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Strategy advice needed to increase score

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Varakai
New Contributor

Strategy advice needed to increase score

What is the best strategy to increase my scores?

Pay off a installment car loan $5,000/$14,000?
Reduce util on my boa card $4,800/6,000?
Reduce util on my disc card $5,500/$6,000?

All other cards have similar credit limits and don't have any balances or very small ones.

Overall util 30%

Scores in my sig pulled here yesterday.



Starting Score: 500’s
Current Score: EQ Fico 707 TU Fico 737 TU08 Fico (Wal-Mart)736 EX Fico 733
Goal Score: 760+


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Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
EW800
Valued Contributor

Re: Strategy advice needed to increase score

I am not an expert in this area, as I too am trying to get scores up, however I would think bringing down the UTIL on the two cards would be your best bet.  It is my understanding that having different "types" of trade lines works to your advantage, so depending on your profile, paying off the car loan may not be your best option.  I have found that getting credit card UTIL under 10% can be very healthy.

 

 

Year 2012: All Scores in the 520 range, during a foreclosure, CC Settlement and high UTIL. Very ugly days...
April 2023: EX8: 840; EQ8: 832; TU8: 842 -- Middle Mortgage Score: 822
In My Wallet: Discover $73.7K; Cap1 Venture $48.7K; Amex ED $38K; Amex Optima $2.5K; Amex Delta Gold $18K; Citi Costco $22.5K; Cap1 Plat $8.4K; Barclay $7K; Chase Amazon $6K; BoA Plat $21.6K; Citi TY Pref $21K; US Bank $4K; Dell $5K; Care Credit $6.5K. Total Revolving CL: $296K
My UTIL: Less than 1% - Only allow about $10 a month to report, on one account. .
Message 2 of 6
avggoal700
Frequent Contributor

Re: Strategy advice needed to increase score

Just be careful if you make a big payment to pay down your cc, some people report that the cc company sometimes will lower your credit limit after that (CLD).




EX 706. TU 705 EQ 682. Avg 698
Message 3 of 6
user5387
Valued Contributor

Re: Strategy advice needed to increase score


@Varakai wrote:
What is the best strategy to increase my scores?

Pay off a installment car loan $5,000/$14,000?
Reduce util on my boa card $4,800/6,000?
Reduce util on my disc card $5,500/$6,000?

All other cards have similar credit limits and don't have any balances or very small ones.

Overall util 30%

Scores in my sig pulled here yesterday.



Reduce DIscover then BOA.

 

If you have the funds, pay them off after reducing them.

 

FICO utilization scoring looks at both overall and individual utilization, and both cards are maxed out or nearly so.

 

Revolving utilization is more important than installment utilization.

 

Message 4 of 6
Involver
Valued Contributor

Re: Strategy advice needed to increase score

Yep, that Discover is hitting you twice for high util and for being maxed out.  You'll want to address that first.

Message 5 of 6
gh17
Frequent Contributor

Re: Strategy advice needed to increase score

Yep.  The car loan is in good shape (possibly even better shape than if it were completely paid off to 0 - although paying it down/off is obviously good for the sake of saving on interest).  Credit card utilization has a way bigger effect on your score.  You're dinged a little, but not a lot, for high balances on loans, simply because the loan is always going to start out at 100% (whereas with credit cards, you're not encouraged to use the whole limit).  You should probably pay down Discover first, then BofA, then the loan (although always make at least minimum payments on all).  Also, don't feel like you need to completely pay off one thing before starting on the other.  Two cards less than 50% utilization is probably (guessing) better than one card 20% and one card 80%.

 

Also keep the interest rates on the cards in mind.  It almost certainly makes more sense in terms of saving money to pay down the credit cards before the loans unless you have a crazy high rate loan or a crazy low rate card.

BofA Cash Rewards 25,000 (2009) | Citi Double Cash 25,000 (2011) | Cap1 Quicksilver 10,000 (2013) | Discover It 31,000 (2014) | Chase Freedom 9000 (2014) | Barclaycard Rewards 25,000 (2014)

FICO: 840 Discover/Barclays/BofA TU, 869 Citi Equifax
Message 6 of 6
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