Here are some pointers on how to help build or rebuild good. (Article’s Credit goes to eddy1134). Most places, when checking your credit history, rely on the fico score (or some variation of that) to determine whether or not you're "credit worthy." The higher the fico score, the better. Here are some ways you can increase you fico score: 1. Pay your bills ON TIME! This applies to everything from credit card bills to phone / utility bills. Normally, paying a bill 1 to 25 days late won't negatively impact your credit, but any more than 25 days and you risk having that delinquency on your credit report for the next 7 years. Other than bankruptcies / defaulting on prior loans, delinquencies are the biggest fico score killers. Also, credit bureaus keep track of how many consecutive payments you make- the more, the better. One late payment and your streak are gone. 2. Keep your balances low in relation to your credit limits. In order to help this ratio, either decrease your balances (harder) or request (via phone / internet) credit line increases (easier). When lenders see that you have credit line out there that you're not using, they're more prone to consider you lower risk. Don’t think in terms of dollars, but more in terms of what % of your total credit line you're not using. You can also increase your credit line by opening new accounts, but your fico score will take a small dive (20 points or so) every time you open a new account. It will climb back up over the course of 6 months to a year, so opening accounts every now and then (i.e., at most once a year) is fine. 3. Don’t have a lot of active accounts (i.e., credit cards with balances). It’s better to have 1 credit card with $5000 in balances than 5 credit cards with $1000 each. If possible, consolidate all your credit card debts into as few cards as possible. This will help you remember to pay bills on time, too, as you'll have to sift through less mail and pay fewer bills. Saves postage, too! If you're trying to consolidate your credit card bills, find a solicitation out there that offers the lowest APR on balance transfers with minimal / no balance transfer fees. Pay close attention to the purchase APR because, with a lot of cards, the purchase APR can be different (sometimes much higher) than that of the balance transfer APR. If the purchase APR is higher than that of the balance transfer APR, it's okay to balance transfer as much of your balances as possible to the new card, but DON'T USE THAT CARD FOR PURCHASES! Use one of your other cards for any new purchases, and pay those balances off in full. Reason for this (not using the newer card for purchases if the purchase APR is higher) is because when you make payments, those payments are always allocated towards the lower APR balances first. So:
- If you balance transfer $2000 at a 0.0 APR
- You then purchase $2000 at a 19.99 purchase APR
- You then make a payment of $2000.
- Your remaining balance of $2000 will be at the 19.99 rate (because the $2000 payment was allocated towards the 0.00 rate balance first).
- If your balance transfer rate is the same as your purchase rate (read the fine print!) then you're fine- just pay attention to when your promotional period expires, and look for new solicitations when it does.
1) I have 5 different student loan payments (because i took out a loan for 5 different semesters). I pay one consolidated payment each month to citibank, but when I checked my credit score, it showed up as 5 seperate loans. Is this normal? Is it hurting my score? Should I call citibank and see if I can turn this into one loan?The "consolidation effect" more applies to credit cards rather than student loans. Credit bureaus take a look at the number of active "trades," but student loans are classified a little differently. "Trades" are things like credit cards, retail cards (such as the "gap" card, "Macy's" card, etc.). If you have a lot of "trades" with balances that would negatively impact your fico score. However, multiple student loans should be fine. Reason for this, is that installment loans (such as student loans, car loans, mortgages) are seen as "investments," and thus are viewed more favorably than "revolving debt" such as credit card balances. It’s normal that you have 5 separate loans- credit bureaus need to track how long each loan has been around; since your loans stem from different semesters / timeframes, that's why they're listed separately.
2) How about accounts with a zero balance? I have two or 3 this way, never use them. What is the highest score you can get?If you have credit cards with zero balances, these don't hurt your score at all. They actually help your score because those accounts decrease your "bureau utilization." This variable is calculated as follows: [total balance] / [total credit limits] So, the zero balance accounts contribute to the denominator of this calculation, thus lowering the metric. However, this doesn't mean that you should go out and open a bunch of accounts (see initial post's #5). The highest fico score you can get is 900. However, the highest score I’ve ever seen was in the 840s, which is extremely unusual. Average fico scores are somewhere around 660-670. generally speaking, if your fico score is: