% Balance to % of Credit Limit for Score Increases

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

I have about $8-10,000 to use to try to increase my credit score and would like to know what I should pay off to maximize the score. All are credit cards except for the first one which is an unsecured line of credit. What are the cut offs for score increases?

It may be easier to get the smaller accounts down to balances below 10% of credit line than to get larger balances from 48% of credit line down to below 33%. Where do I get more bang for the buck?

I would hate to pay a balance down to 15% only to find out that the next point bonus would be at 12%, etc. Is it better to have 5 cards below 10% and keep the other 3 at higher percentages or is it better to pay down the worst three and leave the others alone? I am looking for the quickest point increase as I have mortgages on investment properties hanging on this score increase. I really need to get my score up about 30 points as quickly as possible. I have no late payments.

Balance Limit % of Credit Line

Bank of America Credit Line 19904 50000 39.81

American Express Blue 4050 12600 32.14

Bank of America ' Card A' 8996 30000 29.99

Wells Fargo 3058 17000 17.99

Chase 4553 27300 16.68

Discover 3317 20000 16.59

FNANB 1403 10000 14.03

Citibank 2474 19060 12.98

Bank of America "Card B' 0 26,800 0

American Express Gold 0 unlimited 0 must pay in full monthly

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

Quickest score wise-

The 50K LOC does not calculate in UTL-

Zero out everything else out-

This might not be the best APR wise or finance wise-

The Utl point cut off seem to be

29%

19%

9%

For me there is a 20 point hit for too many accounts with balances-

You want to get less than 1/2 of open accounts with a balance-

RealtorGal wrote:

I have about $8-10,000 to use to try to increase my credit score and would like to know what I should pay off to maximize the score. All are credit cards except for the first one which is an unsecured line of credit. What are the cut offs for score increases?

It may be easier to get the smaller accounts down to balances below 10% of credit line than to get larger balances from 48% of credit line down to below 33%. Where do I get more bang for the buck?

I would hate to pay a balance down to 15% only to find out that the next point bonus would be at 12%, etc. Is it better to have 5 cards below 10% and keep the other 3 at higher percentages or is it better to pay down the worst three and leave the others alone? I am looking for the quickest point increase as I have mortgages on investment properties hanging on this score increase. I really need to get my score up about 30 points as quickly as possible. I have no late payments.

                                                    Balance            Limit            % of Credit Line

Bank of America Credit Line       19904           50000            39.81

American Express Blue              4050             12600            32.14

Bank of America  ' Card A'          8996             30000            29.99

Wells Fargo                                3058             17000            17.99

Chase                                         4553              27300            16.68

Discover                                     3317              20000            16.59

FNANB                                       1403              10000             14.03

Citibank                                       2474             19060             12.98

Bank of America "Card B'            0                 26,800           0

American Express Gold                0                unlimited        0        must pay in full monthly

smallfry · ‎05-28-2008

IF a FICO chart from 2003 is accurate the breaks seem to come at 8% 15% and 30%. I don't know if you can get 30 points from 10K with that much owed. You have 8 credit cards reporting a balance too. What are your scores now?

Creditaddict · ‎05-28-2008

I would take your money and pay what you can and what's left transfer to your BofA Credit line. Even though that account will be more maxed out, it's under a loan vs credit card.

When talking with BofA recently about an application, he complained about the debt, I started to explain a credit line and he said he didn't care about the loans, only the credit cards!

plus having 6 cards with 0%util and one "credit line" with 95% I think will balance out better than having 6 cards with any balance over 9% and credit line at 50%. Part of fico scoring is how many accounts have balances.

Interested to hear what others think about my thinking though

smallfry · ‎05-28-2008

@Creditaddict wrote:
I would take your money and pay what you can and what's left transfer to your BofA Credit line. Even though that account will be more maxed out, it's under a loan vs credit card.
When talking with BofA recently about an application, he complained about the debt, I started to explain a credit line and he said he didn't care about the loans, only the credit cards!
plus having 6 cards with 0%util and one "credit line" with 95% I think will balance out better than having 6 cards with any balance over 9% and credit line at 50%. Part of fico scoring is how many accounts have balances.
Interested to hear what others think about my thinking though

If the credit line is reporting as an installment the picture looks a whole lot better.

Creditaddict · ‎05-28-2008

my credit line reports as unsecured credit line. which I thought was just a big credit card as far as util and fico scoring. But according to BofA, anything on fixed payments they don't really care about, they are more concerned about your Credit cards having big balances.

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

I'm not real great at figuring these things, but if you can get less than half of your open tl's to report a zero balance, that will help alot. I am not sure on the exact percentage for point's since I have never got over 16%. I can say once I went over 10% my score dropped. For the best score, 1-9% UTL is recommended.

Does the BoA line of credit report as installment or revolving? Installment loans don't weigh as heavy on scoring like revolving does.

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

Don't pay them to $0...but about 1-5% UTL...you should see some kind of increase...

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

slyhouse08 wrote:
Don't pay them to $0...but about 1-5% UTL...you should see some kind of increase...

But to get the extra boost, less than half need to report at zero. I gained like 30 points on EQ for getting less than half to zero, without much shift in UTL.

Anonymous · ‎05-28-2008

I combined the replies-