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Recently was approved for a BoA CC with a $3000 CL. Any advice on how I should use the BoA credit card in order to help boost my CLI in the future and how it is reported? Thanks!!!
Before BoA CC
EX 565
EQ 550
TU 602
After BoA CC
EX 596
EQ 586
TU 602 (BoA CC is not showing up...does anyone know why not or if I should inform them I have this card?)
Use it and pay the balance off in full each month. If you want to maximize you FICO score you need to keep you credit utilization under 10%.. Where did you receive the scores list in your post?
They are FAKO scores from USAA creditmonitoring. Is that a good resource? So you suggest spending $300 a month and pay off in full every month?
@AvaMommy wrote:Recently was approved for a BoA CC with a $3000 CL. Any advice on how I should use the BoA credit card in order to help boost my CLI in the future and how it is reported? Thanks!!!
Before BoA CC
EX 565
EQ 550
TU 602
After BoA CC
EX 596
EQ 586
TU 602 (BoA CC is not showing up...does anyone know why not or if I should inform them I have this card?)
Everyone's situation is different and there is no one size fits all approach to this and therefore no "ideal" number but what seems to work well for most people is to have only one of their cards report a small (<9% of it's credit limit) balance each month and then pay in full before the due date. You can use it as much as you want during the month but what's important is the reported balance because for most cards whatever is reported on the monthly statement is what is used to calculate utilization for the month.
You might have to play around with the percentages for a few months to see what works best for you. Some people say that 1-3% utilization helps the most. For others it might be 5-9%. As I said it's not one size fits all.
On any other cards always try and have them report a zero balance each month. That doesn't mean you can't use them just make sure that the desired zero balance on these accounts is achieved several days before their statements post.
Along with individual and overall utilization, FICO also scores the number of all types of accounts reporting a balance.at any one time Making sure less than half of all your accounts report a balance helps most people.
Now this approach really isn't necessary if you're not looking to apply for any credit in the near future or unless you are trying to tweak your score for maximum effect but some folks do this as a hobby just to see how high they can get their score.
Thank you very much for the info