General Credit Topics

[rew]

I am trying to raise my scores. Presently TU is 726 and EQ is 709.  I am trying to pay down cc debt.  How would my scores be affected if I paid a cc balance off of 4600.00 with my HELOC?  Isn't this type of debt seen differently than cc debt? Please advise.

Ryan

[haulingthescoreup]

This will only work if your HELOC is high enough to not be scored as revolving credit. Endless debate on what the magic figure is, and it varies by credit bureau. Definitely $50K CL is high enough, and the breakpoint is probably somewhere around $30K. Anything lower than the magic figure will make it report as revolving, and it will still be figured into your util.

This is not the balance, but the original credit limit.

And I guess this should go without saying, but don't let yourself get in the habit of shoving CC debt onto your HELOC. It's a terrible idea to transfer unsecured (CC) debt to secured (mortgage.) hth

[rew]

Thanks for responding haulingthescoreup. My credit line is for 50,000.  I totally agree with you that it isn't a good habit of transferring cc debt to HELOC debt.  I am trying to bump my scores up to get a better rate to refi my 1st mortgage and I thought this would help.  I am paying my other cc debt down as well which will also help. I appreciate your advice.

[haulingthescoreup]

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rew wrote:

Thanks for responding haulingthescoreup. My credit line is for 50,000.  I totally agree with you that it isn't a good habit of transferring cc debt to HELOC debt.  I am trying to bump my scores up to get a better rate to refi my 1st mortgage and I thought this would help.  I am paying my other cc debt down as well which will also help. I appreciate your advice.

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Sounds like a good solution, then.

Be sure to leave one card reporting a balance of $10 - 20. Don't let them all report $0, or you'll lose points. Strange, but true.