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Once I pay down cards

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christina35
Established Member

Once I pay down cards

How long will it take for me to see a rise in my scores?

 

My scores in January were right around 600-635, then I had to open a care credit card because of a root canal, then the lender we spoke with told me to apply for a credit card to get my scores up just those few points. Well guess what they plummeted! Smiley Indifferent

 

My scores right now are in the 570 range now & I'm just heart broken. I've been working since Nov of 2011 and just when I thought my scores were so close to getting to 640 so we could apply for a house... they just fell.

 

I have a VS card which is at 0

 

In April we were hit with a huge truck repair bill & unfortunately had to utilize our credit cards. I'm looking at our finances right now and I can have Walmart and CO paid off completely (Both have balances of 250.00 or less).... However our CU Mastercard is sitting at 950.00 with a CL of 1000. I plan on paying at least 600 (07.02.13) on that one, then the rest probably the next half of July, August 1 paycheck.

 

How fast can I expect to see my scores rise?

 

Also do you think it's hurting that I have 5 open Credit Cards under my name/AU? Or is that okay I just need to get them down to zero and 1 with less than 10% utilization.

 

As always thanks for your thoughts.

 

PS all cards are about 6 months new & all have been paid on time.

Message 1 of 11
10 REPLIES 10
DrJim
Frequent Contributor

Re: Once I pay down cards

As far as utilization is concerned you will see a jump as soon as the new balance is posted.  The maxed out card is killing you.

 

The inquiries for the new cards will hurt for a year, but some folks say they hurt less after 6 months.  They will stay on your report for two years.

 

Most folks say that they see their score rebound from an app spree in 6 months or so.  But the biggest things hurting you now are utilization and the maxed out (90% or more of CL) card.



Starting Score: TU 672 EQ 654 10/20/09
Current Score: TU 775 EQ 783 EX 799 (PLUS)
AMEX Delta Platinum $35K, NFCU Visa Signature $30K, HHonors Reserve Visa $35K, WF $13.5K, IHG Rewards Club MC $25K
Message 2 of 11
dodfire
Valued Contributor

Re: Once I pay down cards


@DrJim wrote:

As far as utilization is concerned you will see a jump as soon as the new balance is posted.  The maxed out card is killing you.

 

The inquiries for the new cards will hurt for a year, but some folks say they hurt less after 6 months.  They will stay on your report for two years.

 

Most folks say that they see their score rebound from an app spree in 6 months or so.  But the biggest things hurting you now are utilization and the maxed out (90% or more of CL) card.


+1

Once your cards hit their 1 year mark that is going to help you also. But as stated, its that maxed out card that is killing you!!

*8/10/13
Message 3 of 11
christina35
Established Member

Re: Once I pay down cards

Perfect!

 

Y'all are amazing.

 

ps... I'm not sure what happened... but this screenname and number of postings is not correct? A glitch in the Matrix?

Message 4 of 11
ReaLiLJ
Regular Contributor

Re: Once I pay down cards

What's killing you is that all your cards are fairly new, and are all being used, and at very high utilization rates! What is also killing you is that it's not just high util rates on each card, it is also because your total util rate seems pretty high as well. You also stated that your cards are all fairly new, and because of it your inquiries are pretty high too, so your fico report is probably stating that you have too many inquiries and on paper it seems as if your seeking to much credit (which is very bad) + the fact that you have so many cards in use. All in all all this combined together is why your credit score is sitting where it is now. Hence your -70/80 point drop in your scores! Smiley Sad

No worries, your not in "the worst position" and you can get those scores back up in no time, but first let me welcome you to the garden before it's too late!

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Garden-Club-Meeting-June-2013/m-p/2185249

The next steps I would take: 
1. Stay in the garden and avoid applying for any new LOC's

2. Keep doing what your doing and pay off your cards, the less cards reporting the better, as your fico score will slowly but steadily increase, as your util rate goes down and your heavy use turns into low util. (Will wait for others to chime in on whether you should pay that almost maxed out card down or get rid of the balances on your other card + CO)
For me I would pay the balance down on that maxed out card so that card is not constantly reporting that high bal as it's killing you but since you can pay off your walmart and CO and then the almost maxed out card soon after going in the order you stated I feel its a good idea exception: I'm not to familiar with CO's and I know from what I've been reading (that by paying it off you bring it up to date, and it starts reporting the present balance that it just updated to, which is good and bad, so I will wait on others to chime in on that one.)
3. Yes if you have 1 card reporting with a low util rate (1%) it will maximize your fico current fico score, and as it ages over the next few months it will rise if your using this method.

4.Your inquiries will not affect you going into app's after about 6 months, and after a year should stop factoring heavy in your fico scoring, and will fall off in 2 years from the date you apped.

 

Bottomline: Your scores won't change immediately but soon after you get that 1 card reporting that 1% rate and (figure out the CO option route) you in the next few months your fico score should be close back to where it was previously/ if not higher.

