OT: Someone please help me understand a detail about credit scoring.

[Bill R.]

over 820. The only thing i do is always pay off every credit card balance in full each month. Every car loan or other loan i've had i make sure that i pay it off early , no late payments or missed payments. I typically pay off a 5 year loan in 2 years or less. I don't let insurance companies or car dealers or any other company run credit checks on me until i'm ready to buy. Every time you go to a car dealer and test drive , if they take your license and write it down they run a credit check on you. Every time you or them run a credit check to see what your score is , it lowers your score. I think its either 15 or 20 points every time. So you don't ever check your score or let them check your credit any more than is absolutely necessary. Since every time you do it will lower your score. I don't ever request a raised limit on cards, they automatically send you the increased limit hoping that you'll incur enough debt to not pay it off each month. Whenever anybody wants my social security or drivers license when i'm shopping for something i always ask if they are running a credit check and i usually refuse to do it.

Thanks for all the help guys. I think the end result is that I need to carry a very small balance for it to mean anything. What sucks about it is that I can't use my card for anything normal size (>$100) without having high credit utilization.

For Bill, I tried calling them and asking them to raise the limit. I got some greenhorn from india who tried to confuse me by saying that the selection process for credit increases was very complicated and in the computer. Yeah, right.

To the creditors, it really doesn't matter what you want to call it, but if it makes any difference, I'm not rebuilding credit, just starting it. I don't have any bad things on my record.

I've tried applying for a gas card and got denied, but that was before I had my student visa. I suppose I should try that again.

I checked my credit report last year, 2 of the 3 reporting agencies had hardly any information about me. The last one, transunion, had my capital one data.

Thanks for the help guys, I have a plan now

[DanDombrowski]

Bill,

Thanks for the advice. What you're saying is that if I pay off the bill in full, it does help credit scoring? Now I don't know what to do....

As for the car loans, I have never borrowed money to pay for a car, or actually anything for that matter. My upcoming 3 series purchase will be the first time. I would love to do a 2 year loan with 50% down, but were also thinking about purchasing a home soon, so the downpayment may be better appropriated to that.

All that aside....I didn't think a car dealer could run your credit with just your driver's license? I mean, it may just be because I'm young, but I've always had to give my license when test driving a car. I thought they needed your social security number and your consent. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of typical car dealers that wouldn't mind stretching the definition of consent, but I thought you needed a SSN to run a credit check on someone. When I test drive cars, I thought I was very aware for the warning signs that they were trying to do things like that (asking you to fill out a small questionaire thats actually an application for credit, getting your SSN for 'security purposes', you get the idea). Mabye I was wrong, but I did know about credit checking hurting your score.

I guess my plan is going to be to call capital one again and see if they wont both raise my limit and make sure they report my payment schedule to the other reporting agencies. Then, after I purchase my new car (with a co-sign, probably), do my free credit report when I'm due for one in November and see how things are checking out.

[Robin-535im]

Another thing that can raise it, so the mortgage guy told me, are secured loans vs. unsecured. A home mortgage, car loan, home equity loan, 401(k) loan, etc., all have something of value as collateral. Credit doesn't... Since you own your car, one thing you can do is go to the bank and get a loan on the car! Viola, a secured loan. Put the money in a CD or some interest-earning vehicle, pay off the loan on time or early, and you'll have a credit history that only cost you a hundred bucks or so in fees / interest / etc.

[Elekta]

car loan, house, sears, amex, credit union, gas card, shopping card. Get them and use them.

Set them all to auto pay out of your checking account and to pay the minimum required each time. Then every other month zero out the balances save for amex which you zero out every month.

I saw my credit score and it shows number of pmts on each card and if they were on time or not. I came out in the high 700's and each card had over 100-300 on-time pmts on them.

You statistically can't crack the 800's until you've paid off a house or a couple of cars....paying off a car loan is the easiest way to bump your score. So is Sears. Buy a fridge, lcd tv, or a bunch of tools, make two or three auto pmts and then pay it off. Or if you get a deal where you don't have to pay for a year, then wait the year and pay it off (if there is no interest of course)

No matter what though is to never miss a pmt. That's how auto pay can help you help yourself. That consistency is what lenders look for and the scoring companies do too.

Also, don't make any insurance claims if you can help it.

goodl luck