How to get FICO score up faster

Scores are all based on Debt ratio of open accounts. They have nothing to do with your net worth.

So, in reality you can do two things: Pay on time and keep low balances less than 30% on revolving accounts.

The more debt you can use vs have used the better....

Get revolving debt and pay it off each month. (Credit Cards) or an auto loan and do not miss a payment.

If your credit card statements close out with a large balance relative to your credit limit, it still hurts your score…even if you pay it in full.

Pay off all or most of the balance before the statement closes out so that the account balance that gets reported to the credit bureaus that month is zero or a small percentage of the total available credit

FICO has a few major factors. I've listed them below and what you can do to positively impact each one.

Length of credit history (just need more time)
Payment History (don't miss payments)
Current Balances / Debt Ratio (keep balances low or get higher limits)
Recent Credit Inquiries (don't have a lot of inquiries)
Mix of credit account types (have multiple types of debt such as student loans, car loans, Credit cards, etc.)

For long-term improvement, you may have to take some short-term hits. Opening a new account will have a negative impact to your inquiries, but could be positive towards your mix and your balances. A new account will also shorten your average credit history initially. Over time, the inquiry will drop off and the average credit history will improve.

Keep your credit card revolving accounts at Precisely 1%. If your credit card limit is $10,000 you want to make sure your report says $100 out of $10,000 credit used for 1%. Having 0% used actually hurts you. Crazy. Just know what day your cards post to the bureaus and don’t use the cards during that period.

I would call company you owed money to and request to pay in full or whatever they’ll accept to remove collections.

You’ll have to be persistent, their normal script is to say no. You might be surprised.

Again not the collectors - the original debt company.

Absent that - keep up good behavior for more time and that will have less and less negative effect on your score.

In my 20s my dad added me to a business card he had for 15 years, boom score jumped 100 points.

quote:

---

Keep your credit card revolving accounts at Precisely 1%.

---

9% seems to be the magic number when people are maxing their fico scores for mortgages.

I was able to get my FICO up to 835 very recently simply by purchasing virtually every monthly expense on my CC, soaking up those rewards, and then paying off the entire balance before the reporting date.

I called the CC company and asked for that date, btw. They told me that what I needed to do was pay it off 2 days before the report date and then basically not use the card till the date had passed.

It's worked out unbelievably well.

As a bit of a test, the following month I left 3% utilization on the card. My FICO dropped 34 points.

Now, there could always be contributing factors, but my variables are pretty simple. At the time, I only had one CC. One other line of credit account. All was paid on time.

I'm a big believer in paying off the entire balance. Just not seeing where it's ever done me harm.