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Valued Member
sekada
Posts: 33
Registered: ‎03-24-2008

Paid off my last credit card, woohoo!! Now what?

The last payment went out last week... sayonara, $10,000 of credit card debt.  I've got my score up from 614 to 668... will it go up further as time passes without my running CC debt again, or is this pretty much the pinnacle?  I had a tough year a couple years ago and I have some charge-offs that people refuse to discharge, which are hurting my score... is this as good as it will get with those records? 

Frequent Contributor
BigDaddy18
Posts: 673
Registered: ‎04-23-2009

Re: Paid off my last credit card, woohoo!! Now what?

Wow I know the feeling!  I too am at zero credit card debt, now I'm working on my car and my truck!!  12 month plan to pay them both off!!

 

Congrats!!!


Starting Score: EQ FICO 777
Current Score: EQ FICO 803
Goal Score: EQ FICO 810


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Established Contributor
bettercreditguy1
Posts: 653
Registered: ‎02-11-2012

Re: Paid off my last credit card, woohoo!! Now what?

Feels great to be free doesn't it? I have always said you can be married to your debt or you can mange it, pif every statement.  Yes, your scores will rebound. Do remember that the time factor is your ally.

Starting scores 01/ 02/2012 EQ 707 TU 733 EXP 735 (FAKO)
Updated scores 05/01/2013 EQ 761 TU 780 EXP 788 (Exp. equivalency)


Remember the Three P's: Pay early in Full, Pay on Time, Patience
Moderator
Revelate
Posts: 4,285
Registered: ‎12-30-2011

Re: Paid off my last credit card, woohoo!! Now what?

[ Edited ]

Well done!

 

Regarding your question, it's hard to say as unfortunately everyone's is different.  The older a derogatory is, the less it counts.  Something which might drop you 100+ points on day one, might only be 15 points nearing year 7.  Anecdotally I've seen many people with a BK discharged a few years ago who get into the 700's, and even people one year out hit 680+, and one has to figure that a BK is one of the bigger derogatories possible on a credit report, but it is very much YMMV.

 

In any event, your score will continue to increase over time, but you may see plateaus as to what you can achieve due to the way the algorithm is implemented (age of your negatives, age of your positives too for that matter, and there's probably break points i.e. 32 months is the same as 33 months but may not be the same as 36 months -- 3 year mark, we just don't know for certain).  Still the absolute most important thing to focus on is not to get any more derogatory marks, the penalties are just too severe to ever justify it.

 

In my own case as an example, I have a stupid tax lien and a collection from a few years back.  Both resolved but hanging out on EQ: I'll probably get one more bump in July paying down my CC debt, but after that I probably don't get much in the way of increases until my tradelines tick over the one year mark, and then it's going to be a long wait from there for future non-marginal improvements most likely... another six months or a year.

 

 


Starting Score: EQ 561, TU 567, EX 599* (12/30/11, EX lender pull 12/29/11)
Current Score: EQ 660, Wally TU 697, EX unknown (05/13/13)
Goal Score: 680 in all three (01/01/14)


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Valued Contributor
AndySoCal
Posts: 1,618
Registered: ‎04-07-2009

Re: Paid off my last credit card, woohoo!! Now what?

What type of accounts are the charge offs? IE Installment, Revolving etc

Equifax My FICO score 815 5/28/2012. Average of Accounts 12 years and no Installment accounts. MyFICO TU 810 6/26/2012 809 4/21/2013

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