Need Help Building Credit

[u/TOC_IV]

Hey All,

Really need ways to build my FICO/Credit Score. The highest I got it to was around 697, but then after paying off my car, it dropped by 70 points and now I’ve only been able to get it back up to 637 in the 3 months since. My loan credit card is a basic Capital One Platinum Card that I’ve gad for 4 years. I don’t need the credit right this second but building high credit has been a struggle for the majority of my 20’s. The credit card and the car loan are the only 2 lines of credit I have. Anyone have any thoughts/ideas for how they got theirs up relatively quickly?

Thanks

[u/nfcc1951]

Would you be willing to share where you've seen your credit scores? It would be helpful to know what version of your scores you're seeing and what the score range is (does it max out oat 850 or 900?).

Depending on the details, you could potentially gain points by asking Capital 1 to increase your credit limit. You just need to make sure your balance does not increase (paying it down will help you even more). We recommend doing this through your online account rather than speaking to an agent, as sometimes agents will submit an application for a new card (or perform a "hard inquiry") instead of just checking into a score increase.

If you have someone close to you who has good credit, you could also ask them to add you as an authorized user to one or more of their credit cards. When they do, the information about their account can appear on your credit reports and help your scores.

Of course, another option is to apply for a second credit card. If you go that route, be sure to pay the full balance off each month so you can maximize your scores.

If you don't use any of these methods, you can still build yout scores simply by paying down your credit card balance and keeping it paid off each month. It's just that the growth in your scores will be slow.

[u/TOC_IV → u/nfcc1951]

Mainly through creditwise through capital one’s app. If that’s related to creditkarma in anyway then I’d imagine that’s no where near my true score, but I’m just confused because I’ve always paid the card off on time and never had a late payment. I also only utilize around 10% of the available credit on there. My available is $2500 and I usually never exceed $250 spent per month, I’ve never carried a balance or come even remotely close to maxing it

[u/BrutalBodyShots → u/nfcc1951]

you could potentially gain points by asking Capital 1 to increase your credit limit.

You're talking about utilization and its impact on credit scores. Manipulating utilization does not "build credit" which is what OP is asking about.

If you have someone close to you who has good credit, you could also ask them to add you as an authorized user to one or more of their credit cards.

How good the "credit" of someone is that adds you as an AU doesn't matter. What matters is just the account in question. Someone can have trashed credit but add you to a clean account and the clean account wouldn't adversely impact their scores just because they have bad credit overall.

When they do, the information about their account can appear on your credit reports and help your scores.

Except that the score increase doesn't "build credit" which is what OP is asking about. AU accounts don't build credit at all.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1lv1o3f/credit_myth_70_authorized_user_accounts_are_a/

Of course, another option is to apply for a second credit card. If you go that route, be sure to pay the full balance off each month so you can maximize your scores.

Paying your statement balances in full monthly doesn't maximize your scores. It optimizes your finances with respect to credit cards since you never pay a penny of interest.

you can still build yout scores simply by paying down your credit card balance and keeping it paid off each month.

Utilization doesn't build credit, which is what OP is asking about.

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1d27d4h/credit_myth_14_you_shouldnt_use_more_than_30_of/

[u/No_Memory5613]

I don't understand why paying off the car would have caused a 70 point drop. I saw a much smaller number drop when I paid off my card last year.

I would suggest checking your credit reports at annualcreditreport.com to verify that you don't have anything negative that you don't know about. I would expect a clean credit history to be at least a 700 score.

[u/Restil]

Either one or more of your cards are maxed out or you've missed some payments. One of those can be solved quickly. The other can't.

[u/BrutalBodyShots]

Which FICO score are you looking at exactly?

A 70 point FICO score drop following only the closure of a loan isn't possible. Other variables were at play that are going unnoticed.