civilservant

Having arrived in August last year, I immediately took out a secured CC with Capital One, a $50 deposit got me a credit line of $200 (WOW!)

The wife does not have the best of scores, so we have gone out of our way to keep ourselves separate - while my name is on some bills with hers, she is not a card holder on any account etc.

Three weeks ago I was bumped up to $500 on my secured CO card, and that prompted me to wonder if 6 months of on time payments and a usage of around 20-40% had reaped some benefits. I went on something of a credit application spluge this evening and came back with the following:

Capital One Unsecured ($1000)
Barclaycard US Airways Dividend Miles ($1500)
AmEx Delta Skymiles ($1500)
Walmart ($150)
Apple Financing Card ($1700)

It seems to me that that 6 months figure is something of the magic number - having done nothing more paid the bill when it arrived, and bought gas and a few other things, my FICO score is now 722.

Of course length of history is still a barrier to the very best deals, and 5 applications in as many hours will ding it for awhile, but it isn't a bad start....

Trixie_b

The key stuff for credit:

age of credit
less than 25% use of available credit line is ideal (but less than 50% will work) (this makes up 30% of your credit score)
types of credit will raise the score (mortgage, CC, Loan, car loan)
no defaults on payment or missed payment

I know I'm missing something else... I'm sure it'll come to me!
(I had a client who repairs peoples credit, and he gave the key tips)

RICH

Interesting. I've had (only) 2 maxed out cards for a while, but for the last 6 months have not used them and paid slightly more than the minimum. Last month, they both gave me a fairly healthy bump in credit limit.

Inspired by this thread I signed up on Credit Karma. Score is 30 points higher than when I got my mortgage 5 years ago, and CC credit usage is 60% vs 90 odd last month.

Age of credit shows 6.5 years, even though both cards are over 7 years - mortgage is 5 years- must be an average?

Time to find a loan and pay off the cards, I feel.

Pulaski

The number of credit applications (whether approved or not), and the number of recent loans granted, more of either will reduce your score.

hoffage123

Ooh thanks for mentioning this card Civil, I didn't even know about it - I asked BoAmerica for a credit card but they wanted a $300 deposit (unaffordable at the moment), so this looks like a better option ...

Question: If I got the Capital One card then used it for small purchases for the next six months (paid off in full every month) would that improve my score massively?

Hoffage

Bink

Applying for multiple cards on the same day appears to reduce the number of hits you have.

tonrob

I think you end up with the same number of hits after-the-fact, but just more chance for approval of the cards being applied for as they can't see each other's enquiries at the point of decision-making.

I typically apply for multiple cards on the same day, doing 3-5 at a time, around 4 times per year.

SultanOfSwing

Tell me about it. I got my credit score on Saturday when we were financing the car (it was a lot higher than I expected). Then yesterday I was taking advantage of an offer to extend a personal loan to free up some cash, and the credit check from the weekend had dropped my score by ten points

It's still a good score though, thankfully.

thinbrit

It was. All those credit applications just dinged your score, which is fine if you don't need to apply for something meaningful any time soon (like a mortgage). Over time, the impact of applying for all those cards, and the subsequent hard credit inquiries will diminish. Mid and long term, the credit lines will help increase your score (as long as they are not fully utilized). In the short term, you did more harm than good.

Hopefully you planned that move and have no need for more credit in the short term

civilservant

Nothing to something is a massive improvement

civilservant

Indeed - in fact I wasn't expecting to get approval for even one of these.

We might look to finance a car in 18 months or so, but nothing before that.

Guindalf

Yeah, major ding by applying for so many cards.

If you haven't already, register with creditkarma.com. It's completely free (no trials and added fees later) and you can keep your FICO sore updated monthly. It will even make recommendations based on your credit usage that may save you money down the road as well as a calculator to see what certain actions are likely to do to your score.

Very valuable tool.

thinbrit

Paying in full makes no difference, paying on time does.
The credit agencies take a snap shot of your credit profile. If you have a $10,000 card limit, and spend $10,000 every month and pay it in full, you would expect that would look good, right. It doesn't. As far as the credit card agencies are concerned, your card is maxed out all the time.

Some good info:
https://www.creditkarma.com/article/...-score-factors

tonrob

My score normally drops by 10-15 points after doing one of my 3-5 card application stints. Usually back up to where it started (or higher) within 3 months, which is when I do the next round of applications.

I spend heavily on my cards to earn miles and points, but pay off 95%+ of my balance before the statements cut to limit the amounts reported to the agencies.

cranston

Suggest you use you Amex and then in 6 months ask them to triple your limit to $4500 and then repeat in another 6 months to $13,500. Another advantage of Amex is their consumer protections and extended warranties are superb.

This will lower your credit utilization %, which boost your credit score. And once you have one decent credit card others will follow suit.

+1 Creditkarnma, usefull service