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Pay your bills
I agree with everything you have said except for your first suggestion, unless you are making a distinction between paying off the ENTIRE CC balance less $1 at the time the monthly payment is due versus paying off the STATEMENT balance less $1. It is my understanding that if you do not pay at least the statement balance amount IN FULL, you will be charged interest on the entire statement balance. So underpaying the statement balance by $1 would not be in anyone's best interest (even if it raised your CS slightly) in my opinion. In my experience, I have always just payed the statement balance in full every month, and currently have a credit score of 825. It doesn't really get much better than that!
Even in my earlier years I had A LOT of credit cards (your point #4), but I didn't use most of them regularly (your point #6), some had a high CL but a low or no balance (your point #2), and I would go through them occasionally and close all the oldest CCs that I was no longer using (your point #4). But even then, my credit score was in the high 700s. I have never had a problem obtaining credit for financing anything, and I was always offered the best interest rates available. In my opinion, just ALWAYS paying your bills on time and never missing a payment is the best way to ensure a great and long-standing credit history. It has worked for me!
And by the way, if you do miss a payment unknowingly once in awhile and end up with a late fee and/or interest charge on your next bill, almost all creditors will allow you grace ONE TIME if you call them and explain the situation (i.e. I never received the bill because it got lost in the mail), and ask to have the charges and fees removed.
I love autopay and use it to pay almost all my bills now, but if you are a person living paycheck to paycheck I would not recommend it unless you also have an overdraft line of credit (ODLOC) linked to your checking account. I did this for many years and it saved me from paying large overdraft fees or having a check bounce because a bill came due before I got paid and there wasn't enough money in my account. An ODLOC linked to your checking account will transfer funds to cover any shortage and allow the bill or bills to be paid without incurring any penalty. Then when you do get paid, just pay off the balance on your ODLOC so you won't incur much in interest charges. If you have a bad month financially you can even wait until the monthly payment is due on the ODLOC and either pay it off in full then or carry some of it over into the next month or two until you can get back on your feet financially. Just make sure to avoid carrying over a balance long term or you run the risk of not being able to pay it off and defeating the purpose for which you obtained the ODLOC in the first place.
thank you i needed help and you provided it !
trying to raise my cs. im 63 and dont have any credit. capitol one approved me so its a start.
is one credit card enough to start?
Hi! Just 2 or 3 years ago, my credit scores were all about 520, if I remember correctly. Now, all of my scores are 700+.
Just from my experience, here's what I did.
First thing's first, pay your bills. That's obvious. If you can't afford something, don't even consider it.
The first thing I did to start increasing my score was I went to Aaron's and got a laptop. You overpay for anything you get like that, but my score went up 30 points once I paid off the computer.
Then, I got credit cards. 2 of them. The trick I learned is to NOT USE THEM. lol Or at least use them minimally. What I do is I have one of my small monthly payments set up on both cards. One card is connected to my Netflix bill, and the other is connected to my Six Flags membership bill. Less than $20 on each. I have them both set up on autopay. After that, I just completely ignore them. I don't use them for ANYTHING else. And my credit score has just been going up, up, up. One of them is at 720. The trick to that is you don't want to put a lot on your credit card. That actually lowers your credit.
That's all I've done, besides signing up for Collection Shield 360. (Google it, I'm not sure if I can post outside links here.) They help get rid of negative accounts on your credit for free. They got rid of medical bills on my report.
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