New here, trying to build up credit, fix my past and be more responsable. I made some bad choices in my 20's and now in my 30's im struggling to fix my credit. I am looking to purchase a used car and went to my credit union, i was told they get the credit score from experian and need at least a 600 cs. My experian score is a 592. I have 1 regular credit card which im only using 17% I currently have a car loan that I can pay off in the next few months according to creditkarma.com I have 2 accounts in collections; one for $1900 and the other one for $115 I am looking to pay off my current car loan and get a different car by September so that leaves me about 3.5 months to at least get into the 600's What are your suggestions I do to get into the 600's in 3 months? Update: today I applied for a secured credit card with capital one and got approved, i get the card in 10 days I paid off 2 accounts that were in collections and they agreed to remove the accounts from my credit report. what else can I do to increase my cs?? thanks.
would a secure credit card help me get a few points in 3 months? or would it just hurt my score since its an inquiry?
Assuming the CA's are telling the truth about your PFD's, you should see scores north of 600 as soon as they delete. Paying off the installment loan you have now won't benefit your score. Use that money instead to lower your utilization on your revolving credit to 1%. Between the new secured card you have and the existing, no collection accounts, and no lates (you did not mention any with existing card), your scores should continue to climb steadily with on-time and low utilization on your cards and by September be able to qualify for an auto loan that doesn't have an interest rate in the double digits. Good luck.
You can also get your utilization down which should help as Mindcrime stated. If possible under 10%. Down to zero would be even better. I hope you got it in writing that the CA's would delete BEFORE you paid. Good luck.
Leave your revolving utilization reporting at 1%. This is best. Not 0%. Zero actually factors in worse than if over 20% was reporting. Gotta love FICO.
