tjarratt

Having credit cards for several years (known as average age of tradelines, or oldest tradelines, on credit reports) will help raise your score immensely. The reason this helps is because it helps lenders know that you have a history of making payments on time, and that you can be trusted to pay back larger and larger sums.

Delta98's advice is right on - keep making your payments on time, apply for a credit card that you can use to make small, simple purchases each month and your credit score will improve, all other things being equal.

Hey novedadink, Credit Karma has a simulator that you can use to see how your score is affected by many situations (on-time payments, late payments, credit inquiries, and more). In my experience, it can take a very long time to see an increase in your credit score - sometimes I will only see an increase of 10 points over a few months.

Check it out! http://www.creditkarma.com/simulator

One interesting thing about the simulator is that it calculates credit score changes based on your report. If you and I both simulated an on-time payment history of 12 months, our scores would increase by different amounts, as we likely have very different credit histories.

Hope this helps!

Matman is right, it's always best to shop around and get some good offers before you actually allow anyone to pull your credit.

You can usually get a copy of your report off annualcreditreport.com and provide that if someone wants to do a hard inquiry on your report - they will use it to estimate their offer. Then when you can narrow it down to one or two lenders you can actually let them do a hard inquiry. The hit will only be a dozen points and your credit score will go back up after a few months.

Have you been utilizing your credit card? Sometimes companies will decrease your limit if they feel you aren't using it. This has nothing to do with your credit score.

If you call Citi Bank and talk to a rep, they will probably be more than happy to increase your credit limit, or at least let you know what factors went into the decision.

IWantCookies is right on, but you should be aware that the dip in your credit score from a hard inquiry is only temporary. After a few months (usually six or so), your score will go back up. As you use your credit card and make payments on time, your credit score should rise, especially if your credit limit is increased.

It's been my experience that credit card companies are more than happy to tell you what offers they have available if you ask someone in their customer service department.

It definitely couldn't hurt to call and ask - you might be surprised how helpful they are!

When I was a student, I opened several loans - typically one each year to cover the cost of books, tuition, and fees. The agreement on most student loans is that increase does not accrue and you are not required to make any payments, for four years, or until you are no longer a full time student, whichever happens first.

In the short term, adding a second student loan will not hurt your credit score, but once you graduate you will have to start making payments on both. Being late or failing to make payments can hurt your credit score.

You won't be able to get your credit score from Equifax for free, but you can always use Annual Credit Report (https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp) to get your credit report from any of the three agencies once a year.

If you want your score from a particular agency, like Equifax, you will need to pay. They have a paid service available on their website (equifax.com) that allows you to check your score several times a year, but like I said, it is not free.

In my experience, student loan payments aren't expected until after you graduate, unless you stop taking classes for longer than a quarter or semester, in which case you will need to start making payments (and continue to), regardless of your future status as a student.

Assuming you've been a full time student throughout grad school, your credit score may reflect that you've taken out a loan, but financial loans are typically different from personal loans, so you may be fine. As long as you keep your credit cards paid off and make regular payments on your school loans, you should be fine.

This reminds me of the time, I was penalized for a delinquency on my student loan because the bill was sent to the wrong address. As I learned then, it was still my fault because that's how debt works. It was my responsibility to take care of debt with the school regardless of whom or what got in the way of that.

I suspect this is similar in your case. You were the primary party responsible for payment to the hospital. Remember that you entered into the agreement with the hospital and not Medicaid. As such, they have every right to send you to collections if payments were not made as stipulated in the agreement.

The best thing to do now is to call both the collections company and the original creditor to explain the situation. They are under no obligation to remove the inquiries but sometimes you will get a compassionate person who will understand.

There is no law that prohibits creditors from adding debts, collections, or delinquencies anytime provided that the record is accurate. So, the short answer is NO, it may not be gone forever.

Keep in mind that there are three credit bureaus so while your owed item may have gone MIA on one of your credit reports it likely to continue to be reflected on one or both of the other credit bureaus credit reports. The best solution is to check all three of your credit reports on http://www.annualcreditreport.com and make sure they all are accurate. If you find any inaccuracies, you can dispute those items directly with the information provider and the credit bureau.

As for the missing debt, don't be content in its disappearance. The lenders will most likely still have it on their records and you don't want let it linger. Allowing it to move into a collections account will adversely affect your credit for years to come.

Credit scores are determined by a combination of your personal credit data and a bureau-specific algorithm to score the data; typically credit scores do not match from one provider to another because the credit data and the scoring algorithm are very likely to be different between providers. This natural difference between credit score models may account for the point difference between your Credit Karma and TransUnion FICO score.

However, another explanation of why your Credit Karma score hasn't changed at all is a possible error on your credit report. Check your credit report at all three credit bureaus to make sure the deletion of your negative accounts and late payments were accurately reported to the bureaus. If the report is accurate and up-to-date, your score should (but not guaranteed to) reflect your healthier credit file.

The short answer is no, overdrafts on your checking account do not have any affect your credit score. Your credit scores are calculated according to a certain formula that takes into account information pertaining to outstanding debt, timeliness of payments, and related items. However, the determination of your credit score does not reflect any elements of your overdraft history with banks.

