First, some terminology. FICO is your legitimate credit score delivered from Fair Issac. Most credit companies use this score to determine whether to give you credit or not. FAKO is slang term used to describe a “score” that individual credit reporting agencies give you. FAKO’s are from TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax websites. They are hardly ever used by the credit industry and a FAKO score is more often than not way off from your actual FICO score. That is why people call them FAKO scores… they are fake.

Now for the tip of the day: FICO and FAKO scores use inquiries on your reports differently to determine their scores. FICO uses inquiries in the past year, FAKO’s usually use the past two years. So don’t worry too much about those one year or older inquiries, they won’t matter at all for nearly all banks. Just let them fall off and concentrate on keeping those less than one year old inquiries off.

Many people who are rebuilding or starting their credit journey are often stuck in the low limit range of credit cards. Often times people with lower score or less-than-perfect credit will get approved of Visa and Mastercards in the range of $250-$750, with no hope of going up any time soon. Well, you do have hope. Higher credit limits means more freedom and higher scores because of a lower debt ratio. Here are a few pointers on how to lift those limits higher:

- Every 3 months call your credit card company and ask for an increase higher than you know you’ll get approved for. This will top you out at the highest they’re willing to lend you every time.

- Keep your usage on the card high but make your payments on time and you’re more likely to get those limit raises.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for a limit increase. The most they can tell you is “No”.

- Own property, such as a house. Credit card companies will give out more money to people who have assets.

- Get many credit cards and consistantly raise the limits on all of them. Often times credit card companies will match limits of other cards you have on your credit report in order to be competitive.

- Don’t be afraid to ask for limits beyond $15,000 when you start to get your limits higher. Many credit card companies won’t just stop at the $5000 level like many people think.

- When asking for a limit increase, tell the company that you need to make a “large purchase” coming up soon, so they think you plan on utilizing the limit, even if you ultimately don’t.

- Get Charge Cards on your credit report, such as American Express. Cards like American Express (Green, Gold, Platinum, or Centurion) generally have flexible limits with no true max out, so having these types of cards on your report shows responsiblity with credit and money.

In the end, don’t over-extend yourself and get into trouble with high limits, but utilize it to your advantage to raise your available credit when needed, lower your debt ratios, and boost credit companies confidence in your money management skills. Good luck!

Did you know that not all credit card companies are the same? On the surface, they all have those Visa, Mastercard, or American Express logos, but underneath the covers there are different banks associated with those cards. Each of those banks may approve or deny you credit based on different factors. Some of those factors of course include credit scores, but another factor is which credit report they’re pulling your score from.

If you’re having trouble getting credit, it may be because they are pulling your worst report and by just choosing the right bank you may be able to get your best report pulled. Search online for a “credit pulls” database to find out which company pulls Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax and then you can make sure you have the best chance at getting credit!

Many people tend to think that all three credit scores from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax all have to be above 700 in order to get the best rates on loans. Generally this thinking is correct, especially with auto financal loan companies who combine your scrores and average them. But, more often than not, most mortgage brokers will take your middle score and use that as the determining factor of what your rate will be on your mortgage when buying a property. What this means is that if you have FICO scores of 540, 789, and 810, many brokers will use the 789 score as your rate score, even though there is a huge drop to the third score. Great huh? Well, this can also work against you. Let’s say you have scores of 820, 550 and 530. Guess what? They are taking your 550 score and ignoring that 820 altogether.

It’s important to remember that some but not all brokers do business this way, and it has its advantages and disadvantages. But if you don’t have all three scores up to par you can find good brokers who will still give you a good loan rate based off of that middle score alone. Prioritizing your credit repair can be very important when a property purchase is near.

I just paid off nearly all of my credit cards, which was nearly $25,000 total in debt, and my FICO credit scores for all three reporting agencies have jumped over 100 points each. As I approach the magic 800+ scores, I’m trying to maximize every line on my reports. One of the things that has helped increase my scores and that I recommend to most people is to never close your credit cards, just pay them off and get them to a $0 balance. There are exceptions to this of course, such as if your card has a yearly fee, but the cards that can stay open at $0 forever (or as long as there is a small balance, like $1) with no fees should stay open.

Why? One simple reason: Credit history. The accounts you can show that are open and paid will extend your credit history and show that you can have revolving open credit with no money management problems. Closing a card can potentially cause two problems to occur: One is that it will decrease your average lifetime of accounts, and two is that a closed account can drop off of your report at anytime with no warning, especially after seven years. Good luck getting it back on if your account is closed.

In the end, keep those credit card accounts open at a $0/$1 as long as possible. Remeber, 15% of your score is determined by the length of your credit history and this will give it a boost. Years from now it will pay off as you reach towards the perfect 850 score.