topic Re: Best way to increase score! in Credit Cards

Best way to increase score!

Pony4her — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 22:05:21 GMT

Hey credit cousins! Just applied and was approved for Am Ex Blue ($1k) and Discover ($2k). Can you tell me what's the best method of increasing my score monthly? What credit utilization should I practice? Thank you in advance!

Re: Best way to increase score!

pizzadude — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 22:29:55 GMT

Congrats on the double approvals ! For optimal FICO scoring you should practice the AZEO method, and ideally you'd have at least three open revolving accounts.

Re: Best way to increase score!

SouthJamaica — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 23:07:54 GMT

@Pony4her wrote:
Hey credit cousins! Just applied and was approved for Am Ex Blue ($1k) and Discover ($2k). Can you tell me what's the best method of increasing my score monthly? What credit utilization should I practice? Thank you in advance!

Agree with @pizzadude Also you should not let any card report utilization > 28%, and your aggregate reported utilization should be kept below 9%.

Re: Best way to increase score!

ptatohed — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 01:01:02 GMT

I have a lot in common with many of my MF friends and lots of differences. One of those many differences is I have never once done or cared to do anything in particular to change or raise my credit score. All I have ever done is simply use credit responsibly. I only use the credit I need and I pay on time (car and home) and always pay in full (credit cards). That's it. Scores in the 800s. Feel free to practice all the acronym stuff but, honestly, my advice is to just use credit responsibly and your scores will follow.

Re: Best way to increase score!

jcar — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 01:40:20 GMT

Try to charge what you can pay back with the next credit card statement closing. Do this for every card vs paying just the minimum payment. And never ever miss a payment.

Re: Best way to increase score!

FicoMike0 — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 03:11:17 GMT

You've gotten good advice so far. Do you have an installment loan? If not, a ssl should be good for 30-40 points.

Another point, do you have a time horizon? If you plan on needing a high score, you want to shut down new credit/inquiries 12 months in advance. There are points penalties for new accounts and inquiries which expire at 12 months age.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Realist — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 14:06:15 GMT

There are ways to acquire a quick FICO score. We did this to a number of young individuals, the highest was 822 FICO out of the gate. Their credit profile was paper thin, but they looked great score wise. Fortunately, it opened the door to many card opportunities and even installment loan opportunities, that expanded into something fruitful today, with a little guideance.

We also applied a quick FICO score method to a high 580 or so candidate, and pushed them into the 780 range. Yes we jumped the score, but they were denied, denied, denied, until they were finally accepted. The profile was considered thin.

The FICO score is not the end all be all. The answer is to develop a thick, and tank like credit portfolio over time. Most will follow an algo that suggest three cards following AZEO standards, but at the end of the day, that's not much different than what we did with our 580 candidate.

If you want to build out a tank of a profile, you should be looking at ideal credit card utilization, along with installment loans when crafted to support your lifestyle.

Re: Best way to increase score!

ElvisCaprice — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 08:46:36 GMT

@ptatohed wrote:
I have a lot in common with many of my MF friends and lots of differences. One of those many differences is I have never once done or cared to do anything in particular to change or raise my credit score. All I have ever done is simply use credit responsibly. I only use the credit I need and I pay on time (car and home) and always pay in full (credit cards). That's it. Scores in the 800s. Feel free to practice all the acronym stuff but, honestly, my advice is to just use credit responsibly and your scores will follow.

Yes, this is the way.

Just PIF as you go and on time. Time is your friend. Thats it!

Utilization becomes meaningless (short term effect)

Re: Best way to increase score!

SouthJamaica — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:06:58 GMT

@ptatohed wrote:
I have a lot in common with many of my MF friends and lots of differences. One of those many differences is I have never once done or cared to do anything in particular to change or raise my credit score. All I have ever done is simply use credit responsibly. I only use the credit I need and I pay on time (car and home) and always pay in full (credit cards). That's it. Scores in the 800s. Feel free to practice all the acronym stuff but, honestly, my advice is to just use credit responsibly and your scores will follow.

Sorry but your conclusion, "just used credit responsibly and your scores will follow", is simply untrue.

Examples abound, and I know you know these are all true:

1. A very responsible credit card user with 3 cards, each having limit of $5000, spends $2500 month on each card, and pays the balance in full the day after receiving the statement. That person is deemed to have 50% aggregate utilization, and 50% utilization on each card, and has no cards reporting zero balances. Despite being very responsible, this person is losing a lot of FICO points across all scoring models, on all 3 grounds: high aggregate revolving utilization, high individual account utilization, and lack of zero balances.

2. A very responsible credit user who has paid off every loan he or she has ever had, and has no open loans, is losing a lot of FICO points.

