$47.85 for my credit score!!! I didn't know it cost that much.
Is this something I should check before I get Pre-Qualified?????
No, what you should do is get your free annual credit report from each of the bureaus and make sure the information in them is correct. Your FICO will take care of itself from there.
Is this pretty good? Can I raise it higher in the next few months?
I have a loan with my bank that will be paid off in 2 weeks & my two credit card balances will be paid in full by the end of the year. After that all I have is a small mortgage (rental property) but I will be selling it soon too. I will have no other debt after that until I purchase my first house.
These are good scores, great in my book. Keep doing what you are doing with your payments and once they are all paid down/off the scores will increase. Your plan is a solid one if you are buying a house. Just make sure once the balances are paid in full they reflect on your credit report. That may take about a month after. You could probably expect to add between 10-15 pts to all of your scores once all is paid off.
I found a old credit report that I did on 2/20/08. I have a total of 14 credit cards on the report. (WOW) 3 of them are closed & only 2 have a balance that will be paid off by the end of the year. The rest have a zero balance. Should I close some of them or just keep them open. I don't even have the cards for most of them.
I wouldn't close anything until you buy your house and are done with people worrying about your credit score. You will lose points when you start closing accounts. You need all the points right now to look like a shining star to the lenders.
Once you have your house and are settled then you can clean up all unused accounts and rely on 2 maybe 3 main cards with high limits.
Closing credit card accounts hurts your score. You can cut up the cards and not use them, but do not close the accounts.
In essence, you are reducing the amount of credit in which creditors have approved for you. Closing them reduces those amounts and thus hurts your score some.
They are very right, do not close paid off accounts. This will lower your score a lot. You are ending a credit history along with closing it. I use one credit card a month, pay the balance off and change credit cards each month, this keeps them all active.
Go to all your credit card companies and ask them to lower your credit rate, then ask them to double your allowed amount. I dont use it but it helped my credit score. I borrow my own money for paying my property taxes each year and pay it off with in a few months, most of the money goes back into my account, this built my credit up fast too. Loans paid off in a short time, helps plus I had lower monthly house payments. I always ask for a 2 year loan. Always pay more than MIN payment on your credit cards, even if its just $5.00.
The Little things you do, do matter.
Hey Mike, the reason that it's wise to keep all of your accounts open, even if not active, is because the credit reporting agencies base a fairly large percentage of your credit score on the ratio of your revolving debt vs your available credit. What will typically get you the best score, based on my research, is having a 10% used credit to available credit ratio. Ideally spread out amongst all of your cards. Hope it helps!
Along with your debt to credit ratio, you want to look at your report diversification... you want to keep a mortgage, several revolving accounts, and at least one installment loan.. (like an auto loan) But to minimize the "cost" of your credit you can call the ceditors and request they lower your APR. If you have been a good customer, more than likely they will... Most times they take it to 0% for 6 months or more.. good luck.
Dustin
Another thing to keep in mind about accounts you don't use - the lender will close the account for inactivity. I've had Citi close three credit cards because I haven't used them in a few years. My credit score took a tiny hit because of this.