How should I go about raising my credit rating?

konnor aiden · Joined: 14 Sep 2009 Posts: 18

First of all pay off that credit cared. Find one with lower interest. one you get a card with lower interest rate charge only what you can afford to pay off in full. keep doing that and eventually when the credit cared company See's you are a reliable and responsible for the payments they will automatically raise your credit rating. Check with credit unions they usually have lower rate visa and master cared rates for their members.
If you have a large balance you are paying off always pay more than the minimum monthly payment. Try not to use the card and pay cash when ever you can. The bankruptcy laws have changed and it's not that easy to go into bankruptcy as it once was.
I think you just haven't had the card long enough to have a credit rating with the credit bureaus yet. stop warring about it. What's the reason you want to raise your credit rating since you haven't even had the card for a year?

Josh Harmatz · Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Posts: 18

Thank you for the great information this will help me understand credit scores much better.

darryl · Joined: 25 May 2009 Posts: 7

Remember, your credit score is one the most important numbers in your life, so it's important to know what yours is and take active steps to raise it as much as possible. You don’t have to live with inaccurate information infesting your credit report. Federal law gives you the right to have data removed from your credit report when the credit bureaus confirm that it isn’t yours or when they can’t confirm it at all. You can have errors taken off your credit report by disputing them with the credit bureau that provided the report - either Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion. Depending on the error, this step could raise your score within a month and by quite a lot.

cm6598 · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

Pay your credit cards dues and enjoy life happily and don't dare to get it once again...:)

EricJ · Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Posts: 321 Location: New Jersey

Now that was not very helpful.

Elmira Nancy · Joined: 13 Nov 2009 Posts: 28

You've just established your credit, places that finances update records periodically. To get your credit to go higher faster you'll have to finance more than one line of credit. Just not to much b/c places also check how many times you've had your credit checked in a year. and paying your bills late or getting to far behind is not a good thing to do either.

JPowell · Joined: 20 Jan 2010 Posts: 103 Location: PA

If you're just starting to build or rebuild credit some of the following can help. I raised my scores over 100 points in a year by watering down the negatives on my CC with some positives.

-Open new lines of credit, be sure they report to all credit bureaus or at least two of them for it to be worth it.
-Open varying types of credit (a credit card, a small loan, a store card etc)
-Always pay your accounts on time once you open them
-Keep your utilization low! Some people say under 30% is prime but most Gurus say the 10% mark is actually key, I try to stay under that.
-For every line of credit that has a balance, try to have two lines of credit that don't!

I did my initial rebuilding with one store line of credit (Crown Jewelers), one sub par secured card (Orchard) and one prime secured (BoA). I also had a student loan that was already active on my CR and up to date.

You may notice a slight drop after opening the cards because of the inquiries on your CR and the drop in your average age of credit, but it will quickly rebound. I personally did not drop at all but I was super low already.

I never carried a balance on the Orchard account and rarely did on the BoA account (until recently when I used it for an emergency and took a hit to my CR because of UTL). I carry a small balance on the CJ account a few months out of the year because I have to use it to keep it active, but for the score boost I figure it's worth it.

The BoA card unsecured after less than a year and they raised the limit significantly.

Household Bank (sub par, but parent bank of Orchard) also offered me a new unsecured card with a limit comparable to my BoA limit after about a year and a half of good grooming which I accepted. I keep this card at a $0.

I still have the secured Orchard card just until I find something to replace it with for the sake of keeping another $0 balance card on my report.

I managed to bring my scores up from under 500 to the mid 600s in less than two years by doing these things and I still have several charge offs, collection accounts and other baddies on my report that have a few years before they disappear.

savana · Joined: 22 Dec 2010 Posts: 15 Location: United States

Completely agree with all the replies here and for increasing the credit score it is always better to clear up all the debts and to pay mortgage payments in time so that the credit score will not get affected.

laseen · Joined: 20 Apr 2011 Posts: 3

A higher credit limit can have the same positive impact on your credit score as paying down your balances. When your credit limit increases, your credit utilization lowers, and you see a boost in your credit score. Some credit card issuers automatically raise credit limits after a certain period of time if your account has remained in good standing. For other credit cards, you may have to request a limit increase. Only take this action if you know you have the discipline to keep your credit card balance in check.

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