My fiancee has good credit, 729 with no negatives but wants to get it higher. I think her biggest issues are, 6 inquiries on the report right now, and low average account length / longest account. We opened several new credit cards this year, but we're hoping to buy a house a year from now and want to get it up. We might close a few to get the average age up. She says she had a joint account with her father when she graduated high school, and then when she graduated college it was changed to just her account. The account only shows as 4.5 years old, and is missing the first 4 years. Can we dispute this with the CRA or try to talk CapOne into updating it?
Why? I can't imagine raising that score is going to make a difference in her ability to get financing, or even in the interest rate offered. Anything over 720 is gravy. Edited to add: OK, I checked the "what rates can I get" thingie at MyFico. If she gets it up to 760 she'll save about two-tenths of a point on a mortgage.
I may be wrong, but I don't think closing an account will increase the average age. The closed accounts will still show on your report, and will still be included in the average age calculation. How's your utilization? For most people, paying down balances to less than 10% will generate the largest score increase. Once those new credit cards have their one-year anniversary, she should also see an increase.
from her myfico scorereport 7 accounts 2 w/ balances 3 opened in the last year 6 recent inquiries Just opened two rewards cards with Amex(a blue for joint purchases, and a sheraton card to get some bonus points to try and use on our honeymoon, haven't shown up yet) No balances carry over on credit cards, myfico scorerport shows a 0% ratio of revolving balances, might not be exactly accurate but she is well under 10% citi 2 aadvantage cards, opened in 12/2007 1 original card opened in 03/04(originally opened as joint account in 2000) discover card opened in 11/06 us bank 1 LOC opened in 04/06 1 loan started on 11/06, does not show as closed(car was totaled and loan paid off in 09/07) 1 loan started 09/07, ~@3k remaining 6 inquiries 2 in 12/07 for the citicards 4 in 09/07 for local dealership, cap1 auto, roadloans, e-loans for car loan quotes Her score report shows her pluses as - no missed payments, low credit usage, and recent credit card use. her negatives as - new accounts, short revolving history(shows average age as 1 year), and short account history(oldest is reporting as 4years 4 months)
Don't close any accounts out, that will certainly not help. If the US Bank loan is not showing closed, paid, you should dispute that to reflect it's proper status.
thanks, still looking for more suggestions regarding things we can proactively change. The balance on the open loan is $0. should we dispute directly with CRA or the OC since she is in good standing everywhere. Any yes, the ultimate goal is to get her above 760. We're really working on getting my credit up from 661 but she decided while I was at it that she wanted to try to improve hers as well, every bit helps when it comes time for our first mortgage. would asking for credit limit increases help any? or combining the two citi accounts so that she only has one that is a year old? I may be off base but I keep focusing on no old accounts(can't really change) and low average(which maybe I can). Thanks again guys.
Are all the credit cards reporting $0 balances? Try charging very small amounts on half the cards... less than 5% of the credit limit. Some folks on MyFico have reported score increases by doing that. The scoring model seems to discount cards that are never used. And when those Advantage cards have their birthday, the score will go up. Credit limit increases probably won't help, since utilization is already at 0%.
The two citi aadvantage accounts both have annual fees and shehadn't planned on holding onto them, should we pay up to keep them or cancel? We were playing the award bonus game to get airmiles to fly on our honeymoon and she was going to close one of them and hang onto the other. I think alternately we could have them converted to no fee cards, but she'd planned on just closing them. Of the two Amex's she just signed up for, the Amex Starwood preferred guest card is the same situation. Wanted to signup bonus but don't want to keep and pay a fee on. Should we hold on to these until after our mortgage is settled? Will it be a permanant PITA if we close them now - i.e. will they always show as just .5 or 1 year old and pull down her average age?
No, the age of an account is the time between the date it was opened and now. So even a closed account will continue to get older.
