How much does a major credit card boost credit score?

[Mashed Potato]

she was disappointed at the results. They were fair, but she doesn't have a major credit card. Anyone know how much it boosts ones score? Obviously if paid on time?

 

[FrustratedUser]

Huge boost.

 

[Mashed Potato]

Would you know points wise? hundred? hundred-fifty?

 

[FrustratedUser]

Depends how you use it. Carry a lot of balance = bad.

 

[DCFife]

Getting a card is the first step. After that, the length of the history will improve the score and the debt/credit ratio will affect the score depending on how "loaded" she keeps the card.

 

[mugs]

I lost some faith in credit scores when they docked me because my balances were too high compared to my credit limits. I had a balance of ~$2k vs total credit limits of ~$75k! (I have a few too many cards ). I pay it off every month!

Get a card, keep it paid off. It takes time to build credit, don't expect instantaneous results.

 

[SoulAssassin]

She'll take a 5-10 point drop for the inquiry and it was gradually start to build over time. Nowhere near 100-150 points but you have to start somewhere. If you're even talking about 100+ point increases then she has to be pretty low. It's really impossible to quantify how much it will jump over time without knowing why it's so low to begin with. As much as I'm against the principle of this, you can add her as a co-applicant to a couple cards you have with 0 balances and high credit lines. That is probably one of the quickest methods to getting her score up.

 

[DCFife]

Originally posted by: mugs
I lost some faith in credit scores when they docked me because my balances were too high compared to my credit limits. I had a balance of ~$2k vs total credit limits of ~$75k! (I have a few too many cards ). I pay it off every month!

Get a card, keep it paid off. It takes time to build credit, don't expect instantaneous results.

Same thing happened with me. When I bought my RAV4 earlier this year I put $9k on a 0% card and paid the remainder with cash. Although I have over $100k in available CC debt, the $9k caused my score to go down about 20 pts. I don't see where using less than 10% of your available limit is that bad.