May
23
how do I improve my credit score quickly?
Posted ByMy credit score is far worse than I thought, and is dropping by the minute. I have a lot of debt, and little to no time to pay it off. I HAVE to buy my house in June and basically have to raise my credit score 75 points before then. I don’t have the credit for and loans, or credit cards. I plan on getting a pre-paid credit card through my bank in the next week, but it’s just not enough. I need a lot of help, and a lot more advice.
9 Comments
May 23rd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Dunno
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:05 pm
There is no way that I know of to raise your score that much in a couple months.
The only way to raise your score is to pay all bills on time; reduce your debt; and even then, it will probably be a year or more before you see your score go up that much.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Are you working with a bank or a mortgage adviser ? If you are ask them for ideas. If you had more time some banks have a program where you borrow money and take that money and invest it in a CD. The bank retains the CD as collateral on the load. Once its paid off you have the CD and the positive credit to go along with it. Household bank also has a few credit card offers for people with less than perfect credit. Credit one is another company.
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
A few months is a short period of time… contact your creditors and try to arrange payments… most would probably be willing to work with you if you aren’t arrogant and just present your case. Which bureau did you get your score through? You’ll need your score from all 3 bureaus, but you’d need enough time to correct any errors in your credit report.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 pm
If you have so much debt why are you even buying a house which will only increase your debt load. Why is this buying the house so urgent? You need to work on repairing your credit, a prepaid credit card will take about two years to reflect positively on your credit file. I am sorry, the only solution you really have is to put the house on hold for now, work on improving your credit score. You may have to take a second job to pay off your debt sooner, you are going to have to make some serious sacrifices to achieve your goal but it isn’t an impossible feat.
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 pm
That’s what I do for a living. OF course make all your payments on time, you can’t afford any lates.
See if you can get a friend or relative with good credit to do you a favor. Have them put you as an authorized user to any credit account they have that has been in good standing for several years and has a low balance or better yet a zero balance in comparison to the credit limit. You do not need to qualify for this and the great thing is that the credit history will be reported on your credit report as though it is your own. That alone may drive your score up 75 points. You can tell your friend they can unauthorize you once your home loan is closed if they are worried about your access to that account.
Don’t bother with the prepaid card because opening a new account costs you points and you don’t have time to make up for it with positive history. You need at least 6 months of history with a new account.
Good luck
May 23rd, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I have heard of a simple trick: try to get your credit limit raised. Then, and this is important, do not increase your spending. If you are maxing out your limit every month, this reflects badly on you.
I think the best thing to do is talk to a loan officer at your bank. better yet, talk to as many as you can because there’s always the chance that you get some scumbag who’ll give you bad advice (not to talk bad about loan people; the chance of getting bad advice is there in any field).
And then of course get another job, cut your spending, and start paying everything off. If you can’t get a good enough deal on a home loan by June, just get the best deal you can find, and look into refinancing when your credit improves.
Good luck.
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Credit repair does not require the assistance of a service. You can take a number of steps to help repair your own credit.
Although there are numerous credit repair companies offering their services for a fee, savvy individuals can do their own credit repair with a few simple steps. The advertisements placed by credit repair services touting their experience, qualified personnel and other qualifications can make the process seem daunting but it is really quite simple.
The basic steps for do-it-yourself credit repair include:
Request a credit report from all of the three credit reporting agencies
Carefully review all of the information on the credit reports
Dispute any mistakes on your credit report and document every step of the dispute process
Devise a debt reduction strategy
Establish good credit strategies now and carry them into the future
The first step of do-it-yourself credit repair is to request a copy of your credit report from Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. These are the three major credit reporting agencies and individuals are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of these agencies. Requesting a report from each of the three agencies is important especially if you believe there may be a mistake on one of the reports. The information on all three reports will be similar but mistakes may only appear on one of the records.
Once the credit reports are acquired it is time to review all of the information carefully. Each item on the report should be examined and discrepancies should be noted. In reviewing this information, highlight anything that seems suspect and review your documentation to verify the validity of the item.
After compiling a list of mistakes, it is time to officially dispute any inaccuracies on the credit report. The dispute processes will most likely involve filling out a dispute form or writing a letter detailing the alleged mistake. In both cases documentation supporting the validity of the dispute will be required. For specific information on how to officially file a dispute, contact the credit reporting agency directly. Once the dispute process begins, document every aspect of the process. This is important because dispute resolution is a time sensitive process with specific guidelines for how quickly a dispute must be resolved. The agency may be required to remove a disputed item from a credit report if they do not respond in a timely fashion.
When a negative credit report is a result of a poor credit history and not mistakes, only time will properly repair the credit. The long term credit repair strategy for financial errors in judgment includes devising a debt reduction strategy which will demonstrate diligence and establishing sound credit strategies which will be viewed favorably in the future. Credit reporting agencies do not hold grudges. Credit lapses are removed from credit reports after set periods of time and a history of good credit is rewarded with a solid credit score.
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:52 pm
i have the perfect thing to help you. first let me explain something. the company that you are buying your house with and does the credit check do they use vantage or fico. Vantage and fico are the credit score systems. fico was 300-880 and vantage a new and improved system is 501-990. so you first have to find out what they use to see how much you have to raise your score. if they use fico and your score is lets say 720 your pretty good and dont have to have a lot of work. but it they use vantage and it is 720 your now considered a risk because a 720is a d. my husbands company specialize in helping you build your credit legally under the fira. but if you want additional info on it feel free to email me.