Hi all, In an effort to boost my credit score as much as possible this month, before I apply for a mortgage, are there any credit cards that report to all 3 agencies or do most do that by default? I searched Yahoo and tried the search on this board ith no results. I would imagine this would be a common issue that someone would know about. Also I have things like a Cell Phone, Time Warner Cable etc. that I pay, are those items usually listed on a Credit report?, because I dont see them on my credit report and I am trying to build as much of a credit history as possible. I have nearly nothing on the report since I havent had any credit cards for a few years and my credit report only shows a few bad accounts listed as Paid-Off even though I know they were delinquent at some point. Now i'm stuck trying to improve my score from low 600's to 700's. Am I going about this the right way? From what I can tell, are the only credit cards for people with fair credit the First Premiere and Orchard Cards? Are there any others with fewer upfront charges? They seem to get you on program acceptance and participation type fees. Going to yahoo and credit card websites for fair credit seem to only point to those two for unsecured cards. Thanks for any advice, Andrew
I figured out that you actually have to get a photo copy of your most recent cable bill, credit card statement, etc. and mail it to all three credit bureaus with a cover letter stating that "the attached account is not being reported at present on my credit report" or something to that effect. DON"T do this if you plan on being late once in a while on these bills... This will take about a month to appear and keep checking all three. Make sure they've got your address right, name spelled right etc. otherwise it will take longer. TRANS UNION is the WORST in my opinion for keep up to date, straight records. I would apply for one or two sub-prime or "fair" credit cards, use them responsbily and then wait until you're beginning to get pre-approved credit card offers in the mail again. If you're not recieving any of these, even from banks like Providian, you probably won't get approved online.
Most credit cards report to all three bureaus although it may take a few months. I doubt that the CRAs will add utilities based on copies of bills you send them. They normally report only what is sent to them by subscribers.
