Building credit score.

[SeanH]

Looking at creditkarma.com - Paying off my student loans (~$13k when I checked I believe) resulted in a 50 point increase in my score. Increases associated with use of a credit card (on-time payments, low utilization) are slower - my most recent two increases were associated with 4 (5 points) and 5 (6 points) months of use.

[SIRC4SM]

I lost my ID "Sir Casm" so i am using this one.
Well for what i have heard and read better to stay debt free. I payed up half of my credit card debt. Now I have under 50% of my credit limit, other than that i have no debt. how long do you think it will talke to pull my score from 600 to 700 if i keep my credit card under 30% and pay it full every month.

[JoshuaHeckathorn]

Originally Posted by SIRC4SM

I lost my ID "Sir Casm" so i am using this one.
Well for what i have heard and read better to stay debt free. I payed up half of my credit card debt. Now I have under 50% of my credit limit, other than that i have no debt. how long do you think it will talke to pull my score from 600 to 700 if i keep my credit card under 30% and pay it full every month.

There are too many other factors at play in your credit profile to give you an exact amount of time, but think about it this way. Payment history and credit utilization account for 65% of your FICO scores. If you continue to pay on time and keep your credit utilization low (preferably around 10% or less), you're doing the best thing possible for your credit scores. It could take 6-12 months, maybe less, but you just need to be patient and your scores will eventually climb into the 700s, especially since you don't have any other negatives on your credit reports.

[creditreport00a]

This is extremely right. These are the facts you need to follow up. Building a good credit score require attention towards all these things you told. Making payments on time, not having too much credit cards, keeping balance low on your credit cards and checking credit report regularly surely helps you boosting up your credit score. And I want to say that your score is not too bad, you will get it improved fast. So not to worry!

Get your credit report at creditreport.com

[breathemusic]

Originally Posted by JoshuaHeckathorn

There are too many other factors at play in your credit profile to give you an exact amount of time, but think about it this way. Payment history and credit utilization account for 65% of your FICO scores. If you continue to pay on time and keep your credit utilization low (preferably around 10% or less), you're doing the best thing possible for your credit scores. It could take 6-12 months, maybe less, but you just need to be patient and your scores will eventually climb into the 700s, especially since you don't have any other negatives on your credit reports.

Where did you get this info to know that payment history and credit utilization account for 65% of the score?

I've done some basic searching that tells me very generally what makes up credit scores, but nothing with percentages, and nothing with detail like "keep you utilization below X%" or "it's best to have a credit line for at least X years" etc. That's the kind of information I'd like to gather.

My score it pretty darn good right now at an average of 775 between the 3 agencies, but I can't figure out what I have to do to push it over the edge into the 800s!