Credit Score Help!!!!!!!!!!!

[uhtechie]

Hiya, I'm new to this forum, so please excuse me if I didn't post this question in the right section, and if I did post in the wrong place, could someone direct me to the right place.

My questions are:

1. What is the best way to to significantly increase your credit scores with all three bureaus?

2. What is the best debit percentage ratio to make your credit score percentage to significantly increase? Someone told me 33%, is this true?

3. I have a lot of credit card and line of credit accounts (both personal & business), how can I use these to effectively increase my credit scores to reach my goal of getting a 800 credit score?

Here's a little background of what happened, and what I'm trying to do:
I was able to get my credit score up to 745 but my debit ratio was so high that the next month my score dropped to 610, I paid off all that debit and followed a friends advise to make all debit to 33%, I am now waiting to see what happens, but in the meantime, I thought I would seek some more advise.
My main goal is to reach a 800 credit score, can anyone help?

[jasaunders]

It's called debt, not debit.

Your FICO score consists of the following: payment history (35% of the rating); length of credit history (15%); new credit (10%); types of credit used (10%); and debt (30%).

The debt portion looks at your debt to credit ratio. The ideal ratio is 0%, but is also looks to see if there are recent transactions on your credit line and you are paying them in full or if you are just not using your credit line at all.

So the best thing to do that you actually have control over would be to reduce your debt to credit ratio.

[uhtechie]

I thought that was a bad thing to pay off all credit card debt (and "debt" was the spelling I was trying to use, I thought it looked wired, lol).... well at least for the credit cards. I currently paid off all my lines of credit but with all credit cards I paid down to 33%.

So if I follow your advice to pay them all off, once the credit scores rescore, what percentage should I charge back on each credit card and/or lines of credit to keep the continual increase of the score

[radreality]

balances under 50% of the credit limit are good; under 25% is great. Having a small balance on an account is better than no balance, because that way you have debt being reported monthly to the bureaus.

Also, you need to be careful where you are getting your info. There are two different types of credit scores. Retail and Wholesale. Your retail score is the one you personally can get, and its generally higher than your wholesale score. The wholesale score is the one that businesses get when you are applying for credit, getting a loan, getting a mortgage, etc. The wholesale score is generally lower because they take a closer look at the numbers on each of your accounts and do more calculations. Sounds kind of odd, why wouldn't they just have one score for you, who knows; there can sometimes be quite a big difference between the two numbers.

You also don't want to close accounts (common myth). If you need to for personal reasons (aren't able to be responsible) then that’s fine. But ironically it doesn't look good on your credit history when an account is closed, no matter what the reason is.

If your business accounts are true business accounts, they won't show up on your personal credit (unless you default on them). So you might want to look into transferring some debt around to get your personal accounts under 25% of limits. Unless you are an IRS expert, I would suggest you have an accountant or cpa (preferably an account though, they tend to be a little more creative, from my experience) help you document these transfers properly, so you don't get into trouble just in case you are audited.

______________________________
Robert Falk
Business Developer / Investor
Self Help & Success Forum

[uhtechie]

Your retail score is the one you personally can get, and its generally higher than your wholesale score. The wholesale score is the one that businesses get when you are applying for credit, getting a loan, getting a mortgage, etc. The wholesale score is generally lower because they take a closer look at the numbers on each of your accounts and do more calculations.

Is the wholesale score the same thing as your "FICO" score? If so, I've been trying to go by that. I was even thinking about signing up for this:ScoreWatch: http://www.myfico.com/Products/Score...scription.aspx

Is this a good service.

Also do you have a good suggestion to find a good accountant in my area? I have been looking for a CPA not a accountant, but now I will. I kinda thought they were the same thing. I have always conscience of my credit, but I never took it as serious as I am now.. So any more great suggestions would be appreciated

[radreality]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think FICO is just a term that is associated with your score in general. You personally can only order your retail credit score, whether its from the bureaus or from a third party, if you are getting it, its the retail score.

Have you ever heard a car dealership or some place that has pulled credit say that they are unable to give you that report? its because thats the wholesale report. If a business is pulling your credit to give you credit in one way or another, they have access to your wholesale score.

As far as I know, these services you can purchase from third party companies use your retail score, just because its easier to fix.

A cpa isn't bad. A cpa can do your taxes, an accountant can't. I hire both. It costs more, but if you can only afford one, and you want them to do your taxes also, then just go with a cpa. A lot of cpa's at small firms do both cpa work and accountant work. To find one, I would ask other business people you know in the area and see who they suggest.

______________________________
Robert Falk
Business Developer / Investor
Self Help & Success Forum

[uhtechie]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think FICO is just a term that is associated with your score in general. You personally can only order your retail credit score, whether its from the bureaus or from a third party, if you are getting it, its the retail score.

Do you think it is good to sign up to www.truecredit.com
Also do you think its best to get a mortgage company to pull my credit? Is that like a car dealership?

[radreality]

I personally wouldn't waste my time and money with any third party companies, but thats your choice. They have to find out your credit one way or another....does that count as strikes against your credit? I don't know.

Yes, a mortgage company would be the same as a car dealership. If you are actually applying for a mortgage, you need to be careful. A lot of mortgage companies represent a lot of lenders, and they send your info to each lender which then pulls your credit. Some mortgage companies will pull your credit once, and then give it to each lender, so you only have your credit pulled once. So make sure you ask before you do anything with them.

______________________________
Robert Falk
Business Developer / Investor
Self Help & Success Forum

[jasaunders]

If you haven't already, check your credit report free (forget the score). annualcreditreport.com

I try to request one from each credit bureau every 4 months, in fact I got my transunion one yesterday.

[ltressel]

The fact that you have a lot of open credit cards even though you don't owe any will also hurt your credit.

Creditors see this as a liability because you can also rack up a lot of debt. However, don't go rushing to close them either because that could also be a negative on your score.

Keep yourself from opening anymore lines of credit or credit cards. Your score will also improve if you have some inquiries in the past that are still there.

If you have inquired for a loan, a credit card, utility (cellphone, gas line, home phone), those linger for about 6 months. When they "fall off" your reports, you can get some positive points.

I hope this helps some too.