Rebuilding Revs Credit

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Very interesting. I have a card that has had a zero balance on it for a couple years locked away as you do. Very interesting indeed.

I just touched on this in another thread, but I want to add it here as I'm watching this thread.

I got added as a user on my mom's discover card she has had since 1995. This bright the average age of my accounts from 4 months to 10.5 years. This has also taken my credit limit con $500 on my secured card to $14,500.

That translates to 183 point rise from Experian and 155 point rise to Transunion.

In other words, I found a cheat code for credit scores.

What still confuses and annoys me about the whole credit report thing, is neither my cell phone, nor any utilities appear anywhere on it. I was always under the impression that they needed credit to sign up for, and they show up when sent to collections, they should be in the report when they're positive. But that's a whole other ball of wax.

Yeah, utilities, cell phones etc only report if there's a negative mark. Same goes for rent payments if the landlord can be bothered although there are changes afoot that should help to include them in the model as long as you rent from a big enough landlord.

And yes, you did find a cheat code but keep in mind it goes both ways (positive and negative).

I wonder, did your mom's credit score go down conversely?

Switch to a prepaid cell phone plan.
The cell companies will slam your credit report hard if you screw with them. Once you go to a prepaid option with the cell companies they can not put negative marks on your report.

I don't think so, but it will be interesting to find out. Her score is over 800 now, so I don't think it will have much affect. They just sent me a card for her account like my dad used to have. I'm curious if her usage will affect my score, as she just uses it for prescriptions and pays it off every month. My card is locked in the gun safe until I start driving to rally cross or come to the challenge, so I definitely have a way to pay for roadside emergencies.

Cell phone is the one thing I've been good at. I've been with sprint....8 years now, never a shutoff or disconnect, a few late payments but not late enough to be shut off. Electricity too, and that's why it bugs me, the only consistently good payments I've made for years don't seem to count for anything.

Just follow your moms lead and pay off the card each month period. This will help to keep you in check on spending as well if you know that it will be payed off every month.

As far as I've seen about the only thing credit reports care about are late charges and and credit checks by companies or individuals. This is the messed up part. They count how many inquiries for your credit as negative against your score. More inquiries lower score.

So it's been a year now, I might as well bring this up to speed.

Current Scores are 755 Transunion and 788 Equifax. A total jump of 118 and 149 respectively, which has been stable since I was added as a user to my moms Discover.

I still have the secured card, still with a $500 limit. I haven't really needed to raise it, and have continued my monthly payments. If I want to upgrade, I can reapply, and get a regular card, but I don't see a need at this point in time.

My moms credit did not change when she added me as a user. 820 something. Getting the loan for the Hyundai dipped it to 805, but no changes from adding me. In full disclosure, that card has 20%APR, I only carry it for an emergency repair or tow AAA can't cover, and haven't even taken out of my wallet since I got it.

So there is hope for you if you made bad decisions in your younger years, or are in the process of making them now. Seriously, if my inattentive, impulsive, and sometimes straight up stupid ass can fix things, so can you.

yupididit wrote: I used this forum about 6 years ago to help me get some young mistakes off my credit from when I was 18 (27 now). Very imformative. I know those FICO scores tend to be 30-50 points below what the "free credit report" companies. My take on credit is, it makes no damn sense but you shouldnt try to make sense of it. Just play the game and use it to your advantage WHEN/IF you can.

I realized I never linked the forum or the link was deleted?

Myfico forum

Great work.

My uncle runs a moderate landlord operation (about 100 properties), and he's says this: credit score shows that a person cares. If you want an employer, landlord, bank, judge, whoever, to know that you care, then have a good credit score.

The system has it's faults but he's probably 99.8% right.

Does a Canoe help with credit?