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As the final debts from finishing off my divorce hit, I was afraid that my score would get low enought that the CLDs might start and act like a row of dominos. Numerous old accounts still hanging on were also dropping from my reports as the number of accounts with balances grew. At the beginning of 2010, I had 34 accounts on my reports. I'm now down to 23. I have now hit the bottom and was unable to keep 9 out of 13 CC reporting a balance. The total amount of CC debt grew to $110K but my EQ FICO stayed above 700. 701 is above 700, right.
Final result is:
9 of 13 revolving accounts reporting balances
$110,276 total revolving out of $173,600 for 64% util
$3970 installment out of original balance of $11K original
$30K HELOC reporting as mortgage by EQ - maxed out
$264K mortgage out of $300K original
I learned:
1. No change from 7 of 13 revolving with balances changing to 9 of 13. It seem the big hit is around 50%.
2. Little or No change from 11 accounts falling off my reports that were mine from 1990-2000 or joint accounts where I was removed.
3. TU FICO of 737 is way off since they toss out my BofA card converted to a flexible spending account. EQ FICO still counts both the $43K balance and the $46K limit. This shows my util at 49%.
I would not concentrate on the number of cards reporting balances. That has much less impact on your credit score than % util.
I would first concentrate on reducing overall % util, which is the biggest factor.
ONce you get that to around 30%, then I would start worrying about the less important factors of % util of each indiv card, and number of cards reporting a balance.