John Toliuszis
John Toliuszis is a 24-year-old pilot who works for Delta Airlines. After graduating from the University of Tennessee in 2.5 years and starting his flying career, he had about $60K in student loan debt. The day that his first payment was due, he paid each balance off, in full. In addition, he got a few credit cards and made his first big purchase, a brand new Jeep Wrangler.
Not only did John pay off each of those payments in full, but whenever he had extra money, he made additional payments to ensure the credit was paid off. Now, John lives in Fort Collins, CO and is making his second big purchase, a house! After visiting with a few different mortgage lenders, he decided to go with the lender who is giving him a Fixed Rate Mortgage of a $250K loan with a 4.0% interest rate. He feels lucky, but he should really thank his credit score of 781 for this beautiful house and lifestyle at such a young age.
What does this score mean?
If you have a credit score around 750, you should be thrilled. This score is not only above the national average, but it is considered to be a wonderful score to mortgage lenders. With this score, you can take out a personal loan at Tiffany and Co., you can get a mortgage with a pretty great interest rate, you can have a few lines of credit with fairly large limits, etc. However; it is important to remember that just because you have this score, doesn’t mean you will qualify for everything. It takes time to raise your score even higher.
How do you get a credit score around 750?
If you find yourself with a credit score around 750, you may have done some of these things with your finances:
- Paid each bill on time from lines of credit.
- Recently paid off a student loan or debt.
- Always paid at least the minimum balance on credit cards.
- Paid every balance, in full, on mortgages or credit cards.
- Recently had a large purchase that you’ve paid off entirely.
How can you improve this credit score?
In order to improve this credit score even more, consider taking some of the following steps:
1) If you have troubles with your credit score, you should try talking to a credit counselor. Each credit situation is different and therefore, the solutions vary for each person.
2) Give it time! We know that it can be a lot of pressure to wait for a score to go up. However, this will not happen over night. Time will heal this credit score – if you take necessary measures to help.
3) Get some lines of credit open and make sure to pay off your statement, in full, each month.
4) Make sure to balance your lines of credit – this makes all of the difference in your score. For example, if you do not have the money to pay off each credit card, in full, each month, do not spend that money on that card. Only spend what you can pay off.
5) Make a bigger purchase, and make sure to pay off the entire balance each month.
