Is my credit score weak because I only have 6 months of credit experience?
Question by natashaiera: Is my credit score weak because I only have 6 months of credit experience?
I got a letter back and my credit score is only 665. I only have 6 months of credit history, but all of my credit cards do have a pretty high balance, although I pay them all on time and I just opened an account with AT&T last month. Is my credit going to stay this bad as long as I keep a high balance on my credit cards? Or is it just high because I do not have a lot of credit experience?
Best answer:
Answer by jlf
Both. High balances and a short credit history both lower your credit scores. Get the balances down (they are also costing you lots of interest). The short credit history self-corrects with time.
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665 is a ‘fair’ credit score, you can go all the way down to about 300 before it’s considered terrible. I myself have a 850 credit score, I have had that since I was 22 years old (now 27). When I buy a car I buy it on a 3-5 year loan, pay off more than what I need to each month and then on the 2nd year I pay it off entirely, and makes your credit go up extremely well.
High Balance has nothing to do with your credit. High Balance is given when you have been a customer for a while. They start off low and as you use it, it goes up, as you are a customer longer, it goes up, etc.
Your credit score will stay the same as long as you always pay the minimum. You’ll always be in debt also if you always pay the minimum. You need to pay hundreds if not thousands over the minimum to out-win your credit score. Credit scores are like a GPA – they drop very fast, with little to no care, but takes a very long, hard time to go back up. Not going into debt is hard, but that is where getting a useful education and career comes into play. If you live within your means; a perfect/flawless credit score will always be in the works of your life; as it is for me.
Benefits of having a high-credit-score include getting larger bank deposits on homes ( I can right now get up to 200,000$ in bank loans on a home), better cars, leases for cars, new cars, etc. I actually walked into Lamborghini and test drove a Gallardo about a month ago, all they do is research your credit score. Definitely something you want to work on! Good luck.
First, dont beat yourself up because 665 is not that bad. I do agree with one of the other post….both higher balances and a limited credit history affect your credit score negatively. Its easy for the score to hit rock bottom but harder to add points.
Short term credit history and high card balances will give you a low score. If you have high balances that you are not paying in full each month, then you are living beyond your income.
Pay off the credit cards every single month, try not to carry balances into the next month.
Start a savings account at your bank. When your cards are paid in full, go to the bank and borrow against your savings account. Make all the payments on time and your FICO score will go up.
It is at that number because you are carrying high balances. Utilization does count for a good chunk of your score. Add to that, you haven’t had credit for very long and that’s a double whammy.
Credit cards don’t even start to count in your FICO score till the 6 month point. I bet that 665 score is not a FICO. More likely it’s Vantage which would be poor — Vantage scale is 500 to 990 vs FICO’s 300 to 850.
Also, carrying balances of mroe than 30% of your limit hurt your score. Maxing out the cards kills your score. Pay off the balances. There is absolutely no advantage to carrying balances and paying interest.
Basically you score is low due to your limited history, but the high balances just makes it worse. It takes years to build good credit. You really need at least 24 months of consistent, on time payment history to see a decent score.