Is this a decent credit score?

Question

My fico score is 660. I'm a 24 year old full time college student and have no major debt. How can I raise my score? I have a car lease that I pay on time every month, a gas card, capital one card and a Dell card for my computer. I pay off my credit card and gas card in full each month. My Dell card I make payments on time each month.

What else can I do to raise my score??

Answer 1

Just keep paying what you have on time. Time will increase your score. Don't get any more credit because what you have sounds like a good balance. Credit scores are built over time - it's a history of what you have done.

Answer 2

OMG are you serious? You have amassed 660 points worth of credit payments?

I'm going to make this simple. You're crazy! Do you even realize how much money you've lost? Stop worrying about your credit score, and worry more with your savings.

Here's a quick example. If you are paying 9% interest, a good mutual fund draws 10% so you're taking a 19% loss on your money.

Factor two: You know those $6,500 cash back ads you see for car lots? When you finance a car, the bank gets that 'cash back' offer. When you walk on the lot with cash, YOU get the $6,500 back and no interest you have to pay in.

Factor three: instead of paying interest, you could be making interest, and if you get a mutual fund averaging in the 12 percent range, you can turn $500 a month, into a 3.5 million in about 25 years; versus $545 in payments and credit interest.

If you want more of these facts and some serious help ditching the credit and building a nice future, try www.daveramsey.com (he has a daily radio show and posts the show via pod cast on his site). Well worth your time to listen for a few weeks.

I started listening three years ago, got completely out of debt, paid cash for my last car, found a mutual fund that gave me 35% interest last year (yeah not typical, but I sure didn't complain, this year I'm at about 19.5%). I've gone from $10,000 in debt, to a point where I'll have my first million in about 10 years.

Answer 3

A 660 score isn't too bad, but it's important that you know that your FICO score actually consists of 3 numbers and not 1. These numbers are scores generated by FICO (Fair Issac Corp.) per their interpretation of your credit as reported to the 3 credit reporting agencies. The credit score you get from a credit reporting agency, such as Equifax, is their score and not your FICO score. To get your true FICO score you have to purchase it from Fair Issac, or apply for a mortgage loan.

You are to be commended for paying your balances in full and on time. However, your Capital One card could be hurting you credit scores, and here is why...

Capital One only reports your highest credit balance, which looks like it's your actual credit limit on your reports. For example, lets say you have a $3000 credit line, but the highest amount you have ever charged in a monthly billing cycle was $500. The $500 is reported by Capital one as your highest credit balance, which makes it look like you maxed the card out. So, although your paying it in full each month, it looks like you're also maxing it out each month (on your reports) even though your not. That is just how Capital One reports.

Some other things you can do to raise your scores (in addition to continuing to pay as you have been), is to obtain current credit reports if you don't have them. Dispute any negative information. It doesn't matter if the negative information is true or not, you want to dispute it because the credit reporting agencies must, by law, delete any negative information they cannot verify. Deletion of negative information increases your score. For more info on that, google "fair credit reporting act," download the 86 page PDF document and go to section 611. Good luck.

Answer 4

660 is a good score. You'll qualify for the best rates once you hit the 700+ range and you'll get there soon.

You score may be lower now because it's comprised of mostly revolving credit and short credit history. You're on the right track with what you're doing now. Continue to pay your credit cards on time. Don't apply for any new credit if you can help it and don't charge your cards near their limits. Keep this up and your score will improve over time.

Answer 5

Average FICO score is 725.

Best thing you can do is continue to pay everything on time. The longer the history, the better the score. Paying those credit cards in full every month is definitely the smart thing to do. Carrying balances on credit cards does not improve your score.

Answer 6

Keep doing what your doing and your score will improve. A great way to quickly make your score jump is to be added as a co-signer on someone's excellent credit card.

Example: get added on your Dad's card (that he's had for 12 years) and your credit report will actually show you have had a strong history with that card for 12 years! Immediatly your credit will jump up alot.

Answer 7

The accurate credit score for a person lies in the range of around 300-800. Higher the number, better are the chances that the applicant can repay the debts. On the other hand, lower the score, lesser are the prospects of the applicant repaying the loan. These people are charged higher interest rates.

Answer 8

You have a very good score. If you want to keep it up and build it, your best bet is to keep going just as you are and you will see great jumps in your scores within 3-5 months. It actually takes that long for it to hit the bureaus sometimes. Good job on taking care of everything the way you have!

Answer 9

That's a good score! Keep doing what you're doing. You should allow for making payments on that Capitol One card as having payment history will help you as well. Other than that, i think it's just a matter of time and patience. Your score at the moment is better than average.

Answer 10

Yes. It is a pretty good score actually. Most people score between 650 - 720. So 708 is not bad at all. You loan application will likely be approved.