What's your FICO Score? And what are YOUR TIPS

[prwraith]

Yeah, unfortunately credit is a symbol of trust, and a lot more organizations are using it as a proxy for general responsibility.
Best way for someone who hates credit to build theirs up is to get a credit card (pref: without any fees) set it to pay the balance every month and then only use it for groceries and gas (at least every few months. Enough activity to keep the account open). That way they're not running up any debt, but still building a good credit history.

That's basically what I ended up doing, I just dislike this being the barometer of trust but I can't change the world I guess haha

[Themius]

Pay for everything in credit... keep utilization below 20% (I prefer 20% and under).

I pay off previous balance every month.

I love using credit cards. 2% cash back on everything 5% cash back in rotating categories with my two 5% cash back cards. Actually 10% in categories for the first year with Discover.

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That's basically what I ended up doing, I just dislike this being the barometer of trust but I can't change the world I guess haha

Credit is a good barometer of trust. People who have high credit and use lots of credit and don't really pay it back are also terribly people to loan money to.


If I have to loan money to someone I'll ask to see their credit karma lol.

[Felthorn]

820 here.

I'll echo the great advice so far:

1) Do not close your oldest accounts!

2) Always, always make payments on-time. (Note: There is a small grace period where they don't report late payments. Don't use this if you can help it, but definitely DON'T go beyond!)

3) Find a rewards credit card that fits your lifestyle and use it for everything. Pay it off fully at the end of the month. (Bonus: Find out if your oldest credit account can be "converted" into a new rewards card type that you want. Example: If your oldest account is an Amex Blue, but want a gold/platinum card...call them and ask to convert that account from blue to whatever. This can be done if your credit is good enough to qualify for the other card. This preserves your oldest account and gets you the product you want.

4) Call the credit cards you do have and ask for a limit increase. Why? That makes your debt-to-income ratio better! If you only ever carry around $500 on your cards (note: even if you pay off every month, a balance will usually show up on a credit check (whenever they pull it) and your limit is 10k across all cards, your DTI (for cards only, they also add in car loans, student loans, etc.) is 5%. If you get your limits raised to, say 20k...then your DTI drops to 2.5% I've never closed cards unless I had to, and their limits are all pretty High...last time I checked I had about $120k total credit limit between the 4 cards I have right now. So even if I get "caught" with 2-5k balance on my main card (I travel a lot for business and there are lags in the reimbursement cycle) my DTI is never more than 3-4%

5) If you're young and just starting out, ask your parents to put a small utility bill in your name (like the water bill, or trash bill): Paying utility bills on time every month is a great way to get started.

6) Know that every credit card application, mortgage application and other requests for credit create a 'hard' credit check on your report. These lower your score a bit for a while (7 months? a year?)

That's about all I can think of. Best of luck!

~F

[ItachiZaku]

My advice is to re-do your poll.

Yep, I'm in the 700+ category, but not over 800. soooo, no option for me.

[ghotihook]

803. All I do is just automatic pay all my bills. I own a house and I have 1 credit card. I actually pay cash for almost everything and only use my credit card for gas and when I don't have enough cash on me.

[ItachiZaku]

Some cards give nice bonus points for say buying gas. I have one card that always gives 5x points for gas and occasionally grocery shopping, but the grocery bit is sometimes iffy. I haven't always gotten credit, but I do use it for gas. It basically means every other month is a free tank of gas ($60ish value). That's big time winning. My others aren't quite as fruitful, but do send me emails and shit about what the big bonus is for the week or month. Take advantage of those.

[Felthorn]

Some cards give nice bonus points for say buying gas. I have one card that always gives 5x points for gas and occasionally grocery shopping, but the grocery bit is sometimes iffy. I haven't always gotten credit, but I do use it for gas. It basically means every other month is a free tank of gas ($60ish value). That's big time winning. My others aren't quite as fruitful, but do send me emails and shit about what the big bonus is for the week or month. Take advantage of those.

Honeymooned in Hawaii for 2 weeks- first class, non-stop flight from Atlanta & an executive suite on a cruise line for 1 week all on points. (Chase Sapphire). Points are freaking awesome!

[ItachiZaku]

Honeymooned in Hawaii for 2 weeks- first class, non-stop flight from Atlanta & an executive suite on a cruise line for 1 week all on points. (Chase Sapphire). Points are freaking awesome!

Chase Sapphire is the best god damn fucking points card I've ever used. lol

Grats on the marriage and honeymoon! I think Hawaii and I think Mila Kunis.

[prwraith]

Credit is a good barometer of trust. People who have high credit and use lots of credit and don't really pay it back are also terribly people to loan money to.


If I have to loan money to someone I'll ask to see their credit karma lol.

In all my forays into credit I've heard that credit karma artifically inflates your scores that you may in fact be a bit lower than it shows. Keep hearing annual credit report is the only way to go.

[haxartus]

I just don't get how buying stuff with money that is not yours is showing that you are "trustworthy".
If I was trustworthy, I'd have a good financial discipline and I wouldn't need to borrow money constantly.

[Vizardlorde]

In the past two days Mall Security has asked for people's real names and now FICO scores. Inb4 this guy asks for your SSNs too.

Nah hes is just picking targets for when trump makes voter info public.

[Gamer8585]

A credit score isn't purely about taking out loans, as others here have already stated. For one thing, unless you are independently wealthy or dependent on someone else, it is damn near impossible to survive without using credit in it's many forms. Even getting post-paid cell service extended to you requires and reports on your credit. Think of it more as a report card on your financial dealings as a whole than just whether you borrowed money successfully and you'll better understand.

