Watch Your Score Grow
Step 5
Once you have at least 1 but hopefully 2 open credit accounts, the next step involves patience. Establishing or re-establishing good credit can seem like it takes forever, but if you were to check your score 3 months after opening your secured credit card(s), I bet you would be pleasantly surprised. Below, we have just a few last pieces of advice for you. Continue to follow them faithfully, and don't forget to be patient.
Details:
Just to recap, keep your balance at or below 10% of your credit limit.
Continue to pay your monthly payments, at the least, just pay the minimum due. You can always catch up next month if your balance is over 10%. Never miss a payment and never be late. Send those payments out 7-10 days early, check your online credit account (if applicable) to ensure they received your payment. In order to get accurate information on how the scoring system(s) work, we suggest reading our credit facts, which is a tab located at the top of every page. By going to our credit facts you will see a breakdown of how the fico score is configured, as well as ways to maximize your score. We also have details on other credit scoring systems there for you to read as well.
After continuing this for several months (at least 6-8) or even a year, you may be ready for an unsecured card. Use the internet to find what one fits your situation best or add us to your favorites and go to our credit cards sub-tab located under our credit guide. You should also go to myFICO.com and find out where you stand before you apply to anyone. You want to know where you stand for 2 reasons, 1 reason is to make sure you apply for credit that fits your credit criteria. You do not want to apply for something that requires excellent credit if you only have good credit. Don't risk the inquiries and denials. The second reason you want to check your credit before you apply is in case an error pops up. Taking care of that before you apply could be the difference between approved or denied.
CreditLibrary.org is an excellent way to find out what lenders are approving and denying. It's a database where you can input info about a lender when you apply for credit. You can input info on both approvals and denials. Even if you haven't applied for credit, you can browse by credit score or by creditor and look info up. Some people will post what credit report the lender pulled, and if you are savvy, you can use the information you find there to your advantage. There's also a whole other database for collection agencies. So please check it out and input info if applicable. As a partner site to CreditLibrary, we are able to place there "search database" here for you. Below you'll be able to search lenders and Collection agencies to find out what sort of deals they're making:
To search for info on Lenders:
To search for info on Collection Agencies:
To add info: Lender or Creditor Info and Collection Agency Info
We just started the concept of this site in July 2009, and we have lots more to add. We really just started, so come back and visit us. We are going to continue working at making this the one stop shop for all your credit needs.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to visit our site, and if you followed our step by step system, we hope you found it helpful. We will continue to work at making everything on this site as good as it can be and we are confident over time we will be able to make it much better than it is now. Be sure to continue looking through our site, especially our credit facts and credit info pages. As always, if you have a question comment or concern, contact us or leave us feedback.
Best wishes and scores from your friends at Creditmagic.net