credit score/history question

bilaliz wrote: ↑ so equifax says my credit file was opened 16 years ago (osap maybe) which i paid off immediately after graduating.

never needed a credit card and until sept 2020, applied for a couple and was denied.

applied for Canadian Tire one until last March (March 2021) and was approved for $800, they later increased my limit to 4k+
I then applied for another one last sept and was approved for $5k. - so in total i have about $9000 approval between the two cards.
Got a phone from fido in Dec
So those are all the dings on my credit report.

Always paid on time and utilization is about 10% or less but my credit score is like 695 or so according to borrowell. a couple of times it went up to 720 but it falls back below 700 and I cannot figure out why.

How do i increase the score to go into 800s? get another credit card? anything else i can do?

bilaliz wrote: ↑ so equifax says my credit file was opened 16 years ago (osap maybe) which i paid off immediately after graduating.

never needed a credit card and until sept 2020, applied for a couple and was denied.

applied for Canadian Tire one until last March (March 2021) and was approved for $800, they later increased my limit to 4k+
...

Always paid on time and utilization is about 10% or less but my credit score is like 695 or so according to borrowell. a couple of times it went up to 720 but it falls back below 700 and I cannot figure out why.

How do i increase the score to go into 800s? get another credit card? anything else i can do?

FunnyGamer wrote: ↑ Credit score depends not on the age of the credit file but on the age of the oldest account. Yours is just one year old. In one year, you have managed to obtain $9k in credit. That's good. Now avoid credit inquiries, make sure you keep the first credit card you got open for the next several years at least, pay on time and keep your utilization low. It will take another year or two to be consistently in the mid 700s and several years to cross the 800 mark.

bilaliz wrote: ↑ Thank you for that input, I was under the impression that people have found ways to "rapidly improve" their credit scores. Seems like I got that wrong.

bilaliz wrote: ↑ Thank you for that input, I was under the impression that people have found ways to "rapidly improve" their credit scores. Seems like I got that wrong.

bilaliz wrote: ↑ How do i increase the score to go into 800s? get another credit card? anything else i can do?