Read an article last week highlighting last week highlighting http://instantcreditbuilders.com/ Their method to boost credit scores is to add customers as Authorized Users to high-limit/seasoned credit lines. Looking at $2k-$5k for the program. Reason I ask is that I paid off my debt but have a fair-weak credit score. Looking for something that won’t take 7years, as I might be taking the REI plunge this year. Would like to be able to start with at least a 700 credit score. Thanks all!
Seasoned credit lines have been discussed at length (beaten to death), do a search using the search button at top. Just search for the word “seasoned” and you should find enough to read to keep you busy for a while.
If you’re going to do this, better do it quick, Fair Isaac is stopping this practice in September.
Read the article at:
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103102/credit-rating-standard-tightens
Also if you paid off your debt, it won’t take 7 years, probably just a couple of months for your score to get better. I’d just save your money and use it for your down payment.
Thanks for the link Henry, was wondering how long it would take for them to get rid of that loophole.
Ps- Anyone that owns stock in that company should probably SELL NOW.
Oh, the other thing is that you probably don’t have much time at all to do this. Might be too late actually depending on how it takes for the new score to register.
Banks usually pull credit just before you close to make sure you still qualify. Actually had a buyer for a property where the first buyer went out and bought a truck before closing and then got turned down for the mortgage which is why it was back on the market. So if Fair Isaac kills this in September, if you’re closing then, your credit would go back to what it was. Either the higher rate or no mortgage.
the loophole to the loophole is to just be added as a joint user, instead of an authorized user. Same benefit…but also a new risk, as you are now liable for the debt, too. This should bring the cost down to do this with the companies, as the person signing up for this program is potentially taking on risk.
I don’t know if this will help, but it opened my eyes to a few things. I used the Score watch on www.equifax.com site. It shows you your score, and allows you to do some modeling so that you can see what will have the greatest affect on improving your score.
I am actually glad I did this because I was going to sell my season tickets to pay off my debt, now I know I don’t need to do that. I can keep my tickets and pay of my debt in a year and get the same result as paying everything off now.
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Thanks everyone…Funny thing is I have plenty of money to invest, but after settling all my debts, I don’t have very many seasoned credit lines. Need to start opening up some new accounts.
Opening new accounts will cause your score to take a hit. If you currently have credit lines, just leave them open. Your score will rise each month if you are current with payments.
Another option to help your score is to request an increase in credit limit with your current cards. Make sure that increase won’t require a credit pull. Some cards do, some don’t.
You don’t need good credit score to invest. I only used my credit to purchase my own home, all others I bought without qualifying for a loan. Find an investment strategy that works best for you and go from there.
You don’t need a good score, but it certainly helps. Having a high score means you’ll get a good interest rate, but above a certain level, say 740, it doesn’t really help anymore. Actually you could probably still get a good rate even with a 620, but that would probably require a 20%-25% downpayment.