So you can not only use credit cards to leverage bonus rewards, but to increase your credit score above 800 and keep it that way!
Disclosure: this is not financial advice!
I will be offering insight from my research and personal experience.
Some of the recommendations I make might in fact HURT you if you don’t fully understand them, misinterpret them, or aren’t quite ready to implement them.
Here we go!
The 3 Quickest & Easiest Credit Card Hacks
… so you can not only leverage bonus rewards but to increase your credit score above 800 and keep it that way!
#1 Get over the Dave Ramsey Mindset
– Look, I love the guy. Truthfully, Mr. Ramsey is solving a massive problem in our society– in virtually all communities: a basic financial education is missing.
– I actually taught his Financial Peace University on my last Deployment out of Norfolk, Virginia, on the USS Bataan in 2014.
–
– But, among all the great basics and baby steps he teaches lies a true scarcity and fixed mindset that–if you’re tuning into this– it’s a mindset that you are likely well beyond:
– Credit cards aren’t bad.
– I use them for every purchase, both personal and business.
#2 – Obtain at Least 4 credit cards–MINIMUM!
So:
– 1 Visa
– 1 AmEx
– 1 MasterCard
– 1 Discover
Why? Because that does 2 KEY things to help you out.
1. Increase your total credit available
. You want as much credit available to you as humanly possible, and you want to use (or utilize it, which gives the credit bureau your utilization ratio) only 10-20% of that total revolving amount. If you have 4 credit cards, and they all have a $25,000 limit, you now have $100,000 available in the form of credit. Then, you can use one or multiple cards for every purchase you make, as long as you can pay the statement balance off in full EVERY MONTH–yes, every month. On-time payments are the number one factor that affects credit.
2. It diversifies your open accounts nationwide to give you the best shot at a high score…
as long as you never miss a payment, you pay your statement balance off each month in full. The three credit bureaus– Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian–are all situated, based out of, and pull information from different areas of the United States. Capture more ground by getting one or two of each type of card.
#3 Contact the credit card companies every 90 days for the first year to request a total balance increase and lower the interest rate as much as possible.
Every 90 days, you can call each credit card company to request an increase in your total available credit.
They ask, “how much?” You say $100,000.
Ok, you don’t have to go that high, but I like to have a minimum of $25,000 available on all cards possible. Some companies won’t give anyone that much–some will provide more!
Again, as long as you pay the statement balance in full each month, you are golden and proving to the three credit bureaus that you are only using 10-20% of it revolving–and you’re paying it off each month.
Let’s recap:
#1 Get over the Dave Ramsey Mindset
#2 – Obtain at Least 4 credits cards–MINIMUM!
#3 Contact the credit card companies every 90 days for the first year to request a total balance increase and lower the interest rate as much as possible.
Would you like to have all of this in writing? Or a lot more info and hacks, or some letter templates to send to the credit bureaus to negotiate or argue an error on your credit report?
I’ll give it to you for free! It’s the All in One Credit Guide I wrote and packaged nicely for you as a free download.
What’s your #1 question about credit or credit cards?