Even without all of the above in consideration, the loan industry has to have some form of background checking process such as a FICO score to exist in it's grandest form. The things people don't like about having their history checked are the very things that enable them to go take out a massive real estate loan to buy their dream home and etc. Without the credit report, you wouldn't have the lending on the scale that it exists and people would just have to save their money and buy only what they can afford. To the righteous this might sound like a better system, but to the realistic you'd know you would just have a LOT more disgruntled lower-middle class people with shitty standards of living.

The whole idea behind personal credit for most people is to live a better life now predicated on the principle that they will at some point either make more money or lean out to pay down their debts. If you didn't/couldn't borrow or be trusted, you would just have to live with your parents or in someone's garage until you were able to make a decent living. In order to be responsible you have to pay down these debts and meet these obligations AND increase your earning over a lifetime so that you can transition from borrowing to saving successfully in time to retire.

Just want to add that personal credit can also get a responsible person though leaner times. Such as: if they loose their job, get cut back in working hours, or need to take unpaid leave for medical emergencies.

Bad shit can happen to even the most responsible person and its good to have a safety net so you can continue to eat and pay your bills.

[Antiganon]

Just want to add that personal credit can also get a responsible person though leaner times. Such as: if they loose their job, get cut back in working hours, or need to take unpaid leave for medical emergencies.

Bad shit can happen to even the most responsible person and its good to have a safety net so you can continue to eat and pay your bills.

This, 100%.

I lost my job in 2008 and was unemployed for about two years, going to school full-time while looking for a full-time job. The safety net I had from my credit allowed me to live without being dependent on friends and family for handouts. Making consistent minimum payments against that debt while unemployed was (barely) possible via state unemployment. Continuing to make payments against that debt has boosted my credit score considerably without me even making a concerted effort to do so.

[kail]

Just going to add, keep an eye for debts. What I mean is that there may be some debts you do not recognize and looks fishy. I didn't realise until a year it started that someone used my identity to get a cable service. I knew for a fact I haven't used Dish ever yet they thought I owed them >$700 for service that was in a different location than mine.

[Themius]

In all my forays into credit I've heard that credit karma artifically inflates your scores that you may in fact be a bit lower than it shows. Keep hearing annual credit report is the only way to go.

Credit karma scores are poo but yy get to see inquires and debts.

[Witchblade77]

I said nothing about cash.

We use debit​ cards.

I'd love to use debit card, but it doesn't do anything about improving credit scores. that and my credit card gives me money back just to use it its not a lot, but enough to splurge on an extra dinner out once a month. (mainly becasue we use our credit only for things that we would have used debit - groceries, transportation, things like that)

but anyways, the way we upped our credit score before getting approved for mortgage was by getting a secure credit card first (one for me, one for SO), using it for one thing, usually subway pass, paying it of in full each month. after about 2 years of that - we were approved for non secured credit cards. canceled secure ones (cause it also had a yearly fee, but it served its purpose of getting our score high enough to get a better credit card), continued using unsecured cards the same way as above. paying your bills on time, while carrying some credit seems to be the simplest way to start. didn't say easiest. simplest.

as its been mentioned before, but bears repeating, in US of A at least your credit score is used for bloody damn everything. need to get utilities started? credit score (without one or with bad one, they require MASSIVE deposit) need to rent an apartment? credit score. get a new cell phone? credit score. car rental? you got it. everything depends on that damn number and report that comes with it, including in some cases - getting a job, as a lot jobs ALSO check your credit score. is it possible to live without? yes. yes it is. but it comes with many MANY limitations, unless you don't care for modern amenities.

[haxartus]

The whole idea behind personal credit for most people is to live a better life now predicated on the principle that they will at some point either make more money or lean out to pay down their debts. If you didn't/couldn't borrow or be trusted, you would just have to live with your parents or in someone's garage until you were able to make a decent living.

The problem is, as usual, people in the US thinking that their system is the only system that can exist, ever.

I got a loan from the bank to buy an apartment that had an equivalent cost of 10 years of my salary with literally no credit history whatsoever. Not only that but the credit is insured and if I lose my job the insurance provider will be paying it until I find a new job. How ? I live in Europe.

[Spectral]

Apparently 821 according to Equifax.

My credit tip is that if you're competent with keeping track of things, exploiting credit card bonuses to accumulate "free" travel is almost trivially easy. There's a bit of a learning curve to it, but some of the offers are fantastic. For example, AmEx's Delta cards offer 60K and 70K bonuses currently - that's enough to book a flight from middle America to London. So if you like travel at all, get an AmEx Delta Platinum, do your normal spending on it for a bit, and you'll have a "free" flight to London. There's no annual fee the first year, but the $195 yearly fee on renewal is easily worth it - it comes along with a companion flight anywhere in the US, which is worth quite a lot more than $195.

I think there aren't enough people taking advantage of these sorts of offers because of misperceptions that it will "ruin your credit" or other very old school ideas. If you're charging and paying things off immediately, there's a lot of nice perks available at little or no cost.

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I said nothing about cash.

We use debit​ cards.

Why? Even if you don't want to mess around with any kind of points or transfers or anything, just using Chase Freedom or another cash back card is essentially just a small discount on every single thing you buy.

[Aggrophobic]

If you don't have the money, don't buy stuff.
It's easy as that.

The US is a weird place.

[ghotihook]

If you don't have the money, don't buy stuff.
It's easy as that.

The US is a weird place.

I agree completely. That's now an old school way of thinking...most of my friends have car loans and make fun of me cause I drive a 2002 car. I always tell them how much I owe on my car (zero).
My theory besides my house, "If I cannot pay cash for it, I don't deserve it."