I've heard that revolving credit is the quickest way to improve your scores. And also to have a diverse credit portfolio. Do you have a car loan? Yes, I would continue paying down your card debt while letting some report each month.
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@Anonymous wrote:So I have been rebuilding my credit for the last few years since about 2010. I made the usual stupid mistakes when I was in college. I have always thought that my credit was pretty decent. I usually would use websites like freecreditreport.com and creditkarma.com. After finding myFico over the last few weeks I feel way more informed then all the stuff that I have learned all my life about earning and maintaining credit.
Currently my scores through myFico are EX-666, EQ-655, and TU-686 as of 11/12/14.
I recently had about $30,000 in debt that has been paid down to just over $9,000 in the course of a few months. After doing a Fico estimator I see that if I pay off my balances over time that I will ultimately increase my score. But now that I have eliminated almost all my debt I don't want to incur more just to raise my score. The cards that I currently have are:
NFCU cashRewards-$20k $0 bal
BofA MC-$5k BT of $2,645 (0% till May 2016 yes May 2016)
Cap1 Platinum-$4,250 $0 bal
Cap1 QS-$1,250 $446 bal
USAA MC-$1500 $481 bal (4% till Aug 2015)
CreditOne-$1075 $0 bal
NFCU LOC $2,623
NFCU Sig Loan $2,843
I have already set myself up to pay of the signature loan at the end of the month. But I am wondering if i should pay a little on each and carry a balance for a little while. I am kinda confused because I always see people saying pay everything in full at the end of the month. I just don't know which route is the best for me. I really wish my available balance on my BofA was higher so that I could transfer more to it. But with everything right now I have about an 11% UTL average. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Actually looking at the portfolio you've put tegether it looks great. The only suggestion I would submit is consider eliminating the CreditOne acct and replace it with a 0% BT CC line and transfer the LOC balance make sure its a card that would fit into your financial lifestyle. Then garden and watch your score go up 
@Anonymous wrote:So I have been rebuilding my credit for the last few years since about 2010. I made the usual stupid mistakes when I was in college. I have always thought that my credit was pretty decent. I usually would use websites like freecreditreport.com and creditkarma.com. After finding myFico over the last few weeks I feel way more informed then all the stuff that I have learned all my life about earning and maintaining credit.
Currently my scores through myFico are EX-666, EQ-655, and TU-686 as of 11/12/14.
I recently had about $30,000 in debt that has been paid down to just over $9,000 in the course of a few months. After doing a Fico estimator I see that if I pay off my balances over time that I will ultimately increase my score. But now that I have eliminated almost all my debt I don't want to incur more just to raise my score. The cards that I currently have are:
NFCU cashRewards-$20k $0 bal
BofA MC-$5k BT of $2,645 (0% till May 2016 yes May 2016)
Cap1 Platinum-$4,250 $0 bal
Cap1 QS-$1,250 $446 bal
USAA MC-$1500 $481 bal (4% till Aug 2015)
CreditOne-$1075 $0 bal
NFCU LOC $2,623
NFCU Sig Loan $2,843
I have already set myself up to pay of the signature loan at the end of the month. But I am wondering if i should pay a little on each and carry a balance for a little while. I am kinda confused because I always see people saying pay everything in full at the end of the month. I just don't know which route is the best for me. I really wish my available balance on my BofA was higher so that I could transfer more to it. But with everything right now I have about an 11% UTL average. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to the fourms. Specfically for scoring purposes, I would try and get the cards to have as low UTIL across the board as possible, but evenly. In other words, I would rather have 4 cards at 10% than three at zero and one at 40%.
However, financially I would transfer the highest interest rate cards to your 0% card and not worry about your score at the moment. UTIL has no memory, so once it's paid off your score will be fine.
Also, getting rid of the negatives that you reference is going to be a huge boost as well. Payment history and UTIL make up a majority of your score.
EDIT: Forgot to add, I wouldn't worry about adding a loan specifically for your score, your mortgage will count towards the 'mix of credit'.
