Posted by Charles on March 13, 2000 at 10:16:06:
I didn’t mean to imply pulling credit more than once in one day would not affect scrore at all. It will, but it counts as one inquiry instead of many. This info is from broker. I have not tried it personally.
How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by Tony James
Posted by Tony James on March 12, 2000 at 15:08:27:
I have a 600 fico score, I need 650 to do what I need done, What do I need to do and how fast can I increase my score by 50?
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by John (TX)
Posted by John (TX) on March 14, 2000 at 12:32:34:
Tony,
In the message below Robert M. Campbell states:
This is not true. Only items that are inaccurate or older than the law allows can be legally removed. Here is a link to a page on the Federal Trade Commission’s web site:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/repair/index.html
The information on the above page and its ssociated links has tons of information regarding credit repair. You might also take a look at:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/croa/croa.htm
It’s a link to the official “Consumer Credit Protection Act”. In section 405 of the Act is a disclosure that “credit repair” firms are required by law to give to consumers. It states in part:
'Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law
And here’s one last link to the Consumer Protection Page at the FTC:
It has links for not only credit but many other areas of consumer protection.
John
That depends on a lot of things . . . - Posted by Robert M. Campbell
Posted by Robert M. Campbell on March 13, 2000 at 17:47:10:
If I were to grade a 600 FICO score, it would be “D”.
Now, the question.
Why is your score so low?
Too much credit, maxed out credit limits, or negative credit items?
Once you answer those questions for me, as a mortgage broker, I can offer suggestions.
For example, if the reason is bad credit items . . . you can get those items legally DELETED with a credit repair service that I would use if I were you.
Recently, I saw a person’s credit score go from 594 to 731 in about three months. The reason was the deletion of many negative credit items.
While I don’t want to jump to conclusions regarding your situation, most people with 600 scores have some credit problems. There are exceptions, but it’s true well over 95% of the time.
If you want some information on this credit repair service, I’ll email it to you.
Robert M. Campbell
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by chris
Posted by chris on March 13, 2000 at 02:39:09:
Numbers used to partially determine FICO score at this link. Interesting that if you live somewhere for less than 6 months you receive a higher score than someone living at the same address for six months to 2.49 years.
Other stuff on scoring at-Credit Scores — FICO Score, VantageScore, Other Scoring Models
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by Charles
Posted by Charles on March 12, 2000 at 22:34:09:
Be careful about going to a lot of lenders. Your score drops each time they pull your credit (unless they all do it on the same day).
Try Another Lender - Posted by Bill K. (AZ)
Posted by Bill K. (AZ) on March 12, 2000 at 20:07:34:
Tony,
It is my understanding that there is no set rule for determining a FICO score. Hence, different lenders put differing weights on each component. You might find that your FICO score is 650, or more, with another lender.
I hope this helps.
Bill K. (AZ)
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by Bert G
Posted by Bert G on March 12, 2000 at 17:42:29:
This article may give you some helpful info.
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on March 13, 2000 at 01:32:56:
Are you saying if all the different lenders used on the same day pulling a credit report would not affect your FICO score?
If that’s what your saying it’s not true. Regardless of whether or not different lenders pull your credit on the same day or not, it does if fact affect your FICO score. Mine dropped 13 points when a second bank I went to pulled my credit within an hour of the previous lender I went to on the same day. Each time an inquiry is pulled it will affect your FICO score period. Although I have heard that after having a large number of inquiries pulled in a certain time period that it will stop dropping your score. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know.
From what I was to gather from all the mess used in the scoring system is to have:
No more than 3 major credit card accounts opened.
A 0 balance will raise your score.
A high balance to your credit limit will raise your score.
The ideal balance to carry for the highest score based on major credit card accounts is 25% of your credit limit.
Avoid department store credit cards. They raise your score.
Gas credit cards will raise your score.
Avoid finance companies like commercial credit, norwest financial, avco financial, etc. Using finance companies like this are the WORST things that affect FICO scores. Evidently, the reasoning behind this is that, if you need to resort to using a finance company that charges outrageous interest rates, you must be a higher credit risk. Even though this is not always true, the scoring system counts finance companies highly against you regardless of how good your credit is.
Having a mortgage will increase your score.
The scoring system rates you as a statistic, not as an individual. There are so many formulas that go into calculating a credit score that the end result for a lot of credit scores is a total joke!
I’ve seen credit files that showed 16 open collection accounts without one single good open account with FICO scores of 650. Then I’ve seen credit files with perfect payment histories that have no negative or late payments of any kind with scores of 630. Then I’ve seen scores of 750 where the ONLY credit the person had was ONE credit card from a department store with a $200 credit limit! Does that make any sense?
