re: Building Credit Score

First thing is to pay down your debt on your store cards. While you indicate you use these cards for large purchases only, these cards usually carry lower limits so placing large purchases is actually a bad thing. One important factor in determining your credit score is your credit utilization. If you make a $1,000.00 purchase on a card with a $1,500.00 limit you would be using 66% of your available credit. Most banks take this as a negative. As a rule keeping balances to less than 30% is optimal. Also remember that construction loans usually require at least 20% down so make sure you save while paying down debt.