HTH - LJ

20 Years & 1 Month Young; Total Income: $53k (Credit History): 1.9 years AAOA: 1.0 years
Fico Scores: Exp: 725 (12/4) EQ: 703 (11/13) TU: 736 (12/6) Total Credit Available: 89k
Wallet: AmEx Plat- NPSL | AmEx BCP $10.5K | BestBuy SC $10k | Duck Card $8k | BoFA CR Plat Plus Sig. $5k | Discover IT $6k | Chase Freedom Sig. $7k | CSP Sig. $5k | USBank Cash+ Sig. $5k | Barclays R MC $5k | Chevron Visa $5k | BR Visa $5k | Walmart Discover $4k | DCU Plat Visa $3k | QuickSilver CR $3k | Macy's Store CC/Macy's Amex $2.5k/$3k | BML $1.2k | Citi Divi Plat Visa $500
Open Loans: Sallie Mae SL: ($5.6k) (Def.) Car Loan (Red Devil FR-S): $20k/33k Remaining -Will Pay Off in 2yrs. Advice Welcomed!
Message 5 of 11
christina35
Established Member

Re: Once I pay down cards

Wow! Thank you for being so thorough!

 

Believe me I don't want to apply for anything else ever again. Unless it's our Application for our home.

 

Here are my CL's and Bal

CO 300CL ... Bal: 235.00

VS 250CL ...  Bal:0

WM 500CL ... Bal: 240.00

CU 1000CL ... Bal 950.00

 

We may have to eat sandwiches and ramen noodles (ok that's an exxageration) the next month, But I'm deteremined to get these suckers where they need to be.

 

Message 6 of 11
cookiebird
Frequent Contributor

Re: Once I pay down cards

I am pretty new to this (about a month) but from what I read it sounds like you just need to pay down your uti and you will be good. Your score should bounce back quickly.  I have 5 cc's as well and before I joined the forum I had no idea that keeping them maxed out was killing my score. I made a fairly large payment to each of them at the beginning of June and when the first one posted my score went up 14 points. That wasn't even paying it off!  I think I went from 100% uti on that card to 80%.  So with you paying off your cards you should bounce back quickly.




last app 11/13/2013 gardening for at least a year
Message 7 of 11
dodfire
Valued Contributor

Re: Once I pay down cards


@christina35 wrote:

Wow! Thank you for being so thorough!

 

Believe me I don't want to apply for anything else ever again. Unless it's our Application for our home.

 

Here are my CL's and Bal

CO 300CL ... Bal: 235.00

VS 250CL ...  Bal:0

WM 500CL ... Bal: 240.00

CU 1000CL ... Bal 950.00

 

We may have to eat sandwiches and ramen noodles (ok that's an exxageration) the next month, But I'm deteremined to get these suckers where they need to be.

 


You are not far away from being in really good shape....You could ask your CU if they would increase the limit on your card...if they would do that without doing a hard pull on your credit. That would help your UTL until you get them paid down.

*8/10/13
Message 8 of 11
christinam77
Established Member

Re: Once I pay down cards

I think I figured my login situation.... Anyway I've been sitting here with these figures on screen looking at my Excel spreadsheet - Trying to figure out the best way to get the CU Mastercard paid down.

 

Since that one is so maxed out should I concentrate on paying say 600.00 - 07.02.13, and instead of paying off CO & Walmart pay them maybe a 100.00 each?

 

Then on 07.30 pay the remaining 320.00 to CU MC (leaving it at an approx. 9% UTI)

CO pay remaning 135.00 (leaving it at 9% UTI)

WM pay remaning 140.00 - Leaving a 0 Balance

 

Sorry if I'm still with this. I need to get a game plan going and stick to it. I keep thinking about you all stating to pay the card down that is closer to being maxed.

 

Thanks again!!

My Scores:
Equ: 575 (11.2011) 631 (09.2012) 646 (12.2012) 652 (01.2013)
Exp: 524 (11.2011) 573 (09.2012) 633 (12.2012) 629 (01.2013)
TU: 520 (11.2011) 601 (09.2012) 636 (12.2012) 641 (01.2013)
My Husband:
Equ: 530 (11.2011) 584 (09.2012) 600(12.2012) 599 (01.2013)
Exp: 529 (11.2011) 590 (09.2012) 621 (12.2012) 616 (01.2013)
TU: 550 (11.2011) 608 (09.2012) 629(12.2012) 626 (01.2013)
Message 9 of 11
Saphra
New Member

Re: Once I pay down cards

I don't know what is the optimal way to do it - I would suggest going at the largest balance first though. For moral support, I just paid off my Cap One card last month ($870 balance on the card), the update just hit my account today and my EQ FICO score went up 87 points. So you should see a lot of improvement when you get that biggest # down.

Message 10 of 11
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