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SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

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cwwatts1202
Established Contributor

SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

Here is my situation. We are trying to get my husbands score to a 640 by the end of the year. His EQ FICO is a 558 right now. He had a FP card get charged off last May for $368, we settled for $272 in Feb and his EQ score was 511, the FP card reported a $96 balance, his score went up to 558. It should have posted a $0 balance and settled, but the CA we paid didn't notify FP that it was actually a settlement, not a payment, so FP is due to report again on April 15th, in which they will report $0 and settled in full, so I expect his score to go up a little again. 

We accidentally paid our car payment late in December, (wrote the po box # down wrong) so a 30 day late was put on my husbands CR, the auto fiance comp. agreed to delete that 30 day late, so I expect (hope) so see another small jump when that 30 day late removed. 

He has 2 collections (one for $250 one for $2400) falling off one in May, one in July because it will be past the CRTP. Hopefully we see a score jump from that as well. 

He was approved for a cap one secured for $99 dep. CL of $200. We will be paying that next Friday. Also hoping to get a credit card through our credit union. The minimum deposit is $250, so we're hoping to get an unsecured card. 

So right now ,we will have just the cap. one card. How should we use this card to get his score to go up the quickest way possible? I have been told let around 5% report then pay it in full, then I heard that that doesn't really raise your score. I need to know how to use this card, to get his score to go up over the next 7-8 months. 

I'd also like to know how when he has multiple cards, to use multiple cards to get his score up as well. Should all the cards report a small balance then pay them all in full? Or just let one report around 5% and let the others report $0? I am SO confused. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me! Again, we're trying to build that score up as much and as fast as possible in the next 7-8 months!

Message 1 of 19
18 REPLIES 18
cwwatts1202
Established Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

No one knows how to use CC's to get them to build your score??

Message 2 of 19
bs6054
Valued Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

You post about no response after 17 minutes!

 

THere is a rebuilding section on this forum that will have the answers that you need.  Search first, people don't always rush to post answers to questions that have been asked and answered many times.

Message 3 of 19
dmorey
Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

I'm not one of the pros here, but I believe the key is keeping it under 9 percent so it sounds like you're doing well in that regard. When you have multiple cards a lot of people like to let small balances report on one or two cards each month (keeping under 9 percent) then perhaps alternating with other cards in the coming months. This way you show you're using your cards, but aren't running a balance on all of them. Using it this way should lead to a steady increase, though not necessarily a huge jump -- maybe bigger though when going from no credit cards. My guess is the deletion of those collections will result in some significant jumps though. When my last collection was deleted my Equifax score jumped 100 points.

Message 4 of 19
Walt_K
Senior Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??

Let one card report a balance between 1 and 9% of that card's CL (not total CL across all cards).  Let all others report $0.

 

That will optimize your utilization.  But it doesn't raise your score more quickly.  Your score is based on an individual report.  It's a snapshot.  To raise your score more, you'll have to work on removing negatives.  Other than that, you just have to wait.  The longer your history, and the more time you have since your last negative, the more you will improve. 


Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Current Score: EQ 681 (04/05/13); TU 98 728 (01/06/12), TU 08? 760 (provided by Barclay 1/2/14), TU 04 728 (lender pull 01/12/12); EX 742 (lender pull 01/12/12)
Goal Score: 720


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Message 5 of 19
SpiceIslander
Frequent Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??


@Walt_K wrote:

Let one card report a balance between 1 and 9% of that card's CL (not total CL across all cards).  Let all others report $0.

 

That will optimize your utilization.  But it doesn't raise your score more quickly.  Your score is based on an individual report.  It's a snapshot.  To raise your score more, you'll have to work on removing negatives.  Other than that, you just have to wait.  The longer your history, and the more time you have since your last negative, the more you will improve. 


+1. There's more to raising a score than just credit card usage. Good luck!

Meg.

