Can signing up at optoutprescreen.com improve my credit score?
If I had a business and was able to claim a feature, I would. It's simple marketing. If in fact, opting out helped your score, the site would promote that feature.  Soft pulls for prescreened offers are not counted. No more than my constant peek at my score through Credit Karma. Opt out, if you wish.  The benefit of course is less mail, which saves trees. Less risk of identity theft, someone can take the application and try to forge from there. Less risk of an infected paper cut opening this mail (don't ask.) I am a compulsive mail shredder, so I peek and these and shred. A year ago I received an offer of $30,000 zero interest, max transfer fee $50. I sent the entire sum to my 5% mortgage. Now I refinanced and paying that back. It saved me $1500 over the year. Too much trouble for some, but how long does it take to make $1500? For 40% of this country's families, that's a week's pay. The monthly extra bill didn't bother me. This last paragraph is an anecdote, not so much addressing question. I did that first. Sounds like a case of false causality.  If somebody is taking the time to sign up at opt out sites, then that same person is probably making other smart decisions with their credit, causing scores to rise. Optoutprescreen.com does not help your score, the other actions taken might.  People seeing different results can probably be tied to the timeframe they signed up.  People who signed up then took care of their credit vs. people whose credit was already good and then signed up. A 10 pt bounce one way or the other is not significant. Some credit checks are ignored as part of the scoring process. Some companies will pull your info, to make sure you haven't become a risk. Others will inquire before they send you an offer. Since you didn't initiate the inquiry it can't impact your score. Unsolicited credit checks like that don't affect your credit score. Those checks only count if they result from you applying for credit somewhere. So No. "If you are the type of person that gets drawn in to ""suspect"" offers, then it is conceivable that if you are not signing the services offered your credit would be improved as your long term credit strengthens and the number of new lines of credit are reduced. But if you just throw it all away anyway then it is unlikely to help improve your score.  But there is no direct impact on your credit score."
Here is a less scientific view of why there is a focus on credit utilization, it is the easiest to control by doing something. The focus on utilization is coming from the people asking the questions regarding how to improve their score, some even have an obsession with trying to wring a few more points even though they have no immediate need for a loan.  Look at the other factors: That means that for 70% the best advice is either wait for your history to get longer, don't open a new line, or don't close an old line. Therefore the only thing they control is to get their utilization score down. If they pay off balance that saves them interest, if they ask for or are award an increase in credit line that also brings down their utilization number. If it is the easiest to improve, it will garner a greater focus from consumers, therefore it seems that the credit industry focuses on it. In reality each consumer has to look at their situation to see which part of their overall score they need to focus on. "According to an article on Bankrate.com from 2011, yes, it can hurt your credit: With individual liability accounts, the employee holds all responsibility for the charges, even if the company pays the issuer directly. Joint liability means the company and employee share the responsibility for payments, says Mahendra Gupta, author of the RPMG survey. In both cases, if the card isn't paid and the account becomes delinquent, it will pop up on the employee's credit report and dent his or her credit score, says Barry Paperno, consumer affairs manager at myFICO.com. It doesn't matter if the company was supposed to make the payment; the repercussions fall on the employee. ""It will impact your score no differently than if you were late on one of your own accounts,"" Paperno says. Usually, with corporate credit cards, the employee is liable along with the employer for charges on the card.  The intent is to provide the employee with an incentive not to misuse the card.  However, this can be a problem if your company is late in paying bills. In the distant past, I had a corporate credit card.  I was not supposed to have to pay the bill, but I did receive a bill in the mail every month.  And occasionally, the payment was late.  In my case, these late payments never showed up on my credit report.  I can't remember now whether or not this card was reported on my credit report at all.  And I remember being told when I got the card that I was jointly responsible for the card with the company. However, your experience may be different.  Do the on-time payments show up on your credit report?  If so, that may be an indication that a late payment might appear." I notice that a lot happened four months ago. You were denied credit twice. Your income went up from $20k to $60k. I'm wondering if you were denied credit based on your $20k income. Since you couldn't provide proof of your income I wonder if they used $0 for your income.  