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Upping my credit score

Upping my credit score

Old Jan 26th 2016, 5:13 pm
  #16  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by Pulaski
Landlords can pull a would-be tenant's credit report through an intermediary, but only the largest "corporate" landlords have the right sort of membership of the credit scoring agencies to feed payment data back into credit databases.

As Bob suggested, delinquent payments can be reported, but only indirectly when tenant arrears are sold to collection agencies, and the collection agencies certainly do have access to report delinquencies.
We use this service for our tenants and it reports back to experian . It just costs us $2 per payment https://www.clearnow.com/index.php. We used to use williampaid which was free which also reported rent payments.

Sometimes I'm not sure if this is a good thing as sometimes our tenants build up credit history, get a mortgage and move out. It saves having to process checks and makes rental payment record keeping easier

Any landlord , big or small can use this type of service. More information about it can be found here http://www.experian.com/rentbureau/r...reporting.html
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Old Jan 26th 2016, 8:59 pm
  #17  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

I've been building my own credit score over the last year.

Get a secured credit card with your own bank - mine was for $500 and I used it to pay one bill a month which was paid off each month. 5 months down the line and they converted it to a normal card - paid back my $500 and increased the limit.

I was on a couple of cards with OH which also helped a bit.

Put a couple of the bills/utilities in my name

Try getting a store card but not until you start getting unsolicited card offers in the mail.
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Old Jan 26th 2016, 10:36 pm
  #18  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

I have a number of credit cards as an authorized signatory on hubby's account (he's the one with the income). It appears to be giving me a credit score just fine - according to Credit Sesame (Experian data, I think), it's now in the high 700s.

All the credit cards clearly get reported monthly despite all the cards being in hubby's name and the Credit Sesame account being solely based on my SSN; CS has the balances at statement correct each month.
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Old Jan 27th 2016, 11:52 am
  #19  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by kodokan
I have a number of credit cards as an authorized signatory on hubby's account (he's the one with the income). It appears to be giving me a credit score just fine - according to Credit Sesame (Experian data, I think), it's now in the high 700s. All the credit cards clearly get reported monthly despite all the cards being in hubby's name and the Credit Sesame account being solely based on my SSN; CS has the balances at statement correct each month.
Credit Sesame pulls from Transunion. Credit Karma pulls from Transunion and Equifax.They are both a good way of monitoring your credit score and seeing your reports free of charge.
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Old Feb 5th 2016, 10:12 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Also credit.com pulls from experian and is free.

I'll say this, with wells fargo you can get a pre-paid secured credit card upto $5000 i believe. Meaning you give them upto $5000 for security.

Now the biggest trick to increasing your score is two folder, get credit, but do not carry any balance of any kind. The lower your limit the more a credit balance can destroy your credit.

For instance if you get a $500 pre-paid secured credit card, you should never have a balance of more than $150 on it.

Reason being, you never want any credit instrument to carry more than 30%. More than that and it'll really start to hurt your credit; but any balance will actually hurt your balance.

So use the card each month but very important, pay it off each month BEFORE the due date, at least a week, so the credit card always reports a $0 balance.

If you follow this your credit will climb, your secured card will turn into an unsecured one within a year, and you'll likely within a very short time hit 700 plus prob within a yr to 2 yrs.
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 8:44 am
  #21  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

It will not help you being a joint card holder on your spouses cards. He is the primary card holder, therefore, it is HIS credit rating only affected (i.e it will not build your credit score).
You are best to get cards in your own name, a mixture of secured cards (and by this, I mean putting a deposit on card), and unsecured cards.
Do not max out any of cards, but use a small percentage on each card each month, and pay it off. That way you can build up your credit rating
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 1:21 pm
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by NZBee
.... a .... secured card ..... (and by this, I mean putting a deposit on card), ....
To clarify: a secured card is "secured" because the issuing bank says so, getting any old credit card and depositing money into it before you use it does not make it a "secured card".
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 1:34 pm
  #23  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by NZBee
It will not help you being a joint card holder on your spouses cards. He is the primary card holder, therefore, it is HIS credit rating only affected (i.e it will not build your credit score).
I do not believe this is true. I am on my wife's amex card, and this balance comes up as part of my credit report.
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 1:43 pm
  #24  
 
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by NZBee
It will not help you being a joint card holder on your spouses cards. He is the primary card holder, therefore, it is HIS credit rating only affected (i.e it will not build your credit score). .....
Originally Posted by bewildering
I do not believe this is true. I am on my wife's amex card, and this balance comes up as part of my credit report.
It depends how the bank sets up the account and reports the data.

