Hello all, I found this site just a couple weeks ago, and have been increasingly "credit paranoid" for the past few months. I hope to be a part of this forum for quite a while, so here's a quick intro: I'm a 25yr old recent graduate from the U. at Buffalo with a degree in Information Systems. I currently work at M&T Bank, awaiting my "real" job. I plan on getting married in the summer of '03 and if all goes well, would like to get a MTG for a condo/townhouse at that point as well. I drive a 13yr old Honda Accord and am also ready to get a new car right after winter. I subscribed to equifax's Credit Watch service three weeks ago learned my FICO score was 680 at that time due mostly to credit inquiries (6 in the past 12 months) and percentage of usage ($8000 in balances with $18000 in credit) as well as age credit history (7 years). I'm anal about paying bills on time, so I have never had any bad marks on my credit report, except for one from MBNA which was bogus and I had corrected. It still has "CONSUMER DISPUTE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION" listed underneath it though, which irritates me. I have a total of 24 credit/loan accounts listed, the majority of which are closed out as per my request. I did this last year in an attempt to up my credit rating, before I realized that those actions were very possibly detrimental to my score (upping my percentage of usage). I've pulled my report every day since since I recently paid off $1500 and dropped $6500 into a 0% until 6/03 Citibank CC. Just a few minutes ago I pulled my report and was pleasantly surprised with a 709 score! But looking more closely at my report, it shows a total balance of around $1400. Questions, if someone has some time: * Is my elevated score because of a timing issue with my BT? Is there some way I can take advantage of this (temporary?) score hike to make my score higher once the real balance is revealed? * The number of hard inquiries on my report bugs me. I applied for overdraft protection on my checking account at the bank I work at and was thoroughly smacked down. The reasons - Length of time at current employer and outstanding balance, which at the time was around $21K. Don't ask, long story. I tried to apply for the account a couple other times after personally speaking to the underwriters at the bank and was still denied, hence the 6 inquiries. Now, I had heard that there was a trick wherein hard inquiries could "fall off" if there were a large number of soft inquiries. Can anyone confirm this? I've already pumped out a good 20 soft inquiries over the past 3 weeks. Can I realistically push those hard inquiries off if I continue checking my score daily for a few months? Lastly, any general bits of advice regarding my new car/condo situation would be accepted and very much appreciated. Thanks for listening, - John
Welcome aboard John! We love IT folk around here, almost like we breed them Looking forward to have you around for a while. Could be, looks like it. Many folks here carefully time their BT's with reporting dates of the card(s) that get their balance paid down/off, and create a temporary "lift" in score. Then you do the application thing. If you watch your reporting dates and scores with a monitoring service like CreditWatch, you can glean this information quickly after a couple months. I would not "rely" on such tricks...but I have heard them happen...search for "bumpage". Your best bet would be to contact the bank and inform them that having 6 inquiries from your attempts at overdraft protection is ludicrous. Have them remove 4 of them and call it an application/denial and reconsideration...tell them you did apply but their system went haywire and nailed you for 6 inquiries. They may say something like "they are a matter of fact" then just tell them their system put them on your report, and your resultant score is suffering. You are still a customer of the bank??? Keep a positive balance...they want you for a customer ... they should do it. That way there is no "trick". Only buy what you can afford...don't ruin your perfect payment history. Hondas last more than 13 years . Condo...hmmmm watch out for the tenants association. Good to have you around, John. -Peace, Dave
Welcome to the board! Yep, have at it. Once a day for a while will do it. Get busy, they're trying to fix it, hehe. What card accounts do you have open? Maybe there are some tricks here to get them to increase your current LOC without an inquiry. Your scores aren't bad. The BT is in limbo, that's why your score shot up. It will come back down when the BT hits your report. Forget more accounts with your employer - if they won't give an employee an overdraft account they aren't worth the time of day. Others will chime in, there are lots of things you can do with no derogatory info on your report.
