Ask me anything about your Credit Score

[SossMan]

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Ok, so you say credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and student loans (paid on time) are good for the credit score. Is there anything else that would help? I have a couple CCs, which I pay the full balance every month. I'm a bit too young to be buying a house or a car, and I don't receive financial aid. Are there other things I could do to make sure I have an awesome credit score (or at least increase the chances of it) when I finally decide to buy a house/car? I think my score is somewhere around low-mid 700s last I checked.

Oh, and thanks a ton for doing this thread. I'm sure many of us really appreciate it.

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Sounds like you are doing all you can. It's pretty rare for someone in their early 20s to have 780-800 scores simply because of time. My business partner had an 800 when he was 21 because his parents were smart and put him on their CCs when he was 16 without his knowledge (a great tip for parents with responsible kids).

Other than that, if you have a 700 score in your early 20s with no derogs and low balance to high limit ratios on your cards, the only thing that will help is time. Don't close your old CC accounts.

Sounds like you are on the right track.

[SossMan]

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What is my credit score

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686

You should pay down your CC's to under 30% and you will be up to a 707.

[SossMan]

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In August 06 i got a phone with veriozen. I canceled it withen 14 days becuase of poor service where I live. If i canceld withen those 14 days I was not supposed to have to pay anything. They keep sending me a bill for $15. Is this eventually going to end up on my credit report? If i dont pay this?

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Their is no doubt on either of our sides that I canceled.

Only if it goes to collection. I would try to get it cleared up with them since collection agencies are notoriously bad at letting go. Do you have the evidence that you cancelled?
I have had good luck w/ Verizon customer service on issues with my bill in the past, so it probably won't be the typical customer service center ratrace.

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They are charging me $14 for data useage during that period. I was under the impression (as the guy told me at the store) if i canceld withen 14 days I would not have to pay anything.

What is the likelyhood a $14 bill would go to collections?

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kinda unlikely, but not worth it. Just pay it.

[The4Aces]

On Credit Cards is it better to leave an unpaid balance on them or just pay the full balance every month?

[PokerFox]

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On Credit Cards is it better to leave an unpaid balance on them or just pay the full balance every month?

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??? Why would you ever leave a balance on a card? Pay in full, every month if you are able.

Also, Soss, you mentioned earlier that if you pull your credit report it will count as an inquiry. It's a SOFT inquiry, and does not hurt your credit score at all. Soft inquiries are the kind for job applications and personal credit pulls you do as a consumer.

Hard inquiries are for credit card apps, mortgages, loans. These will hurt your score if you have too many.

However, you can pull your own credit report as many times as you want and it will NOT show up on your report. Soft inquiries do not show.

[Ponks]

What kind of score do you need to get the best rate on a mortgage loan?
Assuming that you just have a credit card, which you pay in full every month, charging 10-25% of your limit each month, what will your credit score be in 1, 3, and 5 years ?

Ponks

[Dazarath]

Soss, a couple more questions:
1) What qualifies you to make this thread? Did you work in the industry?
2) Do you think it would be worth it to get a small student loan and pay it off over a period of time to increase one's credit score? Effectively, I'd be paying money now to hopefully save on interest rates later when I buy a house.

[APXG]

SossMan,

Not sure if you've already mentioned it, but can you talk about strategy regarding closing credit cards accounts?

Say I opened first account 2 yrs. ago as an add-on to a primary acct. holder with 800's credit. Then 8 more up until now, without any cosigners and all on my own credit. Credit lines range from 20k for the 1st (as add-on when I had zero credit) to $5kish avg. for the others which are my own.

Can I close the 1st and oldest credit card (where I'm not even primary), so I don't have to worry about some error messing up my cosigner's credit? I regularly open new credit cards because of good offers / high credit lines for perhaps if I ever need it, but now its just getting to be too many cards that I have to keep track of every month. I keep hearing that closing them reduces overall unused credit, and thus lowers the score. But by how much? And what if I keep opening new ones and don't use the credit? Can I just close and replace old ones that are no longer attractive?

Thanks in advance.

[Falang]

From 18-22 I managed my credit horribly. I have around $3k owed which I can probably bargain down to $1500 or so. This is two defaulted credit cards and a bunch of stuff like a cell phone bill and other utilites that weren't paid. My student loans went into collection but are now in good standing.

For the last several years I have been fine. I got a car loan in my name and that has helped my score some. I have no credit card and nothing on my report which is good besides the two student loans and the car.

My score is some horrendous number like a 505.

wtf? How much will that go up if I pay off the 4 year old $3k?

What else can I do and how high could that score reasonably go within 6 months, a year?

[SossMan]

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On Credit Cards is it better to leave an unpaid balance on them or just pay the full balance every month?

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The problem with paying them off every month is that, depending on the date that you pay them and the date that the CC company reports to the bureaus, you might not be getting any positive activity from them.
for example, let's say you run up $1k on your card from the 1st-15th and pay it off on the 15th. If the CC company reports to the CB's on the 16th, it will show no activity for the month, thus not giving you positive trade history.

If you are using it daily and just paying it off once a month, you are probably fine, so long as they don't report to the CBs the exact day after you pay if off. However, if you put one thing on it a month, and pay if off right away, it's possible that you are getting no benefit from it.

Leaving a small balance every month is fine.