topic Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help in Credit Cards

Trying to improve my score. need your help

shorttough — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:57:11 GMT

Hi have the following Credit cards, trying to improve my score. Current EQUIFAX score 660

BOA         10000/10500
Discover    2184/2500
HSBC        1980/2600
Bestbuy     546/1800
Chase         0/1700
CapOne        0/2000
Amex          0/500
Citi          0/8000          (just applied and recieved)
Citi          0/4000          (just applied and recieved)
BOA AU        0/1000 ( wife's)
Discover AU   1500/9400 (wife's)

Citi Closed 4744/7800
Amex Closed 6299/9600

Any help would be apprecitated!!! thanks in advance.

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

Epcot — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:05:25 GMT

Your util is very high, especially in your first three cards mentioned. I would work on paying the balances down. If your APR is high, think of a balance transfer. I just paid my util down from 80% to 30% and saw a jump near 50 points.
Any negatives in your report?

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

shorttough — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:43:58 GMT

No negatives. I can transfer over but don't know if I should take 50% off the first 3 cards and distribute over. Don't know how much impact with 'too many cards with balances'.

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:48:53 GMT

Your util are to high. I would recommend paying the highest APR or balance down.

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

SnackTrader — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:49:58 GMT

@Epcot wrote:
Your util is very high, especially in your first three cards mentioned. I would work on paying the balances down. If your APR is high, think of a balance transfer. I just paid my util down from 80% to 30% and saw a jump near 50 points.
Any negatives in your report?

+1 - you need to pay those balances way down. If you don't do it for your credit score, you should consider doing it for financial reasons. You must be paying a ton in interest.

I know you didn't ask for this advice, but I think it would be helpful for you to sit back and consider how sustainable you current credit card usage is. Your current score can fall much farther than 660 if you get over your head in debt and become unable to pay those cards. I wish you the best of luck in improving your score!

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

shorttough — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:10:52 GMT

I'd love to pay it down, but i have 5 months to improve my score for a new construction home that'll be completed in april. so i'm just trying to reach 680 + or 700+. so anything short term would be fine. the newly applied 8000 credit and 4000 credit line doesn't show in my report yet.. they are 0% until 18 months. i guess my Util is high due to that? But if i bring all my cards to 50% but increase the number of credit cards with balances, how much would an impact be?

Thanks.

Re: Trying to improve my score. need your help

SnackTrader — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:30:26 GMT

It's hard to say. I mean, your score would probably improve from where it is now, but it will be nowhere near it's highest potential. If you are unable to make 100% progress on that debt in the next few months, I would suggest bringing every card out of maxed out status (under 75% at least), and then keep as many cards clean as possible. If you can make it happen, I would get at least 2 cards to $0 and the rest to 50% or under. Anything better than that will be to your benefit. As always, FICO scores are their own animal and no one knows exactly what works best in this situation.