How does one get credit?

[R8RFAN]

Yall know the story about me... I am going to be a bit vague here..

#1 100% Debt Free
#2 Low 6 figure savings
#3 Mid 6 Figure retirement (401k)
#4 No Credit Card debt
#5 DTI (Debt to income ratio =0)
#Paid 30 yr mortgage off in 5.5 years
#Bought car on 4 year financing in 2005 paid off in 2 years
#Bought Car with 4 year financing in 2002 also paid off in 2 years
# Have 1 bank credit card (Visa) Pay off in full every month
Income per year is High 5 figures to low 6 figures per year

No bankruptcies or late payments ever on any thing I ever bought since the early 90's.

I am not interested in buying anything or looking to buy anything but why is my credit score in the mid 600's and how do I get it to go up?

I am fully prepared for a bunch of stupid comments that I am just going to filter through to get to the legitimate ones so fire away... I know there are a bunch of people on this forum that make good money and are pretty smart except for their choice in a football team so give me some pointers.

Being Debt free is wonderful but if I ever choose to go buy someting like a stupid cell phone on a contract (which I haven't) I am going to be super pissed having that kind of coin and getting turned down...

Fire away

[Chieftain58]

You have to have a history of on time payments

[scho63]

Originally Posted by 3rd&48ers

No but I do find I spend more money with credit cards than I ever did with cash in my pocket

You just figured that little gem out now???

You Raiders fans are a little slower than the rest of us......

[R8RFAN]

After 1.5 years of paying all credit cards off in full every month

[TribalElder]

Originally Posted by 3rd&48ers

After 1.5 years of paying all credit cards off in full every month

Nice

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by TribalElder

Nice

[loochy]

Originally Posted by 3rd&48ers

After 1.5 years of paying all credit cards off in full every month

Awesome.

It's stupid how that works, isn't it?

[Dayze]

Nice. We are only down to 1 final credit card after paying them all off over the last 4-5 yrs. Car paid off in august. I'm going to start using my credit card for fuel and groceries and pay off in full each month. I want to try that first instead of charging all expenses just to I don't get into any bad habits

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Originally Posted by loochy

you get credit by having lines of credit open. having a larger credit to debt ratio is better.

Actually, this is 100% false. The higher your credit usage is--i.e., ratio of credit used to credit available--the lower your credit score is. If you have $50,000 in available credit and have a revolving balance of around $25K, you're going to get dinged pretty hard for having 50% credit usage. The lower your credit usage ratio is, the higher your credit score.

Sounds like the original poster is getting screwed. I underwrote residential and commercial loans for years, and if the scenario the OP laid out is accurate, his FICO should be in the high 700's to low 800's. I would recommend ordering a full tri-merge credit report which shows all 3 scores. Maybe one of the 3 credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion--has erroneous info. Make sure to look at all pages of the credit report, including the Public Records section, which shows any past or outstanding liens and/or judgements.

Unfortunately the credit bureaus intentionally make it almost impossible to contact them and review things that may be impacting your credit score negatively. Just another in a long line of banking/finance-related scams that Wall Street and its minions use to screw the average hard-working person.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks

Actually, this is 100% false. The higher your credit usage is--i.e., ratio of credit used to credit available--the lower your credit score is. If you have $50,000 in available credit and have a revolving balance of around $25K, you're going to get dinged pretty hard for having 50% credit usage. The lower your credit usage ratio is, the higher your credit score.

Sounds like the original poster is getting screwed. I underwrote residential and commercial loans for years, and if the scenario the OP laid out is accurate, his FICO should be in the high 700's to low 800's. I would recommend ordering a full tri-merge credit report which shows all 3 scores. Maybe one of the 3 credit bureaus--Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion--has erroneous info. Make sure to look at all pages of the credit report, including the Public Records section, which shows any past or outstanding liens and/or judgements.

Unfortunately the credit bureaus intentionally make it almost impossible to contact them and review things that may be impacting your credit score negatively. Just another in a long line of banking/finance-related scams that Wall Street and its minions use to screw the average hard-working person.

Wait what?

Having 100k credit limit and only using 1k is worse than having 100k credit limit and using 75k?

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by loochy

Wait what?



Having 100k credit limit and only using 1k is worse than having 100k credit limit and using 75k?

I read it as the opposite..

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by loochy

Awesome.

It's stupid how that works, isn't it?

Yup it makes no sense

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by Dayze

Nice. We are only down to 1 final credit card after paying them all off over the last 4-5 yrs. Car paid off in august. I'm going to start using my credit card for fuel and groceries and pay off in full each month. I want to try that first instead of charging all expenses just to I don't get into any bad habits

The way I keep my spending in check is I pay the credit card off every damn week (yea it sounds anal but it's free to do so) This prevents me from over spending... My direct deposit goes in on friday morn... I usually pay credit card off every wed night before I go to work.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by loochy

Wait what?

Having 100k credit limit and only using 1k is worse than having 100k credit limit and using 75k?

No he said it right but you have it backwards in your mind. 100k with 1k used results in higher credit score than the other option. You want to use the least percentage of your available credit. Those who use near all their available credit have crappy scores.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by lewdog

No he said it right but you have it backwards in your mind. 100k with 1k used results in higher credit score than the other option. You want to use the least percentage of your available credit. Those who use near all their available credit have crappy scores.

Thats what i said in the very first post he commented on but he told me i was 100% wrong

high credit to debt ratio

credit 100000000000 debt 5 = high credit to debt ratio

I did NOT say high debt to credit ratio

[Dunit35]

Originally Posted by Dayze

Nice. We are only down to 1 final credit card after paying them all off over the last 4-5 yrs. Car paid off in august. I'm going to start using my credit card for fuel and groceries and pay off in full each month. I want to try that first instead of charging all expenses just to I don't get into any bad habits

We use our credit card for everything. We write down each dollar spent on our checkbook register and subtract it from our checking account. When we pay the credit card off, it's already been deducted.