Gardening

[diphendrix]

I was approved for 2 Cap 1 card's, 300 CL each.

I see some people say to keep the balance under 10% of the limit, others say 30%.

What is my best plan of attack to garden these 2 cards, raise my score and get a nice CLI in the future???

thanks in advance everyone.

[VinnyVee]

From what I've seen and read about Capital One, they like to see a lot of activity for good CLIs. The strategy I've taken with my Capital One card is to use it as much as possible, but to also keep it from going past the 30% utility by paying off balances as soon as they post.. From my understanding 10% utility on one card is ideal for maximizing score, but anything up to 30% doesn't really look bad. It seems to be once your constantly carrying high balances is when lenders start feeling rather wary.

[tomfromrictmame]

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@diphendrix wrote:

I was approved for 2 Cap 1 card's, 300 CL each.

I see some people say to keep the balance under 10% of the limit, others say 30%.

What is my best plan of attack to garden these 2 cards, raise my score and get a nice CLI in the future???

thanks in advance everyone.

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My experience with Cap1 (though I never had a secured card) is good CLI's if you use the card regularly and oftentimes PIF.  Don't let utilization of more than 10% report, and you have a good opportunity to see things grow.  Exactly 1 year ago I had a $500 Orchard Bank card that was in the process of being converted over to Cap1.  My current limits are in my sig.

All that said, you will need to improve your scores to graduate to unsecured cards.  Low utilization and good payment history is the first step; now is also the time to start attacking the baddies.

Good luck!

[diphendrix]

Yeah both cards are unsecured which is great.

So when you say dont let 10% report, how do i monitor that exactly? can you give me an example? sorry i am so new to this.

[kjel]

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@diphendrix wrote:

Yeah both cards are unsecured which is great.

So when you say dont let 10% report, how do i monitor that exactly? can you give me an example? sorry i am so new to this.

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If your combined revolving limits are $1000, then you would only want a balance of $100 to report at the statement closing date as this is the balance reported to the credit bureaus. Certainly use it and pay it down throughout the month, their online payment system will draft it out of your bank account within a day.

Everyone has a sweet spot utilization % that gets them the best score, mine is 5-6%. I've gardened my $1000 card for the past 4 months charging around $300-400 throughout the month but paying it down to $100 by the end of the statement period. I was rewarded with a $2K CLI today

[TRC_WA]

CapOne is hard to crack...

I just got a $500 increase to $2000 from the EO after being denied for not enough card usage.  I did the same $100 per month and PIF with Barclay and got a $1000 CLI and a thank you for responsible card usage.