topic Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score? in Credit Cards

Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:11:46 GMT

Hello,

My current Fico score is now a 740 per score watch and my long term goal is to increase this to the high 700's.

Mortgage Accounts - 1

Open Accounts - 1

Revolving Accounts - 8

Installment - 0

Mortgage Account

Purchased in October. This is still not showing on my credit report. Hopefully this will show soon.

Open Account

Amex Gold -- Paid Each month

Revolving Accounts

*********Opened within the last month*********

Card CL Balance

Amazon Chase $6400 $79.00
Best Buy HSBC $2500 $2500

*********I have the following cards with a 0 balance *********

Card CL

    3. Amex Blue $1,000
    4. Bank of America Amex     $2,500
    5. CITI Platinum Select           $10,993
    6. Discover    $3,750
    7. Macys $1,500
    8. Merrill Lynch VISA              $5,000

How should i utilitze these cards. Should i be charging a bit each month and pay them before the billing period? I want to keep the cards active and not have them closed on me. But i really dont want to pay interest on a purchase that i have the $ to pay for.

I read that closing accounts can hurt my credit score. Any suggestions would help.

Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

MarineVietVet — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:29:08 GMT

Is your Best Buy card really maxed out or is that a typo?

Optimal credit utilization for FICO scoring purposes seems to be:
Total revolving utilization > 0 and < 9%, the lower the better, and
Reporting a balance on less than half of your revolving TL's, and
Reporting a balance on half or less of all TL's.

What I do is have each of my cards pay a monthly recurring bill so I don't have to remember which one needs to be used this month. It works very well for me.

From a BK years ago to:
7/09 TU-742 EQ- 779
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802

You can do the same thing with hard work.

Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:52:16 GMT

No that isnt a typo Best buy offered no IR for 18 months

I just opened it up so no hurry just yet.I will pay it off soon. i

Do you have it paid automatically using the card?.... do you pay the balance in full before the payment is due?

Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

MarineVietVet — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:58:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No that isnt a typo Best buy offered no IR for 18 months
I just opened it up so no hurry just yet.I will pay it off soon. i

Do you have it paid automatically using the card?.... do you pay the balance in full before the payment is due?

Yes they are all on autopay and I've never had a problem with something not going through. But I also schedule the payments far enough in advance that if something happens I can take care of it.

I let one or two cards report balances (1-9%) and then pay them in full before the due date to avoid finance charges. The other cards I PIF before the statement posts so that a zero balance reports on them.

Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:12:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello,

My current Fico score is now a 740 per score watch and my long term goal is to increase this to the high 700's.

Mortgage Accounts - 1
Open Accounts - 1
Revolving Accounts - 8
Installment - 0

Mortgage Account
Purchased in October. This is still not showing on my credit report. Hopefully this will show soon.
Open Account
Amex Gold -- Paid Each month
Revolving Accounts
*********Opened within the last month*********
      Card                                   CL          Balance
Amazon Chase     $6400         $79.00
Best Buy HSBC    $2500 $2500
*********I have the following cards with a 0 balance *********
         Card                                      CL
    3. Amex Blue $1,000
    4. Bank of America Amex     $2,500
    5. CITI Platinum Select           $10,993
    6. Discover    $3,750
    7. Macys $1,500
    8. Merrill Lynch VISA              $5,000

How should i utilitze these cards. Should i be charging a bit each month and pay them before the billing period? I want to keep the cards active and not have them closed on me. But i really dont want to pay interest on a purchase that i have the $ to pay for.

I read that closing accounts can hurt my credit score. Any suggestions would help.

Just wondering, how did that CL happen?

Re: Do i have too much unused credit?? Am i hurting my credit score?

Jazzzy — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:28:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No that isnt a typo Best buy offered no IR for 18 months
I just opened it up so no hurry just yet.I will pay it off soon. i

Do you have it paid automatically using the card?.... do you pay the balance in full before the payment is due?

We operate in much the same way as marinevietvet...we have a total of 7 cards, but only use a couple of them consistently (the ones with the best rewards). For the others, we set up a small ongoing charge...book club, Netflix, etc. The only difference is that I don't set up autopayments. We go online and pay when the charge posts. We only let a small balance show on 1 or 2 of the 7 cards each month. The rest is paid before the statement cuts.

You ask if you have too much unused credit, and is it hurting your score. The answer is no. Here on the forums, we occasionally see someone turned down for new credit if the credit issuer believes that person already has too much available credit...but the unused credit is not hurting your FICO score.

Your best bet it to pay down some of that Best Buy balance. Credit issuers are touchy about maxed out credit cards...although the rest of your usage shows that you don't customarily max out your cards.