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I am currently at EQ 684 TU 681 EX 654 according to myfico. I am looking to purchase a house sometime this year but I want to bring my score up. I am currently on 31% utilization. I usually pay all my CC bills minumum 50% every month, what should i do? I was thinking of paying all my cards off and using just one card for daily purchases, right now i spread the wealth between my cap one, CSP and AMEX ED. As you can see in my signature my CL's are not that high on my cards. I also have an auto lease thats has about 18 months left. I went on a tear last month to try to get my CL's increased on my low cards and I think I made too many inquiries which killed the score. So what are some baby steps I can take to try to get this going bc by summer I'm going to be in full swing home buying mode
@Anonymous wrote:I am currently at EQ 684 TU 681 EX 654 according to myfico. I am looking to purchase a house sometime this year but I want to bring my score up. I am currently on 31% utilization. I usually pay all my CC bills minumum 50% every month, what should i do? I was thinking of paying all my cards off and using just one card for daily purchases, right now i spread the wealth between my cap one, CSP and AMEX ED. As you can see in my signature my CL's are not that high on my cards. I also have an auto lease thats has about 18 months left. I went on a tear last month to try to get my CL's increased on my low cards and I think I made too many inquiries which killed the score. So what are some baby steps I can take to try to get this going bc by summer I'm going to be in full swing home buying mode
What you want to end up with is 1 of your revolvers reporting a balance no more than 9% of its CL and the rest of your revolvers at 0. You can use them during the month just pay them before the statement cuts, on the card you are going to let report a balance only pay it down to the percentage you choose. You will recover the score hit for those inqs typically in 6 months time and at most 1 year.
@Anonymous wrote:I am currently at EQ 684 TU 681 EX 654 according to myfico. I am looking to purchase a house sometime this year but I want to bring my score up. I am currently on 31% utilization. I usually pay all my CC bills minumum 50% every month, what should i do? I was thinking of paying all my cards off and using just one card for daily purchases, right now i spread the wealth between my cap one, CSP and AMEX ED. As you can see in my signature my CL's are not that high on my cards. I also have an auto lease thats has about 18 months left. I went on a tear last month to try to get my CL's increased on my low cards and I think I made too many inquiries which killed the score. So what are some baby steps I can take to try to get this going bc by summer I'm going to be in full swing home buying mode
I think the strategy you listed is sound. I'm going to advise you of what I did to increase my credit score, prior to purchase of new home, and what the simulator advises now that inquiries are depressing my score.
In March 2014, my EX bank enhanced FICO score was 751. In April I paid my cards down to less than 30%. Thus my May 2014 EX bank enhanced FICO was 808. In May
I paid all cards off, but continuied to charge on FNBO and AmEX and paying off by due date. Thus they continued to show balances reporting even though I wasn't paying interest and paid in full each month. My EX FICO score from FNBO in June was 837. (It might have been higher had I not started house hunting and got hit for four inquiries in April and May).
Anyway I kept using real Estate brokers to pull my credit, until I purchased my new home and I now sit with 13 inquiries on my record. Only 1 inquiry was for a new credit card. Two were for CLI and the rest were real estate related.
Two days ago I purchased myFICO EQ and thus have access to the simulator. The only thing I can do to improve my score now, is continue to pay on time and wait. My EQ score only got to 797 on myFICO and 780 for mortgage (Beacon FICO 04). It currently shows 767 on myFICO and will go up to 822 in 18 months. The slider shows 24, but when you move it to the left, you can see when is the earliest estimate to get that score.
Fortunately, it shows that in 3 months my score will be 782;792 in 6 months; and 812 in 12 months. In addition, the new product on myFICO that became available today, will give you your mortgage score as well as your generic FICO score so you'll know exactly where you sit and whether or not you're improving your score.
@Anonymous wrote:I am currently at EQ 684 TU 681 EX 654 according to myfico. I am looking to purchase a house sometime this year but I want to bring my score up. I am currently on 31% utilization. I usually pay all my CC bills minumum 50% every month, what should i do? I was thinking of paying all my cards off and using just one card for daily purchases, right now i spread the wealth between my cap one, CSP and AMEX ED. As you can see in my signature my CL's are not that high on my cards. I also have an auto lease thats has about 18 months left. I went on a tear last month to try to get my CL's increased on my low cards and I think I made too many inquiries which killed the score. So what are some baby steps I can take to try to get this going bc by summer I'm going to be in full swing home buying mode
When was the last time you did the AMEX 3X CLI on either the ED or JetBlue cards? Those do not incur a HP, and you can 3x each of those cards every 6 months, presuming none of these two cards is newer than 61 days now.
Increasing your available CL on the two AMEX cards is an easy step you can do to improve your utilization percentage, particularly on the ED if you are, well, using it every day.
@Anonymous wrote:
I got denied my 6 month CLI on my Amex everyday card bc of too many inquiries and low EX score. That was like 2 weeks ago. I'm not going to try the jet blue yet bc I'm probably gonna get denied as well
Sorry to hear that.
Are any of your balances that you are carrying on 0% BT offers? If not, you should try to reduce those balances that are non-zero APR. That will have two effects: Lower your monthly interest cost and lower your utilization percentage. Over time, that EX will rise, probably when the INQ reach a year, which should be April? May?
At this point, I would not stop using the cards or to try to pay before statement cuts. Each month of activity on the cards (small activity) is going to add positives to your CR.
As with all things FICO, it takes time to see improvements.
edit: And I hope it goes without saying to not app for new cards yet. Let the INQ fade and your scores rise before setting up any apps.