Thread: Working on credit, which card to start with? and a few other questions...

Kinda new to understanding the intricacies of credit but have been reading through lots of very informative posts for a few weeks now and have learned so much from these forums .

A little history... I'm not sure what my actual number score is. I couldn't figure out if you can get that for free. i used the free annual report website and got my report from transunion but it did not give me a number just the list of good and bad. is there a way to get this "FICO" number for free? transunion wanted me to pay for it.

for the most part there's only one real bad thing on there. truck note that has many late notices for a couple year period (long story but was ex wife's truck, i paid everything but her truck note, she couldnt get it in her name so i put it in mine, i had no idea she wasnt paying it on time...one of the main reasons shes my ex). got a credit report in march of 2009 for a business loan and thats when i learned of the truck payment conundrum. left her in april 2009, took and sold the truck the same week. admitted in court that she hid it from me but lien holder would not take it off my credit report. but shows that its paid off in april 2009.

everything else is fine on report including the house, bank loans and my new car (2 years old now) no late payments whatsoever. house and bank loans are now paid off...my car is only outstanding debt i have at the moment. when i bought my new car in late 2009 the salesman did bring up the truck issue and said it was screwing up my credit and i got a worse interest rate b/c of it

only credit card i ever had was an american express student card back in the 90's for a few years. i never really needed one. always paid cash (aka...used check card) for everything. but i might as well earn some points and if that truck thing has me screwed up, work on repairing credit.

so whats a good card that i can get travel or spending points that will help credit? if my score is still low b/c of the truck which card will approve me but one thats gives points for when u spend on it. and i understand the less than 30% balance per month that many experts on here speak of frequently. card will be paid off every month before reporting day and will not carry a balance.

sorry for the long winded post and looking forward to yall expert advice. TIA

thanks so much for the reply. i prolly opened that student card back in say 94-95ish and maybe had it a couple years before i closed it. never used it and only opened it for some free stuff they were giving away.

and is getting my credit score considered a hard pull or whatever u call it and stays on my record? whats best place to get it from?

thanks again

You can find credit scores in various places for free. Most will be what is called Fako scores. Your real scores are called Fico scores and can be purchased at myfico.com. You can purchase your EQ and TU score there. Your EX score can not be purchased. You can however give a Fako Ex score that is close to your real fico score for free at credit sesame.com.

i don't mind paying for a fico score so i can see where i'm at. is the myfico.com legit or is there a better place to get it? and i'm guessing me getting my fico score wont drop my score any points? thanks

update: went ahead and did the myfico.com free 10day thing. gave me a equifax of 759 as of today. also says that im "very good" .

guessing that i should be able to get a decent card that will give me some benefits to spending on it. between my companies and personal spending i could easily put $10k+ a month on a card and pay it off each month before reporting day. im guessing that would also bring my credit even higher.

update #2: went ahead and applied for the chase sapphire preferred card and was instant approved. will get card in 2 weeks it said. here's to moving up that credit score