Went to the bank to buy a motorcycle and got denied My credit score is 600!! They said I just don't have enough history, even though I've been paying off my car for almost a year now.

How can I raise my credit score?

 

Got credit cards? If you want to raise your score, you should. Part of your score is based on your available credit. If you have no cards, your available credit is zero, therefore you have a poor score.

I'm not saying that the system makes a lot of sense, but thats how it works.

 

Go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com and get your reports from the big three. Look them over to be sure everything is accurate. Make sure you don't have anything in collection that you didn't know about before.

Go to www.CreditKarma.com and www.Quizzle.com and get the free versions of your score. They won't be like your FICO score, but they'll give you an idea of where you stand. CreditKarma used to tell you what negative factors influenced your score. If they still do, you can take action on those.

As Tzar said, get credit cards to increase your available credit. Use each one for a small purchase and pay it off each month so they have some positive activity to report on you.

You're looking at maybe 6 months to see any real improvement.

 

Thanks for the helpful tips guys!

 

I would also take that as a sign to not buy the bike now. If you're still paying off your car... why do you want more debt on a yet another depreciating asset?

Save your money and put it into getting your own place (if you do not own yet) or save until you can afford the bike straight-up....

BTW, what are you looking to get? Either way... good luck.

 

Due to the current economic climate a lot is changing. Thankfully I have superb credit, however, despite my great credit one of my cards was canceled on my the other day! I got a letter in the mail that read roughly "Dear Mr. iTimmy, We have noticed that you have not used our credit card in over 24 months, we take this as a sign that you are not happy with our rates or service, what ever the case we closed your account. Thank you, Credit card company."

I was shocked they sent something out like that, I would think they would try to encourage stagnant accounts to use the card, in particular ones that are held by folks with great credit - if this is how the banks are "improving" things this may be a long and painful uphill battle.

 

Listen to the beaner!

You probably should pay off the car completely and get a house before taking on additional debt.

Ways to boost your credit score: get older, get more credit (but don't use the card a lot), continue to pay bills on time, and check your credit report at leats once a year.

 

1 year of credit history is not much. As mentioned, get a credit card or two. Don't get too many and don't use it to buy things you can't afford. Make sure you pay off whatever you charge, or at the very least the minimum payment, by the due date.

Keep in mind - Being 30+ days late will negatively affect your credit. Being 1+ days late will incur late fees. Paying only the minimum will incur finance charges. So paying the full amount on time is your best bet.

Credit scores take time to build, but not long to kill. Stay on top of things and your score will improve over time.

 

I remember that. I think mine was from Chase. It was like a Dear John letter: "Sorry, but I'm no longer in love with you. I've left with the children and I'm not coming back. There is nothing you can do to change my mind."

 

Thanks again for all the tips! I put off the bike buying thing for now. I'm actually paying more every month on my car so I can pay it off quicker. I've been thinking about a house for the longest time and that sounds like the best investment. Sucks not to have good credit but in time I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get this shit together.

BTW I wanted to but a 2008 Triumph Daytona 675 Sweet ass bike!!

 

^^ The house goal is a good one, but if you can wait until you have raised your credit score above 720 (or 740 in some cases), you will get a better interest rate.

 

The system definately doesnt make sense. Every time a CC company looks at my credit report, my credit score takes a hit. My score dropped 4 points because Discover and Crapitol One looked at my report so they can preapprove me.

Daytona 675

I wanted to buy an 09, but the colors arent that enticing for me.

However the new 2010 SE is:

 

I saw that online while I was at the dealership. That's one hot bike!! I think they only go for like $9995, pretty damn cheap.


Yeah I'll be looking at house's when I pay off my car. Got about 1.5 years left Shit, I would kill for a 740 credit score

 

Yup, just under $10k. I want one but they are building less then 700 of them. I wanted to buy a 675 this winter, so I dont think they will still have the SE available.

Sorry for the thread jack.

 

Nice! I was dealing with Greg Yoder at Charlotte Ducati-BMW. If you don't already have a sales guy, I recommend him. I ended up not buying there, but still, he was great.

Also, consider pre-owned. I scooped up a 1000cc Aprilia with 1054 miles and some upgrades for less then I was going to pay for a Street Triple 675 new. Just a thought...

 

It's alright I heard they were only sending 300 to the US Either way it looks frickin sweet!!!

I've looked up the Daytona 675's on craigslist and found some awesome deals! People are selling them for less then $7200 with low miles and mint condition, awesome bike but I don't understand why it's cheaper then like R6's and CBR's???


sorry for getting off-topic

 

Even though it is an awesome bike, not many people know about them. Many "squids" (I really dont like using that word) only know about CBRs, R6/1s and the Gixxers. Some dont even know Triumph still makes bikes.

