So I received an offer from Marriott Rewards, I was declined, got the 10 day message, decided to call to recon. I was still declined, but found out some very valuable information. First of all besides their Chase site, they recommended that I go the the "My Fico" site, to see what else I could do to improve my credit status.I didn't tell them that I already am a member. I have 3 paid judgments, a state tax lien and a couple of paid charge offs, all greater than 2 years ago. The gal told me that she wasn't a credit specialist, so she couldn't tell me what to do credit wise, but what she did tell me gives me hope that in the next 6 months I will be a chase card holder.
She told me that I am credit worthy, but I have too many cards with balances. I told her that I had been told to try a few months with balances to let credit companies see that I could make my monthly payments. I told her that I also had tried paying in full with no more success. I asked her point blank that if I had a balance on only one or two cards and my tax lien was showing paid status if I would have then been considered for the card, she told me yes. So I know where I need to be.
I asked her specifically if my paid judgments were the problem since they were paid, she said that the main reason she couldn't approve wasn't because of the paid judgments but because of the amount of accounts with balances. I do have many accounts, 18 I plan on closing a couple of them, paying off my tax lien, and paying off the balances of all but one of my cards, probably on my barclay card I will leave a small balance, overall this will also help my credit score. According to the FICO simulator once I pay my balances down to 9% my score should hit 700-740 that doesn't include paying off my tax lien. Which should give me a few more points, and I am working on getting those paid judgments removed from equifax and TU. Plus I have a few things that will fall off in the next 6 months.
My hope for a great credit future has been restored thanks to My fico, you folks, and that Chase credit specialist. Back to the Garden so I can get my Chase for Christmas!
Starting Score: TU 573 Exp 523 Lender Pull, Eq 583
@traveler2005 wrote:So I received an offer from Marriott Rewards, I was declined, got the 10 day message, decided to call to recon. I was still declined, but found out some very valuable information. First of all besides their Chase site, they recommended that I go the the "My Fico" site, to see what else I could do to improve my credit status.I didn't tell them that I already am a member. I have 3 paid judgments, a state tax lien and a couple of paid charge offs, all greater than 2 years ago. The gal told me that she wasn't a credit specialist, so she couldn't tell me what to do credit wise, but what she did tell me gives me hope that in the next 6 months I will be a chase card holder.
She told me that I am credit worthy, but I have too many cards with balances. I told her that I had been told to try a few months with balances to let credit companies see that I could make my monthly payments. I told her that I also had tried paying in full with no more success. I asked her point blank that if I had a balance on only one or two cards and my tax lien was showing paid status if I would have then been considered for the card, she told me yes. So I know where I need to be.
I asked her specifically if my paid judgments were the problem since they were paid, she said that the main reason she couldn't approve wasn't because of the paid judgments but because of the amount of accounts with balances. I do have many accounts, 18 I plan on closing a couple of them, paying off my tax lien, and paying off the balances of all but one of my cards, probably on my barclay card I will leave a small balance, overall this will also help my credit score. According to the FICO simulator once I pay my balances down to 9% my score should hit 700-740 that doesn't include paying off my tax lien. Which should give me a few more points, and I am working on getting those paid judgments removed from equifax and TU. Plus I have a few things that will fall off in the next 6 months.
My hope for a great credit future has been restored thanks to My fico, you folks, and that Chase credit specialist. Back to the Garden so I can get my Chase for Christmas!
HUGE difference between you don't pay until you receive a statement and you Pay the balance in full before the due date and you pay the balance in full before the statement even closes and sends you a bill.
You will not gain a thing by not paying the balance in full by the due date that is on your statement credit wise and unless it's a 0% card you are now paying interest on a debt you could pay in full!!!
The credit report almost always gets updated a few days after your statement closes and is going to update the balance that is on your statement so carrying a balance over to the next month and maybe even increasing the balance and paying it spread over 3-6+ months is only going to make your score go down if that balance is getting higher each month (of course this is based on that being the only thing changing in your credit... if you opened new accounts and your util went down and you didn't loose points for a new account your score may go up or stay vs. down for more debt.)
Now the reason why the carry balance is discussed so much and so often confused is in beginning of credit rebuilding it can be hard to prove the computer (you can't) or sometimes even a underwriter that you actually pay that maxed out card in full each month so in order to beat the system people will go in and say they have 3 accounts $500CL on all and $400 balance on all... they will go in a few days before statement date closing and pay 2 off and 1 down to say $40... that would leave them 1 balance at less then 10% which would look good on credit.
Where people get confused is paying all them off before statement month after month, although the bank that issues those cards sees you use them and can pay them your credit report will just show $0 so it looks like not only are you not using your cards but you are not showing you can handle the credit lines and payments on the account.
but don't carry balances month to month and pay interest to show you can handle them.