Diana asked:


I am currently 25 years old with one major credit card that I have held for nearly 10 years. I carry a few store credit cards as well. I pay all of my credit card bills on time, in full, never carrying any outstanding balances on any cards. All car payments paid on time, no student loans left…I recently checked my credit score for mortgage purposes and it was mid 600s. I was also denied a major credit card application based on my current score. What can I do to improve my FICO score??
I am currently 25 years old with one major credit card that I have held for nearly 10 years. I carry a few store credit cards as well. I pay all of my credit card bills on time, in full, never carrying any outstanding balances on any cards. All car payments paid on time, no student loans left…I recently checked my credit score for mortgage purposes and it was mid 600s. I was also denied a major credit card application based on my current score. What can I do to improve my FICO score??

In reply to comments – score pulled by bank for mortgage purposes, showed scores from all 3 major agencies. Read through the credit report fully, no red flags. I can’t figure out what pushed it down unless perhaps I just haven’t built it up enough?
Also, no changes in my credit limit.

Herbert

Ben Xenoo asked:


Easy approval credit card applications with a bad credit score are still available. There is though good and bad news. Since the credit crunch there is no doubt that obtaining credit is no easy task. However where there is a demand there is always a supplier although this comes at a cost.

If you do have a poor credit score then there are ways to obtain credit. As you are in effect a bad risk you will have to pay a premium compared to those with a good credit score.

Easy approval credit cards for those with bad credit scores are designed so you can rebuild your credit score. In many cases these are secured credit cards, although in some cases unsecured cards are available. In general these types of cards have low credit levels (usually under $500) and additional fees. In time as long as you make payments on time the credit level is raised, usually stages over a couple of years. A word of warning though! If you struggle to make the monthly repayments with these types of card you will damage your credit score even further! Successfully meeting the payments over a couple of years will give your credit score a major boost and after this time you should be able to rebuild your credit score to a decent level.

Many with poor credit scores opt for loans from local money lenders. Although many of these lenders are regulated you will be paying vastly increased interest charges. A sensible approach is to rebuild your finances before even thinking about taking on more credit.

If you simply want a credit or debit card simply to buy bargain good sonline but don’t want the pressure of taking on more credit then consider a prepaid card. These are cards which in many cases you can get for free!  You simply load funds onto the cards enabling you to then use the loaded balance as an actual credit / debit card.



Charles