tex_phil

I figure you guys would have alot more experience than me on this. For the past 2 years I've been trying to increase my credit rating as high as I can. Currently I have 5 credit cars which I had opened about a year ago, I have paid them off completely at least once then had a balance so I could pay every month. Is this the best way to build credit fast? I'm 20 years old so may not have the most amount of credit as some of you guys. I paid off 3 of the cars this week and want to leave the other 2 open to pay monthly. What tips would you guys recommend for increasing this? I have never missed any payments on anything except a cell phone bill. I tried calling Discover to increase a credit line on a card with 0 balance and they said they couldn't even after being with them a year, I was a little confused about this.

bimmerlust

I highly recommend going to bankrate.com and reading all of the material there before making any decisions. The way the FICO score is calculated is way more byzantine than I would ever have imagined! Also, go to Equifax.com and pull your FICO score only for $15.95. It will tell you your score and why it is where it is. Just fyi, I don't know if you read my post about the IRS billing my taxes to my credit card on a separate thread, but that made my score drop 14 points! On 9/2 I pulled my score in anticipation of getting a loan for the 545 I just bought. On Friday I contacted my credit union about executing the loan and my score was down 14 points from the 9/2 score. The only thing different in that time frame was the fact that the $4000 had posted on to my credit card account thereby pushing it closer to its credit limit since I'm already carrying a balance on that card at 0% interest. Please read the website links below, but supposedly the biggest short term (meaning within a year) negative factors on your credit are receiving new credit, a late payment, and an increase in balances on existing credit lines.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt...t1.asp?caret=2c
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt...s1.asp?caret=3b

If you have recently applied for credit with an institution where you can actually TALK to somebody, have them go over your report with you. The credit union guy was WONDERFUL and told me three things I could do to get an immediate (within 30 days) boost to our scores so that we qualify for the lowest rate on this car.

You're very astute to be thinking about this now. Most people don't think about their credit scores until they want to buy something, and by then it's too late. In fact, credit scores impact our lives so profoundly that I think there should be a mandatory class in high school that kids have to take to learn about what and what not to do!
Good luck,
Brandy