 

I always thought they made cruiser bikes, until I saw the 675 Can't wait to test drive, I've started one up and it sounds awesome!! Has a nice deep rumble to it

 

Same happened to me.
I get quarterly credit reports through AMEX, and as of last month I had a 765. I just got a letter in the mail from OfficeMax (I had an account through them) saying they were closing my account due to inactivity. Last time I used it was about 9-10 months ago.

I hope it doesn't cause my score to take to much of hit. It had a $3,500 line.

 

That's exactly why. So b/c of that, the resale on brands like Triumph and Aprilia takes a hit b/c it is very hard to sell them used to the general public. I found mine on an Aprilia forum and it was only listed for about a month. Meanwhile there were some local people on CL selling the same bike for 3 months Reason they weren't selling is b/c they were way overpriced.

So in addition to CL.. check the Triumph forum...



Oh, check this thread out for motorcycle discussion: https://acurazine.com/forums/car-talk-5/official-motorcycles-scooters-thread-719775/

 

Never, ever buy something and do that. You will dig yourself a hole very quickly.

Just buy items you know you'll be able to pay in full when the bill comes in. Keep doing this every month and your credit score will gradually increase. Trust me, I know. I'm currently hovering near the 800 mark.

 

Holy crap, 600?

Buy a car under your name (well its hard to do now) but keep up payments and try not to hold a balance under any credit card. My credit rating was at ~790 when my car loan was paid off.

 

We were hovering near 800 ourselves until Feb. No idea where we are now...

 

Big
It can be a very hard hole to get yourself out of

On that same note...unless you're pushing the very edge of your credit limits, your credit score won't really take much of a beating. That being said, I never condone racking up the CC bills.....but still.

Words of advice from Gfaze right there.

 

My parents took out a $40,000 loan for which they co-signed me when I was 12 years old.

I didn't even know about it until I was financing my first car and the financing people showed me my credit report. I saw a $40,000 loan payment in full in 1996 and was like... wtf. Haha. With that loan and always paying off my credit card through highschool/college, I was at an 808 when I financed my first car.

Not sure what it is now, has to be well above 800, since I've never been late on a payment for anything and I pay all my bills in full every month.

The best tip I can give for getting/keeping a good credit score... live within your means. Don't spend more than you earn!

 

I had a similar circumstance, but it went the other way.

My brother thought he was helping me out when he put me as an authorized user for one of his credit cards. I looked at my credit report and saw that I had over $5k in revolving debt. I flipped the fuck out. I truely had alittle over $100 in my own name. I gave him hell for that and he took me off the account. I dont know if removing my name from it hurt my score or not.

 

Do you not understand the concept of "at the very least?"

 

Oh damn, I almost forgot! My parents have one of my credit cards (they live in NY) so I'll just have them use it, they buy alot more crap then I do. This should help with the score

Off topic: Stopped by the BMW/Triump Dealership on E74, they have some sick-ass Ducati 1198's they can be yours for a small fee of around $21K!!!!!

 

I <3 the 848, but surprisingly the Daytona 675 is a better balanced bike.

 

^ The 848 is what I was going to get originally, but I liked the relax riding style of the naked, hence the Aprilia Tuono...

 

848 is an awesome credit score.

 

Almost everyone has an 848, duh!

 

I think taking out a loan is much more effective than having one or two credit cards that are always paid off..

 

I agree, plus a loan is looked at differently (i.e. NOT revolving debt).

 

Just a follow up to the person who posted creditkarma.com ...

I looked into it, signed up and got my score. I thought it was accurate in fact higher than i expected. This weekend, I went to a new home community and the lender did a pre-qual on me and pulled my ACTUAL FICO score and it was MUCH higher than credit karma and accoridng to this article (below), it's because creditkarma, while they do use accurate transunion information, they have their OWN formulas/equations, so it's close, but not 100% accurate.

http://www.bargaineering.com/article...stimators.html

^ Good personal finance site btw!

Enjoy!

 

Yeah, there's only one place to get the "offical FICO" score and that's with MyFICO.com. CreditKarma uses TransUnion's proprietary score and I think Quizzle uses Experian's proprietary score. Both of which can really only be used to get a general idea of where you stand relative to other people in their database.

And would you believe people PAY for these unofficial scores?

 

^^ Yes, FICO scores are based on a secret, proprietary formula. Any credit agency or other company that gives you a score is just trying to give you a number they think is close to a true FICO score. I'm glad that your FICO score was actually higher, because that isn't always the case.

 

Most of what you say is true. The bold portion is incorrect.

annualcreditreport.com is the site that the government required the three major credit agencies to set up a few years ago. You can get a free report every 12 months from each of the three. In addition, you can purchase your 'official FICO Score' from Experian for a few dollars here as well.

 

Check here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_...(United_States) for more accurate information.

 

i guess the point of this is just that getting it from creditkarma.com or Quizzle (never heard of 'em) and not from MyFICO or directly from one of the 3 agencies, is ONLY an estimate and can't be considered 100% accurate, it's more an educated guess.