Quick ways to build credit? *HELP ME*

[DaveH]

Good questions, and good advice back to you Valhalla1.

Let me echo Ross's sentiments. DO NOT use the cash advance feature on your credit card. Not only does it shaft you with interest and cash advance fees big time, but it can be interpreted as indicative that you're way over your head financially.

With your income, it should be easy for you to pay off the balance on these cards every month. Indeed, some cards, like Citibank's, will let you do this automatically, online, via direct debit..as long as you have enough in your bank account to cover the full balance, you just let them direect-debit you (like a direct deposit, only the reverse) and you never even have to think about it. Meanwhile, you're getting the best deal on your credit and building up your credit rating.

The idea of closing a couple of those cards upon being able to raise the limits on one of them is a good one also.

Note that one quick way to improve your credit score is to NOT max out your cards. It says this right on the eloan disclosure form, and I know this to be true from recent personal experience--even tho I NEVER carried a balance except when I had a promo 0% APR.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll be boosting that credit rating in no time.

 

[SJ]

I'm in the same boat.

I scored slightly higher than you, not by much though. 660. Hmmm I guess Ill cut down on internet purchases. Guess I might just have to plunk down the cash and by a new car outright. Guess Ill find out next month.

 

[bigd480]

do you have student loans?

i can't get any kind of credit because i've never had a CC and the only thing on my credit report is thousands of dollars of unpaid loans...

 

[randomlinh]

interesting thread. I have 4 CC's with a total limit of a little more than 4k. Yet i have no job.. strange eh? Don't ask how, I just applied for the hell of it and got it..

may I ask what you do? Full time college + 42k/yr is good, must be one hell of a workload tho it would seem.

 

[Emulex]

by the way when they ask for:
1. Income - lie
2. Savings & Checking - Always YES
3. Own home - YES
4. Length of time at residence (always say 1.5 years+)
5. Length on job (1.5 years +)

CC companies don't verify this info, but do use it to score you.

Homedepot and exxon are uuber easy cards to get, same with citibank. Target is uber easy. etc.. Macy's Rich's

You need at least 1 retail (non-visa) card in your report. Fico terms a good mix of credit
as at least 1 retail, 2-3 visa's, one car loan, and one home loan.

 

[randomlinh]

you sure they don't check that info? Just flat out lie? That seems a bit risky.. i wouldn't want my credit report tainted in any way if i could avoid it....

btw, i got a 723 (55%), 19 as well.

hrmm.. also says I have 7 accounts, are student loans incorporated into this as well (stafford unsub)?

 

[flot]

One of the factors they'll look at is the % of your possible credit that you owe. So if you have been extended $1000 of credit and you owe $900, they tend to look upon that poorly. Sad for you, they ALSO count every time you TRY to get a credit card against you. They figure you're grasping at straws trying to get more credit, so you must need the money badly = must be a bad risk. A friend is a mortgage underwriter, she says that "ideally" you'd have 3-4 lines of established credit (meaning CC, loans, etc - that have been open for more than 1 year) that are used but not OVER-used. She said it's better to have moderate balances across a few of them than to have a few empty cards and one maxed out. Other factors sometimes you can't do anything about - they look at if you own or rent your house, how long you've lived at your current address, etc. Basically anything that makes you look responsible, and the catch-22 is that the more you need the credit, the harder it is to get. OF course, there's a reason for that, people who "need" the credit are by definition higher risks.

You're trying to be too devious about your credit. There really aren't any quick tricks (aside from account attaching as someone mentioned, but that is risky, questionably legit, and on top of that it probably won't work much longer) you just have to try to play the game by their rules and see what you can do. I give a big thumbs up to citibank, I've had an account with them since I was a freshman in college (7 yrs ago) and my limit has pretty much gone from $1500 to $15,000.

I definitely wouldn't LIE on anything. You can get away with minor stretching of the truth (if you make $15k, you could count washing your dad's car every weekend and bump it up to $18k ;-) but they do some validity checks. Also, to be honest, if you're 19 reporting $42k income and you've already maxed out your other cards - they may just toss you in the 'he's lying' pile right away.

 

[flot]

double post

 

[MrBond]

When they asked me my total household income , I told them my parents and mine combined. It was high enough to get me a $5,000 credit limit on a BP Visa.

I keep getting these damn "pre-approved" Visa solicitations and such. I've called all three agencies and asked they stop giving it out for them, yet they keep coming, one a week or so. It's starting to annoy me, especially b/c all these inquiries will drag my credit rating down.

We'll see how good it is this week for sure. I may be applying for a loan.

 

[Majinga]

If you want credit card with high spending limit, go with MBNA student master or visa card, they started me off with $2000 3 years ago and now my limit increased to $10000.

 

[Valhalla1]

okay, thanks for all the great advice.

btw, 2 of my credit cards have periodically upped my credit limit every few months.. 2 are now "up" to $1200. the other which I rarely use is at $500.

yes, I could pay cash for stuff but I want to use my credit cards to try and build a credit history. unforunately it looks like it completely backfired, as all my slacker broke no-job friends have more credit than I do.

as to the question of what do I do, I have a full time job as webmaster and mainframe master console operator for several VM/MVS OS/390 mainframe systems at a datacenter located in my town. I also have another salaried job as network administrator and hardware/software consultant for a local business, but I only have to go in to work a few times a month to maintain, nmostly it is getting paid to be available when I'm needed.