Ouch (- 29 pts) !

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone - Within last 2 months I opened a Best Buy cc(2500 limit) and a Wamu (5500 limit).  New report shows BB at $2224 and WAMU at $3687.  I just paid them both to within $150 on each so that the next report shows the new amount.  Should I pay them down to zero balance or keep a small amount on them?  I need these accounts because I only had 1 orchard acct open (500 limit).  Other than my mortgage I don't have anything else reporting to help with my score.  In the future I won't let my bal report that high!

TU -      651 (was 680)

EQ -      634 ( was 642) WAMU not reporting on this report

EX -       616 ( was 645)

[Anonymous]

Big Ouch-

Have less than 1/2 of your revolving account with a balance and remaining accounts under 10% of CL.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone - Within last 2 months I opened a Best Buy cc(2500 limit) and a Wamu (5500 limit). New report shows BB at $2224 and WAMU at $3687. I just paid them both to within $150 on each so that the next report shows the new amount. Should I pay them down to zero balance or keep a small amount on them? I need these accounts because I only had 1 orchard acct open (500 limit). Other than my mortgage I don't have anything else reporting to help with my score. In the future I won't let my bal report that high!

TU - 651 (was 680)

EQ - 634 ( was 642) WAMU not reporting on this report

EX - 616 ( was 645)

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[SmartCookie]

You are at good UTI  unless your Orchard is over $50.  No need to keep the 2 balances if you want to pay it off and avoid interest.  No need to not keep it with a balance if you got any good promo rates on either card.  You just have to make sure to use cards a few times a year to keep them reporting and show activity, which you have for now.

Your scores will recoup a lot since you paid that UTI down.

[Anonymous]

My personal philosophy is that I will use my cards (I PIF with very few exceptions - like last month when a settlement was delayed and I had to revolve some of the balance for a month).

Util comes into play with scoring - so if you are not applying for anything then you really don't need to max your score. If applying for something (mortgage, car another card) allow 3 months of 'adjustment time" to util to max score) not everyhting reports at the same time of the month and some base it on statement cut date and others on last business day or every Friday, etc... so it can take up to three months to get everything where it needs to be on the bureaus.

[Anonymous]

Hi mosieon. IMO the HUGE utils on both cards were enough to cause the scores to drop that much.

But scorewise, they will recover once the payments are posted, and they only show the $150 balance, on each one.

That plus the aging of those cc's.

I know before the Christmas shopping season began, all my utils were 9% or less. Now they are probably in the 20-35% range. And the scores are seriously down from the last time I pulled my scores.

I'm fighting with myself to pull my cr's and scores. But trying to wait until I get the utils back down to a reasonable level.