It is more to show the lender you are paying off in full a generous balance every month. They in turn, increase your limit. The next lender sees the higher limit, and wants to give you at least that initially, if not more. You show the new lender your pattern, and they increase your limit. Then third lender sees the higher limit and wants to match it...and so on and so forth. There are cards that you won't get approved for if your credit report doesn't show you have successfully managed at least $5000 in credit limit. The Chase Sapphire is one of those cards, as the min limit granted upon approval is $5000. I know this is true because I got denied that card because I wasn't currently carrying $5000 in credit limit. So how do you get there? Look at the beginning of my post.

And yes, there are many avenues to excellent credit. But what I outlined is how to use credit cards to your maximum benefit from that particular type of trade line. Credit cards can help a lot but it is not the full picture. Having diverse accounts, also boosts your score. JM-AM, you also have a mortgage, which is the most prestigious line of credit...so that helps your score tremendously.

I know exactly what is holding my score back from the 800's:

1. Not having a mortgage
2. A Ch 7 reporting, will delete Aug 2013
3. An unpaid collection
4. Not having an average credit limit greater than $2000. I have a $2500 limit card, but the average limit of all my cards is less than $2000.

By managing my credit cards the way I am, paying on student loans that are 13 years old never late, and paying on my second auto loan since bankruptcy and the previous one is closed paid as agreed; I am maximizing my score potential at this time.

My house is completely paid off after 2 years. So that may have played a big part. It also still shows on my reports as closed 0 balance.

So you may be correct on that. I will see what happens when it stops reporting in 8 years. Lol

You will be buying a new house to get the score back up lol.

Hush we been talking about it since we want to downsize, just not looking to put myself in debt with our lousy economy!!

Even if we decided to purchase, most likely we would pay cash. So thats not going to help scores!! Lol

I read somewhere in one of these forums that even if the judgement is on there it looks better to lenders if it is paid.  I believe it also has to be paid before he buys real estate in most cases.  You may want to check when judgements expire in the state you are in.  Where we live they expire in 10 years unless renewed by the creditor/CA . My husband has one from 2007 and the lady at Wells Fargo we talked to recommended that we don't use his credit to get the loan because that judgement may stand in the way if we can't afford to pay it right now. (His is quite a bit more than yours.)  Just something you may want to check into..

Wow JM-AM! Your house is fully paid off! That is a huge accomplishment that most of us just dream of. You deserve extra kudos for that! I would love to own my home outright but its just a fairy tale for me.

Was a rough 2 years and 4 months.... But thank goodness my family all struggled their parts also.

 

 

You will get there, just slowly whenever you can add additional to principal even if it is only 10 dollars!

 

If I had the interest rates they have today I may have taken longer to pay it off. But at 6.25% it was a killer!!!

Congratulations JM-AM, what an accomplishment!

With all this back and forth about maximizing credit card useage, it seems one major item was overlooked.  It does not matter if you have an 800 credit score, if you have an unpaid judgement.  The judgement has to be paid.  At that time you can attempt to get it vacated and removed from your credit report.  However, the credit report is not the issue.  The judgement has to be paid.  (I have read that if you have a payment plan with the creditor and 12 months of on time payments you may be able to get a mortgage, but I do not know for sure.)

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sharpie wrote:

With all this back and forth about maximizing credit card useage, it seems one major item was overlooked.  It does not matter if you have an 800 credit score, if you have an unpaid judgement.  The judgement has to be paid.  At that time you can attempt to get it vacated and removed from your credit report.  However, the credit report is not the issue.  The judgement has to be paid.  (I have read that if you have a payment plan with the creditor and 12 months of on time payments you may be able to get a mortgage, but I do not know for sure.)

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Well said sharpie. It's the first order of business for the op.