Advice to raise score??

[focused1914]

My fico score is now at 643 (not to bad).       I recently paid off all my credit cards except my GE Money Bank, balance about 2300.       Im currently still sending GW's out to Citibank, BOA (two accts) and a Credit union visa   (no luck so far).   (not giving up)    I have a best card 400 limit..zero balance,  First premier 300 limit.. zero balance, HSBC 400 limit.. zero balance, Cap one 750 limit zero balance, Credit One 1000 limit zero balance.      Is there anything else I can do to raise my score???      I paid off things this week... so my report from my fico probably will not report until when?     Will having zero balances help raise my score??       I would love to add 20 or so points to my score.   Thx in advance

[FrugalRican]

That GE Money Bank CC needs to go down and quick if you want a boost (although probably not MAJOR).

What's the CL on that card, that you have a $2,300 balance on it?

[focused1914]

$3850... is CL on GE Money Bank

[FrugalRican]

If I calculated correctly, your total CL would be about 6700.

That $2,300 is a HUGE chunk of your total CL. About 34%, and not only that, but that one card has about 60% utilization on it alone.

That balance needs to come down as quickly as you can throw money at it. Try to bring it down under $600 ASAP to have your total lines under 9%.

The thing you really want to do is have all the other cards still report a 0 balance and that one card report from 1% to 9%.

I'm sure you'll see a boost just from bringing that one card alone.

[focused1914]

THX... for the advice... maybe I will try and pay something extra each month

[FrugalRican]

Just try and get it down as quickly as you can, but if you aren't planning on any major purchase within the next 6 months, don't be hellbent on destroying your budget just to gain a few extra points in the FICO scores.

And in the meantime, keep those GW's rolling.

Best of luck!

[JohnPTEX]

Yeah my score literally swings up or down almost 75 points (EQ) based on my credit card utilization and "maxed out" status - Of course that is EQ and my understanding is that they weight CC utilization pretty hefty