When you know that you want to shop for a loan, you should order a copy of your own credit report first. That way you will know exactly what’s on it and you can use that copy to get quotes from a number of lenders. After you find the lender of choice, you can authorize them to get a copy of your report. Unfortunately the more inquiries that are on your report, the greater chance that you are trying to raise money quickly. That makes banks nervous.
To build your credit, you could try taking out a one year secured loan for about $1,000 from your bank. When the payments are due, double or even triple them. This will boost your credit rating within a few months. Paying more than the required or minimum payment always impresses the forces that be.
What can I do to raise a 598 FICO score to 600 in a short amount of time? I only have about $500 in debt to a credit card. If I pay that off, will that do it?
Posted by Paul Macdonald on December 03, 1999 at 23:24:16:
Get a copy of you complete credit report.
Pay down that credit card to about 40% or less of the available balance.
Find every account you’ve ever had that is now closed but LOOKS open to the computer such as an old car loan that has been finished for two years or a department store card you never used. Unless it says this account is closed to future business/or by creditor or at the consumers request to the credit bureau it still appears open. Write that creditor a letter saying polite smoke?? ?dear XXXX, that you so much for having had me as a client?.. and by the way, please close my account with you and reflect that closure with all three primary credit bureaus and do let them know that it was at my request. Please send me confirmation of that closure in writing to my address.?
When those letters arrive ? send/fax a copy to all three major bureaus. My clients usually receive about a 5-point improvement per account.
If there are true derogatory statements write a letter of explanation saying you were bad you are sorry and you?ve learned your lesson. Send this letter to all three bureaus. It helps.
If there are incorrect derog?s write a letter explaining your side and state that the matter is being contested. Send this letter to all three bureaus.
Either wait about 30 days for your credit to go through its cycle or get a credit reporting agency to rescore your file. You should get your points.
And do not let ANYONE pull your credit without your permission and allow that as rarely as possible.
This is the most bizarre thread I’ve ever read.
Must be why creative RE exists. There is no
logic (the system). It reminds me of being told
when I was working as a therapist and submitting bills
for Medicare payment,
that I could not
type my medical reports, because the powers that be would not believe that I had written them. I typed a few, when I could, and none were eveer rejected. I was constantly told to write detailed medical reports so that someone with a high school education and no medical training could read them in one minute.
This of course took over an hour, and 3 pages to cover that and all the cya documentation.
(and don’t doctors dictate notes and have them transcribed? )
Just bizarre thinking.
Would it be that the gov’t won’t raise the int rate
by 10 points with a single announcement, but manipulates the economy another way so that it is harder for people to figure it out-no stable group is affected, so no group loyalty. No users group, like
Airline Passengers Association, FICO rate users group.
Profiling for fun? Or is there a “.org” I don’t know
about besides rolloverandplaydead.com?
Posted by Kim K–AZ on December 03, 1999 at 11:08:35:
If you pay your charge card balance in full each month here is a tip worth trying.I paid my balance in full when my bill came due but added to my payment one dollar extra. In suceeding months, I paid my balance in full and the statement reflected that the credit card issuer now owed me money (one dollar) every month. Must’ve meant something to them that they didn’t like as they eventually sent me a check for one dollar. Of coarse I can always send an extra dollar again. Can’t hurt to try on one card.
Great luck to all!
Posted by Mark-NC on December 02, 1999 at 16:50:18:
Steve,
Like Michael said no one knows the exact formula. But heres what I can tell you based on my experiance of seeing hundreds of credit reports.
If you only have one open account on your credit report and you pay it off it will lower your score. If however your credit limit is $500. and you have it maxed out it will lower the score. If you want to raise your score, just pay the ballance down to half or less but don’t pay it off.
The ideal credit report for a real high score consists of about 5 open credit lines with a good payment history with your ballances on your revolving accounts at no more than 1/2 to 2/3 ballance. You can change your score monthly just by paying down your ballances.
Another thing to consider is the scoring only goes back 2 years, anything good or bad prior to that will not be scored. On the same note if you have not established any credit good or bad within the last 2 years you will not get any score.
So don’t misunderstand the system they want to see credit worthiness by seeing your ability to pay over a period of time. In your own mind you would like to have everthing paid off but unfortunatley this does nothing for a credit score.
So go out there and rack up some debt and get that perfect credit score. Just kidding in a way. But in all reality everything is becoming credit score driven so its not totaly out of line by saying that, if you want all the perks of having good credit.
Fair Issac & Co. (FICO) based out of San Rafael, CA is VERY guarded about how scores can be influenced one way or the other. Their corporate offices which are located very near us are non-descript and you would never know they are located there. This is all for obvious reasons.
Simply paying off you debt may NOT increase your score as one of the primary factors that is considered is your AVAILABILITY and access to credit. It may be a better stratergy to cancelled any credit cards that you have that you are not using regularly as a means to increase your score in additon to paying off your debt. TIP: if you follow this stratergy make sure you request that the creditor place the comments “account canceled at the request of the debtor…” and also have them send you a hard copy letter affirming this.
This stratergy may not immediatly increase your credit score although over the long run it can be effective.
Again Fair Issac & Co. does not want individuals manipulating their credit profiles so that the scores are influenced. Much of what you may hear, or read including my suggestions above can only be taken with caution.
Posted by Vernon on December 02, 1999 at 18:12:00:
After struggling with the results of the FICO scoring
system,I have to agree with some other comments I have
heard.The system locks out (sometimes) otherwise creditworthy people from either getting a mortgage or
getting a decent interest rate.
The system stinks!! We don’t know exactly what it takes to get a good score but I have found out what it takes to lower the score by 30 points real quick.In the past 90 days I paid off a bank loan and had 3 inquiries on my credit report, NO OTHER CHANGES.30 points is what that cost me.
How do we deal with a system like that? Wish I had the knowledge to answer the question. Good luck!