My goal is to buy a house soon. I have 100k saved and a 675 FICO as of yesterday. I earn 85k annually. I'm a credit noob.
I've been a non credit user, so I signed up for a Capital One card 6 months ago, with a 3.3k limit, (increased once at my request). No bad debts, all bills and card balances paid fully, on time.
I do want to replace my beaten up old (fully paid for) Prius as I can no longer drive Uber/Lyft and would like to increase my revenue (I'm aware of how much driving rideshare sucks). So I could pay cash for the newer car, but should I get it partly financed on a loan? How about another credit card? Or?
I know a hard pull will hit my score for a car loan or 2nd credit card, so should I try to get a mortgage and not try to increase my score in the short term as the hard pull hits will have a bigger negative short term effect. (I'm aware of how it might be hard currently to get approved as lenders are risk averse with the war). Then reassess once the mortgage/car loan/additional cards etc are in my credit file, a time after buying? (whenever it makes sense).
Experian is currently having issues, but I'm thinking I should sign up and see if that bumps my score?
I'm not very knowledgeable about this stuff.