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How maxed out cards affect your FICO

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Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

Hello Ladyfico!  I don't believe that sitting and waiting is the best method for increasing a score.  In another forum I mentioned that I boosted my score from 585 to 718 in one year.  First of all, I never pay the minimum anymore (the 3 months I did pay the minimum, I watched my score drop steadily).  Also, whenever I get extra cash I make big paydowns on my accounts.  Several months ago I paid several revolving accounts off completely and am still seeing the positive effects of this action.   I would never consider closing my unused accounts, because this is known to lower your score, sometimes significantly.  The reason for this is that when you close accounts, you wind up changing your available credit to balance ratio (one of the things a fico score strongly considers).   Also, it's a wise idea to think ahead whenever you charge a purchase to a revolving account.  Before I make such purchases I ask myself, "how long will it take me before I will be able to pay this off and how much will I be able to pay off on this purchase next month?".  Being proactive with ones accounts can definately make a huge difference with ones credit score.   One of the things presently effecting my score is that my oldest account is just two years old.  I look forward to my accounts aging and thus increasing my credit score.  Finally, I think the best thing people can do in relation to their credit scores is to educate themselves as much as they can about the credit scoring process.   Knowledge brings power and allows people to actively effect the outcomes of their future.
 
 
 
 
Message 11 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

Hi!
Thanks for all the insight.  Hubby and I too filed for bankruptcy a few years back (2003) due to loss of his job. We are still in our home, but have had to refinance twice! We are trying to bring up our scores to get a good fixed mortgage rate next year. We only have 2 credit cards totalling $1050 in debt, but they are almost maxed. I have been doing like you did, paying more than minimum and always on time. What is the best course of action? Pay them at least 75% off asap? Money is tight, but it will be even tighter if we don't qualify for a fixed rate next year. How much could you expect our scores to increase? Also, any other things you can think of to bring them up? Thanks in advance, Chris.
Message 12 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

You have two utilization factprs that hit your score.  Any card over50% will cause a drop.  Maxed out causes a major drop.  After that you needto look attotal utilizatin.  Below 30% is good, below 10% is best
 
HTH
Message 13 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

I just made a purchase of $400 on my capital one card yesterday which i already owed $89 on. It has a limit of $500. In other words, it is maxed out. However, I plan on paying roughly around $350 BEFORE the next statement is issued, which is 5-10-07 (I should be able to pay off $350 on 5-8-07). That would leave me around $150ish balance when my next statement comes out. How do you guys think it will affect my credit score?
 
Thanks.
Message 14 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO



Irvin wrote:
I just made a purchase of $400 on my capital one card yesterday which i already owed $89 on. It has a limit of $500. In other words, it is maxed out. However, I plan on paying roughly around $350 BEFORE the next statement is issued, which is 5-10-07 (I should be able to pay off $350 on 5-8-07). That would leave me around $150ish balance when my next statement comes out. How do you guys think it will affect my credit score?
 
Thanks.


 
Cap one doesn't reort limit so your high balance with reflect as the limit.  The 150.00 you have left is the most you should  have on that card with that high blance reporting and never let it rise above that unless you can get a CLI and max it oout and pay it back down to 30% of the high balance before the statemnet date

Message 15 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

They won't give me a credit line increase. I just tried a month ago.
 
If i wait until the statement comes out, have the balance of nearly $500 show up on my report...and pay it off immediately (the entire 500 which i cant afford by end of may) so that next month's statement has a lower balance..will that help me? My actually limit is $500 on the card but when i look at the report, it says my limit is $0 and a High balance of $240.
Message 16 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO



Irvin wrote:
They won't give me a credit line increase. I just tried a month ago.
 
If i wait until the statement comes out, have the balance of nearly $500 show up on my report...and pay it off immediately (the entire 500 which i cant afford by end of may) so that next month's statement has a lower balance..will that help me? My actually limit is $500 on the card but when i look at the report, it says my limit is $0 and a High balance of $240.


If you pay it off after the statement date, Cap 1 may not report this activity for three months.  They have a habit of reporting 0 balance accounts quarterly whic I learned from expereince.  Pay it down but leave 5.00 on the balance.  %.00 reporting wont reflect harshly and it will update that month


Message Edited by Brammy on 04-17-2007 12:05 PM
Message 17 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: Do you use score monitoring program on this site? I signe...

I use the My fico score watch.  I have been watching my score change a lot over the last couple of months, but I have been making a lot of changes.  It is normal for your score to not change for a long period of time.  I have been watching my scores for about 2 months now.  The first month it went up about 50 points, the second month it hasnt done anything.
 
My score went up 50 points because I: 1-disputed negative items, 2- requested credit limit increases and got one, 3. had a negative item removed, 4. paid a balance on a credit card by $2,000.
 
If you have major changes, you will notice your score change.
Karen
Loan Officer in UT
Message 18 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: How maxed out cards affect your FICO

Util is key! I'm also thinking my credit profile is aging gracefully. I noticed that in months that I paid on time and maybe slightly more than the min my fico barely moved. As I said I paid off ten but I know it will take awhile before I see all the results of the paydowns due to statement cuts and when they report to the bureau. On my equifax still nothing has updated. On TU two cards have updated and also an old collection (paid) fell off and I saw an increase of approx 56 points in five weeks! My Experian has increased approx 39 points on this bureau I show only 1 account updated and 1 paid collection fell off. Also, this bureau and equifax lists all my cc where as tu does not. Equifax has updated yet for whatever reason so I'm still waiting. Even with the big boosts I haven't reached my goal but when you play by fico rules you will eventually win Smiley Happy
 
I know over the course of the next 45 days I should continue to see marked improvement in my FICO. I'll continue to keep you posted. 
Message 19 of 24
Anonymous
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Re: Do you use score monitoring program on this site? I signe...

Be sure that your alerts are set appropriately. 
 
Ex:   If your current credit score is 600 and you would like to get an alert when it changes, set the alert to 601.  A change of 1 point in the score will trigger a notification to you. If you notice that your score changed and you did not receive a notice, (after taking the above action) then I would contact FICO customer service to have them fix the problem. Smiley Wink
Message 20 of 24
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