What is the best and fastest way to build my credit score?

Question

I have good credit, but not much of it. And I want excellent credit.

Answer 1

Everybody's talking about what to do to build up the score, but I think that it would help even more if you knew what actually made up your score to give you a better idea.

1. Payment history- 35%
2. Total Debt vs. Available Credit- 30%
3. Length of time establishing credit (average age of accounts)- 15%
4. Types of accounts established 10%
5. Inquiries & New Accounts- 10%

With all that said, now what you can do is this:

1. Review all your credit reports and dispute anything that you know's not correct with the credit bureaus. Incorrect information someway somehow winds up on reports bringing down scores.

2. If you have any accounts in collections, make arrangements to get them taken care of. Here's a link that I posted to a website that explains in detail on how to setlle debt with collectors (READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLOSELY. THERE ARE 3 PARTS TO IT)

3. And whatever open accounts that you do have, make sure that you pay on time. If don't have one already, open a checking account and take advantage of their online banking with billpay feature. Like I mentioned earler, payment history counts more than a ⅓ of your score, so pay on time!

4. If you have credit cards, try to pay the balances on them to where they're around 25% or below the available credit at any given time. Having cards that are maxed, or close to it hurts your score. Also after you've cleaned up delinquencies, and paid down your balances, ask for an increase to give more cushion to your available credit.

5. If you have old accounts that you're not using, start using them instead of closing them. The longer you've had an account, the better, since this would be considered a "seasoned account" especially if it's been opened longer than 3 years. Start cancelling accounts, and it will give the appearance that you've established credit more recently than it actually has.

6. Don't apply for unecessary credit. Each time you apply it creates a "hard inquiry" that can drop your score several points regardless if you're approved or not. And it can take anywhere from 6months to a year for your score to increase if you are approved once the new account starts reporting.

7. If you don't have any open credit lines, and you're needing to establish credit, the easiest option would be opening a secured credit card which are offered at a lot of credit unions and at some banks. You can think of ths as building credit with a savings account because that's basically how it works. A deposit is placed upfront usually linked to a savings account that's used as collateral to establish a credit line of the same amount. For example, you place a deposit of $250, then the credit line would be $250. You still would receive a statement and have to pay for whatever's used on the card since the deposit is only for collateral. While placing a deposit may seem like a disadvantage, there's more hidden advantages like the deposit gaining interest while you're building credit, and the ability to increase the credit line by adding to the deposit. And a tip to using the card is to make small purchases ($20/month) that can be paid off every month to keep the balance on the card in check. Usuall anwhere after a year or so of paying on time and keeping the balance low or even at 0, the card either converts to a regular card or a better card is offered and best of all, you get the deposit back with some added interest. (I posted links to several secured credit card companies)

8. You should have anywhere from 1-2 major credit cards, and 1 department store card to start out with. Of course you can get more, but it's not wise to load up on credit cards alone. Student loans, furniture loans, appliance loans, car loans, boat loans, motorcycle loans, and mortgages all are example of installment credit and it helps to have 1-2 of those to create a balanced mixture of credit.

I know that it's a lot of information, but I'm confident that it will help you out a lot.

Answer 2

There is no fast way to make your credit go up. Continue to make on time payments on the auto loan you have now. The miscellaneous 600$ is what is really keeping you down. Many people recommended paying these collection accounts off. That is not actually the way to go. If you just pay the collection agencies money, they will not raise your score. Doing so will only result in the collection account being notated that is was paid. This doesn't raise your score. To get the score boost you need to get these deleted off your credit profile all together. Negotiate a pay for delete with the collection agencies. This may take some work, they may tell you that they don't deal with credit reporting, the original lender has to deal with this and so on. Collection agencies buy bad debt, they don't "have it sent to them on behalf of....." as they often claim. Since they bought the debt the can delete it from your credit report. Again stick to your guns and tell them you will only pay if they agree to delete the item off your credit reports. Don't give them any payment info until they agree. If they do agree GEt the deal in writting nothing verbal. Once you tackle these try to do the same with whomever has the medical bills. Best of luck!

Answer 3

Excellent credit, in the sense of a high FICO score, is not merely a matter of paying bills on time. To have a credit score, you must have credit or a credit history. To have a good score, you must have a history of no late or missed payments, of loan accounts paid off as contracted for, not too many credit cards and not too high credit limits on those cards, depending on your income and other monthly expenses. It also helps if you have a good balance in a savings account or other liquid asset.

You cannot improve your score significantly overnight. You must have the history and the history must show improvement over time.

Answer 4

Quick and fast isn't the way to look at credit scores. Credit scores represent your history - history is built over time.

Answer 5

get bills put into your name and pay the bill on time, get a credit card..purchase something and pay it as soon as the bill arrives and continue to do that.. Thats what I did and I have excellent credit. :)

Answer 6

pay off all old debt
pay all bills on time

Answer 7

pay your bills ALWAYS ON TIME NEVER EVER BE LATE AND ALWAYS PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUN OWED IF NOT MORE

Answer 8

go to tribestlowrates.com
they will help you.