While you’re at it, head to the forums to discuss how you can raise your scores.

- Every 3 months call your credit card company and ask for an increase higher than you know you’ll get approved for. This will top you out at the highest they’re willing to lend you every time.

- Keep your usage on the card high but make your payments on time and you’re more likely to get those limit raises.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for a limit increase. The most they can tell you is “No”.

- Own property, such as a house. Credit card companies will give out more money to people who have assets.

- Get many credit cards and consistantly raise the limits on all of them. Often times credit card companies will match limits of other cards you have on your credit report in order to be competitive.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for limits beyond $15,000 when you start to get your limits higher. Many credit card companies won’t just stop at the $5000 level like many people think.

- When asking for a limit increase, tell the company that you need to make a “large purchase” coming up soon, so they think you plan on utilizing the limit, even if you ultimately don’t.

- Get Charge Cards on your credit report, such as American Express. Cards like American Express (Green, Gold, Platinum, or Centurion) generally have flexible limits with no true max out, so having these types of cards on your report shows responsiblity with credit and money.

In the end, don’t over-extend yourself and get into trouble with high limits, but utilize it to your advantage to raise your available credit when needed, lower your debt ratios, and boost credit companies confidence in your money management skills. Good luck!

Now for the tip of the day: FICO and FAKO scores use inquiries on your reports differently to determine their scores. FICO uses inquiries in the past year, FAKO’s usually use the past two years. So don’t worry too much about those one year or older inquiries, they won’t matter at all for nearly all banks. Just let them fall off and concentrate on keeping those less than one year old inquiries off.

If you’re having trouble getting credit, it may be because they are pulling your worst report and by just choosing the right bank you may be able to get your best report pulled. Search online for a “credit pulls” database to find out which company pulls Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax and then you can make sure you have the best chance at getting credit!

It’s important to remember that some but not all brokers do business this way, and it has its advantages and disadvantages. But if you don’t have all three scores up to par you can find good brokers who will still give you a good loan rate based off of that middle score alone. Prioritizing your credit repair can be very important when a property purchase is near.

Why? One simple reason: Credit history. The accounts you can show that are open and paid will extend your credit history and show that you can have revolving open credit with no money management problems. Closing a card can potentially cause two problems to occur: One is that it will decrease your average lifetime of accounts, and two is that a closed account can drop off of your report at anytime with no warning, especially after seven years. Good luck getting it back on if your account is closed.

In the end, keep those credit card accounts open at a $0/$1 as long as possible. Remeber, 15% of your score is determined by the length of your credit history and this will give it a boost. Years from now it will pay off as you reach towards the perfect 850 score.

Ethan
Admin