improving my score after chptr 7

[Alpha]

i filed chapter 7 in december and was discharged march 11th of this year, i reaffirmed my auto loan and it is still reporting, i had never missed a payment on that loan or any other auto loan. I used the shopping cart trick and opened a motorola account with a $1500 limit and a overstock.com account with a $2500 limit. i charged $150 on each card and have been paying on them regularly for almost 6 months. i also opened a first premier card with a $750 limit and charged $200 on it and have paid it on time every month for nearly 6 months. my Fico score is currently 654 and goes up by a point or so each month as balances keep dropping. my question is about keeping my score climbing, i will have all 3 accounts paid off in the next two months, should i keep a small balance on them and keep paying or should i let them sit with no balance for a while?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't buy anything you don't need, but if you would buy it anyway, use the card for it and pay it off. You can also check places like the Cap1 preapproval site and see if you are approved for any additional cards. Getting higher limit cards will help with utilization and also help down the road to get better cards as well. Good luck!

[Alpha]

unfortunately i burned cap one pretty bad in BK, i have been checking their prequal site every couple weeks with no luck.

[Anonymous]

I understand. We burned them as well, but they have been very good to us post-discharge. Keep checking the site, they may let you back in.

[ezdriver]

The credit rebuilding section of this forum has a lot of very useful info on rebuilding one's credit profile.

[pizza1]

You charged $150 and have been paying that off for 6 months?? That looks bad actually. That sounds like minimum payment too me, and min payments are bad bad bad!!! Especially after BK!

What you want to do is charge and pay PIF, or charge $150 and pay that off in 2 months, not 6!!

You want ALL of you cards to be at a ZERO balance, EXCEPT for ONE CC, and that one CC to be at 1-9% util reporting for optimal scoring.

[Alpha]

well my score has come up over 100 points since my march discharge so obviously i am doing something right. each month when my balance goes down my score goes up. making regular payments is certainly helping

[Pway]

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@Alpha wrote:

well my score has come up over 100 points since my march discharge so obviously i am doing something right. each month when my balance goes down my score goes up. making regular payments is certainly helping

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To maximize scoring you only want one card to report between 1-9% each month.