More than Rebuilding -

[gman79]

Hello to all and thanking ahead for all the info you guys have here, but I'm lost and with a lot of options to follow, but I want to explain my situation to see how some of you guys will think.

30yr old and had a lot of bad issues with cc's when I was 18, 7 credit cards lost and even auto loan collection, ran the annualcredirreport several times during those years and there were there but stated all were deleting after 2009 - ran the report on 2010 and yes, nothing was there except a JCP closed account, so I re-started clean!!

So, first thing I did was ask a family member to add me to his Statefarm CC, 1500Limit but always with a balance of 1300 revolving for 17months, I told him I will pay this card but so he will not use it anymore, I got a BoA secured card on 10/2010 with 500CL, got the 500 back last week and was change to unsecured I asked to please increase the limit, now it is at 1000CL (balance $250), on march '11, I got a Cap1 with CL 500, now at $750 (balance $221) and a JCP started at $600, hit the increase and got a $1800 limit (balance $150)

I havent check any scores, but I got a floridafarmbeaure policy and the run thins 'lexisnexis' insurance score based on the credit report 'supposedly' and was 729

my plans are to get a mortgage next year once I get some good downpayment, but at least have a 750 credit score

I spend sunday from morning to now reading evertyhing but there are different ways, which one is better on my case?? (payoff balances, also, do I go after a CC with 5k limit or not yet??

[llecs]

Welcome!

I would refrain from applying for anything between now and the mortgage. Adding anything else will likely drop your scores now with the impact being felt for approx. a year, or at least knock off your chances from hitting your goal by a year or more.  Higher CLs does not result in a higher score. Adding more cards does not improve scores (unless you lack CCs...you are OK). What counts is how you use those cards and how you utilize the CLs. For max points, pay all but one CC to $0 and get the other to report a balance of under 9% of the CL. You don't have to do that today, but by the time you want to apply for a mortgage, get your CCs to reflect those balances. Other than that, let time do its thing.

The 729 likely isn't a FICO score. Or if it is, then it isn't a Classic FICO (the 300-850 range). There are insurance scoring models out there tailored for the insurance industry and that could be what they showed you. If interested in FICO, I recommend pulling your two FICO scores from here.

[gman79]

Thanks for all the info llecs, that was the road I was looking to go, since most of all agree on the best way to max points,

but let me ask you from your experience, one vs the other

lets say I have 600 Fico today, I pay the 3 CC to 0 and the 1500CL one revolves at 100 for 6 months - what will be my score then? 04/2012

vs the regular way, revolving the cards at 20% every month? 04/2012

Thanks again

[Booner72]

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@gman79 wrote:

Thanks for all the info llecs, that was the road I was looking to go, since most of all agree on the best way to max points,

but let me ask you from your experience, one vs the other

lets say I have 600 Fico today, I pay the 3 CC to 0 and the 1500CL one revolves at 100 for 6 months - what will be my score then? 04/2012

vs the regular way, revolving the cards at 20% every month? 04/2012

Thanks again

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Are you asking if you should move debt around your cards so they all have 20% reporting?  Or pay all down to 20%?  Either way - you will get more points by paying all but one to report a zero balance.  Remember, the balance on the statement is what reports, so you might have to pay on the due date, and then again before the statement.  People get LOTS of points by paying down revolving debt as it is about 1/3rd of your score.

[gman79]

Thanks Booner72

these are my numbers right now

Card1 Statefarmbank (since 12/2009) 1500CL - 1100 Balance

Card2 BoA  (10/2010 secured-unsecured this month) 1000CL - 250balance

Card3 Cap1 (03/2011) 750CL - 200balance

Card4 JCPy (03/2011) 1800CL - 170balance

now, what I was asking was the difference between right now paying down cards 2-4 to 0 and the other at $125(+-9%)

to the other option, just regular use of the cards with balance under 20%

Is there a big change in points increased from one to the other? lets say, now I have 600 in six moths with the first option I could be at 640 against the other 620 per say?

Thanks for any input from anyone with this experience