Rebuilding Your Credit

[Mike_B03]

I paid down my credit card which took my total utilization from 42% to 0% and saw a boost of +12 points on my Equifax FICO score. That was the only change. Now sitting at 674.

[awdsmama]

Great job!

[hoping2rebuild]

Awesome Congrats

[racer-x]

That's great.  I'm sitting at the exact same utilzation now, 42% of $20K  available credit.  

I paid it down to 3-4% 3 wks ago and am waiting for the updated CR's next week.

I'm hoping for a 20 pt boost, but I'll take 16 pts to get to the EQ 720 club.

Good job!  DCU here we come!!

[tmobileguy]

Ive heard that 1-9% is actually better per the fico scoring model then 0%...i would be curious if you charged something and left the percentage at 1-9 if it would actually go up

[Mike_B03]

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tmobileguy wrote:

Ive heard that 1-9% is actually better per the fico scoring model then 0%...i would be curious if you charged something and left the percentage at 1-9 if it would actually go up

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I have the MyFico Score Watch so I'll tinker with it next month and get it to 5% util and see what that does to the score.

[racer-x]

I dropped 7 pts on EQ after I purposely kept a $32 balance showing on my $700 Walmart account.

Not sure if showing a small balance is good or bad?

[Mike_B03]

I'm itching to buy another TransUnion FICO score as the util has updated with TU now as well accoring to the free Transunion.com trial I have going...curious to see how dropping the util affected that score. It was 668 three days ago. Worth the $20 for a new score?

[racer-x]

Mike - Once my SW EQ updated here wth my new accounts showing, I had to buy the TU report on myFico.

I couldn't take it anymore.  Unfortunately, my TU dropped 23 whereas my EQ went up21 and then back down 12.  But still, a 32 pt swing in the opposite directions between EQ and TU.  Go figure?

Most will tell you it's not worth it, but I say do it.  If a few bucks is the cost of learning and seeing how your score reacts to different circumstances, I say it's worth it. 

[rckstrscott]

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tmobileguy wrote:

Ive heard that 1-9% is actually better per the fico scoring model then 0%...i would be curious if you charged something and left the percentage at 1-9 if it would actually go up

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Depending on overall makeup, bucket ect ect.. you are pretty accurate..

My scores are always 6 to 8 pts higher around the board carrying 3 percent total... 0 balances on all cards but one, and 9 percent on that one card..

My scores were all higher than they were with 0 balances around the board, but minimal. The logic is, FICO is a predictor of future on time payments and default probablity... if you dont have usage of revovling, it feels it doesn't have enough solid data to gauge and dings yer score a little; since FICO is just a current snapshot. If your current snapshot shows no usage, it has a harder time with its math... minimal really.

-scott