Each creditor has established their own set of guidelines and rules for extending credit. A creditor will usually require a full application that asks for many things: your income, your employment history, current level of committed expenses, your spending habits, and your credit history.

If you falsify any part of the application, you have committed credit fraud. The creditor will subjectively review all facts available, and make a decision for or against giving you credit based upon their own review criteria.

You may never know what that criteria consists of. Remember, this is not an OBJECTIVE decision. It is SUBJECTIVE. That means that the creditor may make any decision he wishes, except where the law dictates his actions (as in race, color or creed discrimination.  New credit can be granted even though your current score is weak, if other factors support it.

Donna Perkins

So your FICO credit score is only one of many facts that the creditor will consider in reviewing your application and granting credit to you.

Let us help you with your credit restoration needs so you can once again qualify for new credit lines.

A good credit score is made from the history of charging and paying off credit cards and other debts. But paying off your credit cards each month is not the best way to develop a credit history. You need to owe a bit, and pay a bit to develop it.

Paying everything off each month is a good way to stay out of debt, but won't necessarily help your credit score.

By charging something and paying it off over time, a short time, you develop the kind of history that the bureaus want to see.  Remember, they benefit most as a business when you do not pay off your debts quickly.  The merchant makes money on interest and fees, and the bureaus make money selling lists to them.  The more you owe without going over the 30% rule (don't spend more than 30% of your available credit), the less the bureaus benefit.  When you owe more than 30%, they classify you as a "bad risk", and this is what makes them money.

Donna Perkins

To keep yourself in a good situation all around, charge something, then pay off your credit cards over 2-4 months.  Try to never charge something more than the 30% rule, pay your bills on time every time, pay early and pay a little more than the minimum required, and you'll develop the best possible credit history.

To learn more about this practice, contact us today!

This is a common misconception. There are several factors that must be considered when applying for new credit.

1) If you apply for several credit cards at once, each occurrence will result in an "inquiry" on your credit report. Each inquiry drops your score about 7 points. So it would be prudent to carefully review the offers you receive and select one or two to apply for.

The inquiry shows up on your report regardless of whether or not you are granted credit. But the bigger issue is that all of your creditors see the inquiries, and this indicates to them that their involvement with you may be at a higher risk. Because you are seeking additional credit lines, you may be expecting to spend more money on credit. This can put their balance with you at risk of default. Therefore, there may be negative consequences to frivolously applying for multiple cards within a short time span.

Donna Perkins

2) If you are trying to purchase a car, and go from dealership to dealership filling out applications at each one within a short time span, each application will result in an inquiry on your credit report. This is usually viewed by your creditors as only one inquiry for the purposes of risk assessment. The same holds true for real estate. However, you may need to apply to the credit bureaus to remove those extraneous inquiriies could take some time. You may need your Credit Concierge's(tm) help to make this happen.

Let us know how we can help you.