I believe for a few years, a few years ago, that the credit agencies did not recognize "added parties" after it was revealed that dubious practice of adding unrelated third parties to the credit accounts of people with good credit was being used by the "credit repair" companies. .... Someone with iffy credit could be acked on for a few months, and they did not need to be issued a card, .... and obviously they weren't.
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 2:56 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by bewildering
I do not believe this is true. I am on my wife's amex card, and this balance comes up as part of my credit report.
Same here; I'm not the primary on any of the 3 credit cards we have, but have a credit report/ score based on them.

For no particular historical reason, our family cell plan is solely in my name. It was initially a pre-pay monthly scheme, but after a year or so here, we switched it to a better plan which was post-pay, so this involved running a credit check.

'Was it ok... Did they say what my score is?' I asked the T Mobile guy curiously (and slightly anxiously), after we'd done the dance of him calling, passing me the phone, confirming some historical details to authenticate it, etc.

'Oh yes, you're fine. They don't tell us the scores in that way, but you've come up as approved for up to 10 phone lines which is our maximum, so you must have great credit!'
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 10:02 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

We are in process of relocating to the US (hubby is currently working between there and Australia). By his company, we have been provided a consultant from a credit migration services company, who has advised us on how to quickly get to that magic 700 credit score number.
I have held an American Express card for 8 years, which I can then 'transfer' to the US (I have already spoken to Amex about this, and it is not a problem. Just as a note, it is a new card that will be opened. And yes I fully realise credit ratings do not cross international borders due to data protection and different ways scores are created in countries). I was going to add hubby as a supplementary card holder on my Amex to assist with credit score.
I was told that this wouldn't work and that only my credit rating would be affected (and I know this has happened in Australia, as I regularly track my credit rating, and hubby is supplementary on a card I have here...his credit rating is not affected).

The advice we have been given is establish 4 lines of credit (3 secured cards, one unsecured), and only use a percentage on each, i.e build the right portfolio of products, as this is important. Your credit score is basically an algorithm on how you manage your money on your credit. Be smart with it, and you can build a credit score quickly.

Further to this, the other interesting thing we have been told was that insurance companies correlate insurance with credit rating, apart from the states of CA, MA and HI, where that is not allowed.

Just passing on the information we have been given, as this may (or may not be) useful for your situation.
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Old Feb 6th 2016, 10:24 pm
  #27  
 
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by NZBee
who has advised us on how to quickly get to that magic 700 credit score number.
You can get a credit score quite quickly. Unfortunately it isn't a great deal of help in the early days as one of the most important factors is length of credit history.
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Old Feb 7th 2016, 12:52 am
  #28  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by lansbury
You can get a credit score quite quickly. Unfortunately it isn't a great deal of help in the early days as one of the most important factors is length of credit history.
Credit Ssame does a fun thing called a Grade Card, which allocates letter grades to each of the things that impact your score. I get As for the criteria to do with credit % usage and paying on time, as I pay down the card(s) to nothing just before the reporting date.

But I get a C for history length, as the average of our 3 cards is still a smudge under 3 years (2y11m, so looking forward to see what happens next month!). And a D for types of credit, because ours is just card-based. Still, it reports a score in the high 700s, so they're obviously not as important as the factors to do with responsibly managing credit.
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Old Feb 7th 2016, 1:36 am
  #29  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

How do you find out the reporting date for the credit cards? I have one that I use only for paying the cellphone bill but because the due date is the same day the credit card bill gets paid it always shows a balance on it, albeit it a small one.
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Old Feb 7th 2016, 2:11 am
  #30  
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Default Re: Upping my credit score

Originally Posted by petitefrancaise
How do you find out the reporting date for the credit cards? I have one that I use only for paying the cellphone bill but because the due date is the same day the credit card bill gets paid it always shows a balance on it, albeit it a small one.
It seems to be the same as the statement date. I tend to pay the card down in round numbers - $300 off, leave $5.27 or whatever - and I've noticed that the balance that gets reported is the same as the statement.

The cards all have pretty high credit limits, so running a small balance on the reporting date is an irrelevance.
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