How can I improve my credit and FICO score?
According to my credit card, my FICO is 625. I dont own a home, or car, and I have no debt. I have no bills in collection, and only one "blooper" on my credit card. A Capital one card I had with a $300 limit, that I stupidly let go deliquent, but fixed and paid off in full several months ago. My question is, I STILL have no credit. I cant get any sort of card, even though I dont have "bad" credit. The Capital one blooper is still on my credit, and even before that, i couldnt get approved for anything. I'm 22, married but my husband has NO credit, so he is no help. I got a new credit card this spring(one of those pre approved things 0%interest til Jan 08'), since I closed the Capital and I've been doing good paying it. I only have one card, a checking account and thats it. How can I improve my credit so that one day I can be approved for things? (loans, cards)Last year my FICO dipped at 550, I want to be atleast in 700's.
Public Comments
- Good credit is based on a few different things - but most importantly - paying your bill son-time and having a manageable debt to income ratio, i.e.: You can't have a $30k per year job and carry $30k in debt. Run a credit report to see what the knocks against you are. You get one free report per year from each of the three agencies. Although they use slightly different rating systems (which is why if you ran all three - you'd have three different scores) - they're close. You can time your free reports so you can get one every four months.
- You can increase you score by paying more than the minimum payment and by paying early. And never charging the limit. You can also increase your score by having a second card and doing the same thing. If your credit reports still indicates that the Capital one debt was not paid off you need to get this corrected as soon as possible. It is also, best to not apply for a lot of credit cards, because this will reduce your score, and if you close as card will also affect the score. The fact it went delinquent may appear on your credit for 3-7 years.
- Use a Secured Card: Secured cards offer you a credit limit that is nearly same as the deposit you make. You should choose a card that reports to all the major credit bureaus, does not have an application fee or heavy annual fees, and becomes a regular, unsecured card after a year or so of timely payments. Go for department store and gas cards. These cards are simplest unsecured plastic available. After using your secured card for some months, apply for either of these and another one after about 6 months. Do not rush headlong into this process, because applying for lot of credit in a short span of time can harm your score.