A person with one $200 credit card from a department store showing as the only line of credit this person has ever had is rated with a 750 FICO score meaning they are a better risk than the person with a lot of established credit having higher credit balances to their credit limits. While at the same time another person with no positive rating and 16 open collection accounts rates better than the person that always pays on time! If this isn’t discriminating then I don’t know what is.
If you think about it, the scoring system is really a big joke. Look at how they rate credit cards as an example. A creditor that issues you a major credit card with a credit limit of $5k is saying your a good risk up to this dollar amount. The creditor would love for you to max that credit limit out and make the minimum monthly payment on it until it’s paid off. That would only take you 30 years to pay it off! Now remember, the creditor rates you as a good enough risk to issue you that amount of credit to use as you see fit.
Now for the catch 22. If you do what the creditor wants you to do, which is use up all that credit to the credit limit, then your going to get penalized by the scoring system. Your credit score will starting dropping as you exceed 25% of your credit limit. And if you don’t use the credit and carry a 0 balance or less than a 25% balance of your credit limit, the scoring system is going to lower your score also!
Isn’t that funny? A creditor says here, we’re going to give you a credit line of $5k that is unsecured for you to use as you see fit because we feel your a good risk based on your credit score at this time. Meanwhile the creditor would like nothing more but for you to go out and charge that limit up to the max. And if you pay on time for 6 - 12 months they will even raise your limit! The catch 22 is that if you do use that credit limit to where it exceeds 25% the scoring system says your now a higher risk! So you see, your responsible enough to be issued a $5k limit, but your really not responsible enough to actually use it! 
So where did they come up with all this crap from?
Statistics based on past credit histories!
What they’ve done was taken a lot of past credit histories that showed certain patterns on people on how and what happened with how they handled their credit. They were able to mathmatically develop a computer program that can calculate a score based on these statistics and put together a scoring system. Before the scoring system was developed they had to use human employees to individually read and evaluate a persons credit report. Unfortunately, they had a lot of problems in hiring and properly training a human on how to understand and evaluate a credit file. To many people were getting approved for credit that should have been denied credit. This was costing creditors with more losses. Since they came out with the scoring system, creditors claim that they’ve taken less losses on issuing credit to those that shouldn’t be approved.
So now, you and I, and every person in the world are actually being treated as one and the same based on statistics from past credit histories when it comes to the credit scoring system. We’re all nothing but a number. You can have up to 3 different numbers between the big 3 credit bureaus which is one of 350 numbers on an average ranging from 450 - 800.
Your number can bounce around daily on average between 450 - 800 depending on your credit activity. Your number is issued to you by a machine. This machine tells everyone in the world what your credit worthiness and ability to repay your debts is based on this number. This machine gets it’s number from a computer program that was put together by a group of mathimaticians that based everything on a group of past credit histories from other people. Once this machine issues you a number, this number allows a creditor to dictate whether or not to approve you, and/or what interest rate they will charge you, and/or what terms they will issue the credit to you. It doesn’t matter what your personal history is, it’s all based on a program that was devolped from past credit histories. We’re no longer treated as an individual through the credit bureaus. We’re treated as a whole based on statistics from past credit histories. We’re nothing but a number in the eyes of the credit system.
If you try to find out how this system rates you and gets the number it calculates on you, no creditor or credit bureau will know. So they all claim. They do claim that if everyone did know how to calculate the way the scoring system works, it wouldn’t be efective because everyone would know how to build a perfect score. Well, duh! Isn’t that what it’s all about? Being responsible and maintaining a good credit rating? Do they think everyone is going to go out and create perfect credit scores if they knew how the system calculated it’s scores? I doubt it! Everyone knows you need to make payments on time or it will affect your credit. So does everyone make their payments on time? No! So that lame excuse they gave doesn’t fly!
So what’s wrong with people knowing how the scoring system works so those that are responsible and pay their bills on time can maintain a good score they rightfully deserve? Because creditors wouldn’t be able to have something to use in order to legally discriminate against people. By not allowing people to know how to maintain a good credit score these creditors can use it against people to discriminate on whether or not to approve you, what interest rates to charge you, and at what terms they want to give you.
The bottom line is the scoring system discriminates against people. If they don’t have to disclose to the public how the system works and derives at the scores it computes, then they shouldn’t be allowed to use it!
Re: How fast can I increase my FICO score by 50? - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on March 13, 2000 at 01:40:08:
Made a type-o. Meant to type LOWER your score instead of raise.
No more than 3 major credit card accounts opened.
A 0 balance will LOWER your score.
A high balance to your credit limit will LOWER your score.
The ideal balance to carry for the highest score based on major credit card accounts is 25% of your credit limit.
Avoid department store credit cards. They LOWER your score.
Gas credit cards will LOWER your score.