going from a zero fico score to 741
report/imgjpeg. fico score
This is a true story: One of my readers and a friend for several years posed a question to me earlier this year on how to establish a credit report for his wife of seven years from Thailand. Neung is a stay at home mother with no loans or credit card . Mike was worried about the recession and what would happen if he lost his job and his credit suffered,
From reading my posts he knew that if his wife had to find work then having no credit history might be a drawback in her finding a decent job, (Neung has a college degree good English skills and worked in a bank in Thailand so could probably qualify for a job in the financial line).
My advice was simple; have her apply for a secured credit card which she did the very next day. She depositing $500.00 into a bank account in her own name which the bank would hold as collateral against a credit line of $500.00
I cautioned her to abide by three simple rules:
Neung religiously stuck to the program and within five months the bank increased her limit to $650.00 without asking for any additional deposit . On October 08/2014 she checked online for her FICO Score and was pleasantly surprised when a big 741 popped up on the screen. Her next step now is to make a purchase with an installment loan, maybe a new dining set - something that she can easily pay back on time. By establishing her reputation as a good credit risk her score could go higher and the bank will most likely release her deposit and again increase the limit.
Now if you have late payments and maybe some charge-offs simply opening an account like Neung is not going to transform your credit report into a superstar overnight but it will certainly give your score a quick boost while you work to clean up the delinquencies.
From reading my posts he knew that if his wife had to find work then having no credit history might be a drawback in her finding a decent job, (Neung has a college degree good English skills and worked in a bank in Thailand so could probably qualify for a job in the financial line).
My advice was simple; have her apply for a secured credit card which she did the very next day. She depositing $500.00 into a bank account in her own name which the bank would hold as collateral against a credit line of $500.00
I cautioned her to abide by three simple rules:
- Only use the card for everyday items such as groceries and necessities
- Do not spend more than 30% of the credit limit in any given month
- Pay the account off every month before the due date and use online payment from Mike's account.
Neung religiously stuck to the program and within five months the bank increased her limit to $650.00 without asking for any additional deposit . On October 08/2014 she checked online for her FICO Score and was pleasantly surprised when a big 741 popped up on the screen. Her next step now is to make a purchase with an installment loan, maybe a new dining set - something that she can easily pay back on time. By establishing her reputation as a good credit risk her score could go higher and the bank will most likely release her deposit and again increase the limit.
Now if you have late payments and maybe some charge-offs simply opening an account like Neung is not going to transform your credit report into a superstar overnight but it will certainly give your score a quick boost while you work to clean up the delinquencies.