While overdrafts may not damage your credit score, they may cause your checking account to be canceled or applications to open new checking accounts to be rejected. Frequent overdrafts could cause your name to be reported to something called Chex Systems, a financial reporting system that banks refer to when considering a new checking account application. You can get reported to Chex Systems if eFunds, the company that invented and maintains Chex Systems, believes that you have abused your bank account or bank-related instruments in the past. This could potentially include overdrafts, especially if your bank covered your overdraft but you never paid them back for the amount they covered on your behalf.

The impact of these credit inquiries on your credit score will depend on how each apartment owner will generate the credit check. If they request a soft inquiry, as is the case with "pre-approved" credit cards, and other self-initiated credit report pulls like with Credit Karma, it will not affect your credit score. If they use a hard inquiry, it will lower your credit score by a few points and remain on your credit report for 2 years. But be leery that if you allow all five owners to do a hard inquiry, these inquiries will certainly add up in damage to your credit score.

Check out the graph of the distribution of credit score to number of credit inquiries from the Credit Karma community for a sense of how many hard inquiries can impact your credit score. In addition to hurting your score, multiple inquiries on your report may also affect your future loan, mortgage, or credit applications because lenders may view you as a high-risk borrower. There is a possible silver lining: if the apartment owners do conduct hard inquiries, some credit scoring models have been adjusted to count multiple hard inquiries within a 14-day period as a single inquiry.

Ask each landlord what type of credit check they will be doing. If they are planning to do a hard credit inquiry, suggest that you pull your own credit report, such as the one from Annual Credit Report, and take it with you to each apartment owner to minimize the number of hard inquiries on your report. If some apartment owners have already done hard inquiries on your report, you won't be able to remove the negative impact. But take heart; the damage to your score will fade over time. In the future, be aware of what type of credit checks are being done on your credit report and avoid multiple inquiries in a short period of time; otherwise, happy apartment hunting!

I've had 3 years experience in the mortgage industry, and unfortunately, your score is not high enough for most lenders. A 592 credit score is low in today's lending environment and you would not be eligible for very many mortgage programs even with your income being $70,000. You typically need to have a 680 or higher in order to qualify for the better rates out there. However, there are some FHA programs that do not have a credit requirement and you might be able to qualify depending on the down payment, your other debts, and other factors.

If the medical debt is the main source of your depressed credit score, I would suggest that you resolve that situation first and foremost. If the debt is still outstanding on your credit report, you should try to enter a payment program to pay the debt off as well as pay everything else on time so you can re-establish your trade lines. Once your medical debt has been paid off, you will see your credit scores rise significantly. Remember, credit scores do not change overnight; you will have to be diligent in your payments in order to repair your credit.

If your lender will allow you, paying half your mortgage every 2 weeks will allow you to pay off a 30 year mortgage in around 22 years. The additional payments pay down your interest quicker and let you start paying down your principal loan amount. If you want to pay your mortgage off quickly and you can budget it, this becomes an attractive proposition.

You should realize lenders will often charge a one-time fee to set bi-weekly payments up as they will usually want to deduct the amount from your bank account. You can achieve the same affect of bi-weekly payments by paying an extra mortgage payment each year, or by paying additional money to your principal every month.

The good news is that when you marry, you and your girlfriend will maintain separate credit histories, credit reports, and -- luckily for you -- separate credit scores, so good credit or bad credit, there is no direct influence of one credit file on the other.

The bad news is that if you plan to apply for a loan together, such as a home mortgage, then both you and your girlfriend's credit reports and credit scores will be taken into consideration.

What does this mean? Having one applicant with a poor credit score could affect whether the banks will approve the both of you for a loan, and if so, how much they will lend to you newlyweds. Generally speaking, the terms of the loan may be impacted as well, including a higher APR, higher down payment requirements, and additional closing costs on your loan.

When the two of you marry and take out that first joint mortgage or joint auto loan, you need to make sure she adopts your healthy credit habits. If you co-sign on a loan or are a joint holder, the payments of the loan are reported to both loan holders' credit reports and thus will affect each individual's credit score.

A healthy marriage will benefit from minimizing any money strain, so be sure to discuss each others credit history and financial position before tying the knot. If you know what you're getting into, you will be better prepared to tackle bad financial actions together and take positive financial steps for your family's future.

Paying your mortgage at the beginning of the month rather than the end of a grace period has no impact on your credit score. The purpose of a grace period is to provide you with a safety net after the due date for which the normal penalties of passing a deadline - such as a late penalty or credit score drop - is waived without consequence. Grace periods vary between lenders and banks. Consider it your "get out of jail free" card for the time being.

Just as a word of warning, the grace period is intended for occasions when unforeseen circumstances prevent you from paying on-time, so consistently using your grace period as your regular payment date is risky. If a financial emergency suddenly drains your funds, you won't have much leeway before your grace period ends and you'll have to pay the consequences. Adjust your payment schedule to pay before the deadline of the 1st so you can take advantage of the benefits of having a grace period when you really need it.

Great review, I've been waiting to get a new credit card, but this looks like a fantastic card based on your comments.

The fact that Cap1 was so quick and transparent in their process for upping the credit line is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned.