card.
Posted by anklebraker:
You have to destroy the cards but not the account,because it basically removes all credit history you had with that card.
Yes, thanks for mentioning it. Very important.
My scores are great cuz I have not debt other than a mortgage. That is a 15 year and I pay it twice a month.
I use a credit card that gets paid automatically every month. I also have it changed every 6 mos to prevent theft.
I am closing on the sale of one of my properties I owned for 12 years and because I refinanced twice in that time I also had lines of credit on that property that was never used, but never closed out. So while the line was not active, it still was open and I could have used three lines at one time. Thats why banks are so screwed right now. Kinda of freaked me out to have two extra liens when we did the title search prior to closing. I got them closed but you have to request them.
I also looked back and found we had credit cards at stores (like when bloomingdales gives you an addional 10% off when you open a card with them) that we had not used in years. I am working on cleaning them up.
Getting the scores cleaned up will matter going forward. Its about time those with good credit get better rates and stop carrying the load for sub prime.
Check out
http://suzeorman.com/ , and then click on "Resource Center" on the left side of her homepage. She covers almost everything from home owner's insurance to retirement accounts.
I usually turn to Suze for most of my personal finance questions. She's been critically acclaimed by TIME Magazine as one of America's most influential people, and has helped millions of people turn their lives around financially.
[Edited by - jrzyhustla on 10-21-2008 10:27 AM]
