This is such a Great Board! I am trying to plan out how my husband and I can improve our credit scores, hopefully into the 700 Club. We both had a period ages 20-24 where we were not very responsible. We are now 27 & 28 and finally adults. He has 7-8 derogatories, one 3 yrs old, the others 5+, 2 with balances of about $150 each. I have 6 derogatories, all 4+ years old, no balances. Most should be gone by the end of 2005. In November 02, my scores were TU: 611, Eq: 652, Exp: 633. Husband's were similar. In December we bought a house, 6% loan for $148K. (For this my husband's credit was marginally better, he led the application) In February, we bought a new car at 6.15%, 13k loan (For this, my Exp score was 641, better than his and I led the application). We will be getting one more car, I plan on paying cash in the 8-10K used car range. Basically, we don't "need" our credit scores for the next 4 or 5 years, at least, and I am willing to watch most of the derogs drop off. The issue is credit cards. We have just one each, both Capital One Platinum Mastercards with a paltry $500 limit each. We pay off each month, but we ususally have balance of about $300 - so we are using 60% of our limits. My current intention is to wind up with about 3 each, maybe having one of each of ours be shared. I would like them to be from "better" sources, like Citibank, Chase, etc. My husband is concerned with getting better limits. After our success with mortgage and car, I was feeling optimistic. This month, we each separately tried applying for another card and we were rejected. (Him: Chase, Me: Relatively local bank I have had accounts with for 3+ years). We rechecked our FICOs: him 660, me down to 627. (I am thinking relatively recent ramp-up of credit / inquiries, and percentage of credit used.) My question is, how high should our scores be to be worth applying again (and accepted) for major cards? Because the length of credit history is so important, I would like to get cards we would then keep for a long, long time. (Basically, we're getting settled.) So I figure, the sooner the better. I am looking for suggestions as to a timeline for applying for and successfully getting a couple more cards, as well as suggestions for cards where we would eventually wind up with higher limits. I am also willing to go the secured card route, if I can get one with a "good" bank that will eventually upgrade me. (somebody had a thread with a BofA card, I believe.) But I really want to know how good credit scores need to be to get, for example a standard card from Chase or Citibank. One other thing I wasn't sure about. For a married couple, when you apply for credit, do you use just your income, or can you use the total household income? We've been using our individual ones up till now, but if we can use combined it would probably look better. Thanks for your help & suggestions, deb
In my opinion, you want to make sure that your utilization (balance to available credit) on both your entire credit report and revolving cc's are less than 50%. If any revolving account is over 50%, then this is a cue to the creditor for an automatic decline "utilization of balance to credit line". Also, many people on CN say that 650 is considered "prime" to be approved, while others say "700". So, definately, if youre under 650, I would wait. However, there are people that get approved under 650, but many times are denied. FYI, if your capital one account has a limit of 1000 and your current balance is 300 and your high credit is 330, then you utilization is 90.9% (300 divided by 330). Crap One feels that a credit limit being reported is not important, so FICO looks at the balance to high credit, so make sure that your balances on Crap One are 50% lower than your high credit balance. Does this make sense?
Or charge something for $650 run the balance of $950 for a month and return the item for a credit to the card. Then your high credit will show closer to your limit.