Debt to income ratio is one significant factor included in the credit score calculation. You may not have a lot of debt, but if you don't have any income even a few hundred dollars on a credit card would throw your debt to income ratio into a panic. I'm assuming that your change from $20k to $60k income involved a change of jobs. Perhaps now you can provide proof of income. You would certainly need to do that before being approved for a mortgage.  Well that's my two cents about what may (or may not) have gone wrong last time. As for what to do next I would agree that the most helpful thing you could do is check your credit score and fix any errors that might negatively impact your credit score. (There might also be non-errors that need addressed such as open credit accounts that you thought you had closed.) When building credit history, time is on your side. If you just go on living your life and paying your bills promptly, your credit will slowly climb to an acceptable level. Unfortunately in the time frame you mentioned (~1 year) there isn't really enough time to build it significantly.  You bring up a valid point about credit applications reducing your credit score. Of course, that effect is somewhat minimal and temporary (2 yrs according to the thread linked to above). But again 1 year is not enough to recover. If you're considering applying for additional credit as a means to improve your credit score it may be too late to reap the benefits before your mortgage application. Of course if you could pay off any debts, that would help your debt to income ratio. But it would also reduce any house down payment you could save up and thereby increase the amount of your mortgage.  Better just save those pennies (or preferably Washingtons and Benjamins) to put toward a down payment. One reason why keep my DCU account active.  Free fico credit scores! https://www.dcu.org/electronic_services/index.html but specifically this page https://www.dcu.org/electronic_services/FICO.html By signing up to receive your FREE credit score in PC Branch you'll be   able to monitor your credit score, receive two reasons why your credit   score is not higher, and learn how to take positive steps towards   improving your score. Other services such as this may cost you more   than $165* annually. Through DCU you can receive your Equifax FICO   Credit Score via PC Branch under Account Manager in your Inbox once a   month FREE as part of your Checking Plus or Relationship Checking   benefits. ... Digital Credit Union Yes, you did. To give an example of the contract terms that allow this, the [Capital One credit card agreement](https://www.capitalone.com/media/doc/credit-cards/Credit-Card-Agreement-for-Consumer-Cards-in-Capital-One-N.A.pdf) states:  &gt; Credit Reports &gt;  &gt; We may report information about your Account to credit bureaus and others. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your Account may be reflected in your credit report. Information we provide may appear on your and the Authorized Users’ credit reports. &gt; &gt; If you believe that we have reported inaccurate information about your Account to a credit bureau or other consumer reporting agency, notify us in writing at PO Box 30281, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0281. When you write, tell us the specific information that you believe is incorrect and why you believe it is incorrect. &gt; &gt; We may obtain and use credit, income and other information about you from credit bureaus and others as the law allows. "0% furniture loans can hurt your credit rating. I was told by a bank mortgage officer (sorry I can't cite a document) that credit rating algorithms consider ""consumer"" loans like 0% appliance loans and certain store-specific credit cards as a negative factor, lowering your overall score. The rationalization given was that that taking that type of credit is an indicator that you have zero cash reserves. The actual algorithms are proprietary, so I don't know how you could verify this. If true, it runs counter to the conventional wisdom that getting credit and then paying it off builds your credit score." "Sometimes you need to do more than ask to have your rating reduced.  You need to make it in their best interest (no pun intended) to do it. Find the lowest rate card and then tell the others you want to transfer your balance to that card and close the account (don't do it, it is an empty threat). I guarantee they will transfer you to a retention agent who will give you a better deal.  From their perspective your current offer is getting 19% interest instead of 22%, why would they do that without some motivation? With the approach described above their options are get 19% interest instead of 0% interest. It is all about negotiation and the ""Retention agents"" have the most leverage to do so." "Sign up with credit karma.  It will give you two scores for free and will show you credit cards you have a good chance in being approved for.  Plus it will evaluate your score showing you the 6 items that effect your score and give you steps to improve them or tell you how long you have to wait until they roll off. Plus I would look at a credit union and see if they have any ""fresh start"" programs.  You should be well on your way.   the thing that is probably hurting your credit is your utilization.  If you can just use 10% of your available credit."