FICO: 4/2016 - TU 841 | EQ 840 | EX 837

FNBO 23,600 | Amex SPG 13,900 | Amex BCP 13,400 | Barclays/Sallie Mae13,000 | Discover IT 12,500 | Lowes 10,000 | PLOC 9,300 | NASA FCU 8,700 | Citi Simplicity 6,200 | BOA Platinum+ 6,000 | Achieva CU 5,500 | Chase CSP 5,000 | Sam's Club 3,000 | Sears 900
Message 6 of 19
cwwatts1202
Established Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??


@bs6054 wrote:

You post about no response after 17 minutes!

 

THere is a rebuilding section on this forum that will have the answers that you need.  Search first, people don't always rush to post answers to questions that have been asked and answered many times.


Seriously? Keep the rude comments to your self. 26 people read my post so yes, I got to thinking, really? Out of 26 people no one in the CREDIT CARD forum has an answer to my question? If I was asking a REBUILDING question, I would've posted in the REBUILDING forum, but since my question pertains to credit cards, I saw fit to post in the credit card forum. 

Message 7 of 19
cwwatts1202
Established Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??


@SpiceIslander wrote:

@Walt_K wrote:

Let one card report a balance between 1 and 9% of that card's CL (not total CL across all cards).  Let all others report $0.

 

That will optimize your utilization.  But it doesn't raise your score more quickly.  Your score is based on an individual report.  It's a snapshot.  To raise your score more, you'll have to work on removing negatives.  Other than that, you just have to wait.  The longer your history, and the more time you have since your last negative, the more you will improve. 


+1. There's more to raising a score than just credit card usage. Good luck!


That's why i'm confused lol because I've read some people got a 50+ point jump in around 6 months just from their credit card. There won't be any negatives on his report anymore after the 2 that are fixing to fall off fall off. Well, he'll have a repo still from '08, but that will be it.

Message 8 of 19
cwwatts1202
Established Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??


@dmorey wrote:

I'm not one of the pros here, but I believe the key is keeping it under 9 percent so it sounds like you're doing well in that regard. When you have multiple cards a lot of people like to let small balances report on one or two cards each month (keeping under 9 percent) then perhaps alternating with other cards in the coming months. This way you show you're using your cards, but aren't running a balance on all of them. Using it this way should lead to a steady increase, though not necessarily a huge jump -- maybe bigger though when going from no credit cards. My guess is the deletion of those collections will result in some significant jumps though. When my last collection was deleted my Equifax score jumped 100 points.


100 points from 1 collection being removed!? Holy moly! That would be nice. I was hoping for a 10 point increase when these two collections fall off!!

Message 9 of 19
SpiceIslander
Frequent Contributor

Re: SO confused. How to use cards to raise score fast??


That's why i'm confused lol because I've read some people got a 50+ point jump in around 6 months just from their credit card. There won't be any negatives on his report anymore after the 2 that are fixing to fall off fall off. Well, he'll have a repo still from '08, but that will be it.


The credit score is based on the entire profile. Those who have had a 50 point jump will not have a credit report that's identical to your husband's. I agree that when the negatives fall off, he'll get a good-sized increase. Perhaps, what you can do is pull his credit report & score from here and see what's in the section about what's hurting the score. That should give you a good idea. By the way, I know someone with a 765 FICO score and he has no credit cards, never did. That's an example of how scores are not based solely on credit cards.

Meg.

FICO: 4/2016 - TU 841 | EQ 840 | EX 837

FNBO 23,600 | Amex SPG 13,900 | Amex BCP 13,400 | Barclays/Sallie Mae13,000 | Discover IT 12,500 | Lowes 10,000 | PLOC 9,300 | NASA FCU 8,700 | Citi Simplicity 6,200 | BOA Platinum+ 6,000 | Achieva CU 5,500 | Chase CSP 5,000 | Sam's Club 3,000 | Sears 900
Message 10 of 19
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