3. A very responsible credit card user, who pays off all of his or her cards before the statements cut, is losing a substantial amount of FICO points.

Many other examples can be given. It is simply a useful tool to have some understanding of the FICO scoring quirks, and merely being a responsible credit card user increases the likelihood that your scores won't be awful, but won't guarantee you the highest tier scores.

Can you satisfy the scoring quirks accidentally, without knowing what they are? Of course you can. And many people do, some of them the people with the highest scores. But it's not a bad idea to know the rules of the game.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Bockrocker — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:17:40 GMT

As someone mentioned, if you don't have an installment loan then getting one will usually raise your score, and finishing it will drop your score (somewhat paradoxically)

A few years ago SoFi had a $600 bonus for taking a personal loan. I took out a 5k personal loan, got the bonus, then paid back $4900 of it and let the remainder run for the 3 years or whatever which probably raised my score 30-50 points. If you can get a bonus on a loan with no origination or prepayment fees then it can be a pretty good deal, but I don't know if any large public offers like that since.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Pony4her — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:44:52 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
Congrats on the double approvals ! For optimal FICO scoring you should practice the AZEO method, and ideally you'd have at least three open revolving accounts.

Can you tell me why 3 open revolving accounts when I only have 2 cards? Thank you for explaining!

Re: Best way to increase score!

pizzadude — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:57:19 GMT

@Pony4her wrote:
@pizzadude wrote:
Congrats on the double approvals ! For optimal FICO scoring you should practice the AZEO method, and ideally you'd have at least three open revolving accounts.
Can you tell me why 3 open revolving accounts when I only have 2 cards? Thank you for explaining!

FICO revolving utilization looks at number of cards with balances, and from an AZEO perspective it's better to only have 1 out of 3 accounts showing a balance, versus 1 out of 2.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Pony4her — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 04:22:18 GMT

Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.

Transactions

Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12

Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?

Re: Best way to increase score!

KatzNDawgs — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:40:48 GMT

@Pony4her wrote:
Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.

Transactions
Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12

Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?

If you don't want any util to report, pay by the statement close date of Mar 12.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 17:39:34 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@ptatohed wrote:
I have a lot in common with many of my MF friends and lots of differences. One of those many differences is I have never once done or cared to do anything in particular to change or raise my credit score. All I have ever done is simply use credit responsibly. I only use the credit I need and I pay on time (car and home) and always pay in full (credit cards). That's it. Scores in the 800s. Feel free to practice all the acronym stuff but, honestly, my advice is to just use credit responsibly and your scores will follow.
Sorry but your conclusion, "just used credit responsibly and your scores will follow", is simply untrue.

Examples abound, and I know you know these are all true:

1. A very responsible credit card user with 3 cards, each having limit of $5000, spends $2500 month on each card, and pays the balance in full the day after receiving the statement. That person is deemed to have 50% aggregate utilization, and 50% utilization on each card, and has no cards reporting zero balances. Despite being very responsible, this person is losing a lot of FICO points across all scoring models, on all 3 grounds: high aggregate revolving utilization, high individual account utilization, and lack of zero balances.

2. A very responsible credit user who has paid off every loan he or she has ever had, and has no open loans, is losing a lot of FICO points.

3. A very responsible credit card user, who pays off all of his or her cards before the statements cut, is losing a substantial amount of FICO points.

Many other examples can be given. It is simply a useful tool to have some understanding of the FICO scoring quirks, and merely being a responsible credit card user increases the likelihood that your scores won't be awful, but won't guarantee you the highest tier scores.

Can you satisfy the scoring quirks accidentally, without knowing what they are? Of course you can. And many people do, some of them the people with the highest scores. But it's not a bad idea to know the rules of the game.

Yes, if you want your absolute highest possible score at a particular moment, it's good to know the rules. But paying your cards off in full every month, on or very near the due date, will, over time, give you a score that is "good enough" to get best tier rates etc for credit cards.

Re: Best way to increase score!

Pony4her — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 18:45:53 GMT

@KatzNDawgs wrote:
@Pony4her wrote:
Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.

Transactions
Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12

Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?
If you don't want any util to report, pay by the statement close date of Mar 12.
They're saying my due date is 2/21, statement close date is 2/27. So when do I pay to report 0 utilization and increase in score?

Re: Best way to increase score!

KatzNDawgs — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:20:55 GMT

@Pony4her wrote:
@KatzNDawgs wrote:
@Pony4her wrote:
Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.

Transactions
Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12

Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?
If you don't want any util to report, pay by the statement close date of Mar 12.
They're saying my due date is 2/21, statement close date is 2/27. So when do I pay to report 0 utilization and increase in score?

From your other thread I see you mentioned this was your husband's delta gold and not your new blue card. If you want 0% util, pay before the statement date of your card of Mar 12th.