topic Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed in Credit Cards

CLI log - UPDATE with results!

DaveSignal — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:38:31 GMT

This first post is edited as score changes through July and August.

I thought I would create a dated log of my credit progress through July and August 2013.

The main cards that I use are the SDFCU and BoA Travel Rewards cards. Occasionally, I take these cards close to their limits throughout the month, but I always pay the full statement balance on SDFCU and pay significantly more than due on BoA (12-month 0% promotion ends this month). I do let both cards report balances, though, as I use these cards constantly. I have never paid interest on either card. By the time of the July statements at the end of July, both of these cards will be at $0 statement balance. The NFCU card is currently carrying a $3150 balance, which is from a $0 fee, 0% interest balance transfer that I initiated at the beginning of the year. I pay $600 a month on NFCU, but am planning on paying $1200 for the statement at the beginning of August so that this card will report $1950 (according to the FICO score simulator, less than $2000 is some kind of threshold for a score increase.)

I do have other cards, including a USAA rewards with $4.5k CL, a military STAR with $5150 CL, etc, etc, I even have $5000 that doesn't report on my credit reports. My total reported credit limits is equal to $35900. I don't really care about these other cards though. I hardly use them. If I am going to ask for credit line increases, I would prefer just to ask for it on the cards that get used.

So the goal is to get some more credit on SDFCU and BoA. Both of these will probably be hard pulls. But, if I am going to use 2 HPs, I might as well try for NFCU as well, especially since that one could be a SP. Main goal is for at least $10k on both SDFCU and BoA. I am going to ask for $20k on both of these cards. Then I will ask for $25k on NFCU, because NFCU is the type of CU that might instantly approve that type of request.... and they certianly won't care about the 2 inqs from SDFCU and BoA.

My last EQ inq fell off the scoring chart yesterday (02 July). Score Watch has yet to send a score alert, but I think my FICO should go up slightly. I have two inqs left on Experian, but they fall off in less than 3 weeks.

Transunion (TU98):

01 April - TU FICO - 696

17 Aug - TU FICO - 719 (Total Utilization: 1%)

Experian (PSECU):

01 Jun - EX FICO - 702

06 July - EX FICO - 715 (possibly due to newest accounts aging past 1 year)

03 Aug - EX FICO - 722 ($0 balance on SDFCU and BoA + last 2 inqs dropped. Total utilization: 9%)

Equifax (Beacon 5.0):

01 July - EQ FICO - 702

04 July - EQ FICO - 710 (last inq fell off report)

26 July - EQ FICO - 715 (both SDFCU and BoA are now reporting $0 balance. Total utilization: 9%)

11 Aug - EQ FICO - 710 (BoA reported mid-cycle with current balance of $842 due to a fraud alert. Total utilization: 11%)

12 Aug - EQ FICO - 715 (NFCU reported at $450. Total utilization: 4%)

16 Aug - EQ FICO - 715 (BoA back at $0. Total utilization: 1%)

Results:

19 Aug -

Barclays Arrival World Mastercard - Approved $5k

BoA - Approved $9.6k from $4.5k

SDFCU - Pending

NFCU - Approved $17.5k from $14k with no hard pull

22 Aug -

SDFCU - Approved $15k from $5k

--end of log--

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

09Lexie — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:05:38 GMT

Your plan sounds solid. I'm excited for you!

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:10:39 GMT

I hope my score increases will warrant the CLIs that I want. I do have baddies on my reports, including a collection from 2008, and a charge-off in 2009. I hope they will do it, but am going to get my score up as high as possible before asking.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

09Lexie — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:14:57 GMT

Hopefully, they will look past 3-4 year old derogs and place the emphasis on current crs and pyt history.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

RushXTC — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 09:49:05 GMT

Can't wait for the results!

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

lg8302ch — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 09:59:57 GMT

same here..interested on your results - good luck and lots of success !

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 16:17:25 GMT

04 July -

SW Score Alert: EQ FICO has increased from 702 to 710.

This must be due to the last inquiry falling off my EQ report on 02 July. There was also an alert due to my BoA balance increasing, but I don't think that would have any effect as it was only about $200 higher than it was before (total util changed by a fraction of a percent). This balance only changed because I was trying to alter the mailing address format on the BoA website and they updated my reports at that time with the current balance, rather than the statement balance. It will be resolved by next statement.

I am surprised to get 8 points for an inquiry, though. I would have thought this would give me maybe 4 points, but it was more than twice that. I remember when I used to have 15+ inqs and adding or reming inqs had no effect on my score. I guess it makes a difference going from 1 to 0 though. I am happy. I am still waiting for the EX inqs to fall off, and then the statement balances to report $0 towards the end of the month. I might hit 720! This is exciting!

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 16:20:25 GMT

@DaveSignal wrote:
04 July -

SW Score Alert: EQ FICO has increased from 702 to 710.

This must be due to the last inquiry falling off my EQ report on 02 July. There was also an alert due to my BoA balance increasing, but I don't think that would have any effect as it was only about $200 higher than it was before (total util changed by a fraction of a percent). This balance only changed because I was trying to alter the mailing address format on the BoA website and they updated my reports at that time with the current balance, rather than the statement balance. It will be resolved by next statement.

I am surprised to get 8 points for an inquiry, though. I would have thought this would give me maybe 4 points, but it was more than twice that. I remember when I used to have 15+ inqs and adding or reming inqs had no effect on my score. I guess it makes a difference going from 1 to 0 though. I am happy. I am still waiting for the EX inqs to fall off, and then the statement balances to report $0 towards the end of the month. I might hit 720! This is exciting!

If I understand correctly, the effect of inqs isn't linear, so passing some sort of threshold most likely does make a difference. 8 points is a nice bump -- congrats!

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 18:25:58 GMT

Thanks!

I have been playing with the FICO simulator, which I know isn't 100% reliable, but I don't think there is a better FICO simulator anywhere else. I have noticed that if I pay my total balances down to $1999 or below, there is a significant jump in FICO to around 722. However, there is an extra 10-point FICO jump if I pay balances down to between $1 and $499.

I was originally going to pay NFCU down to $1950, but now I am thinking about paying it down to $450. That will put NFCU at 3.21% util and total util at 1.25%.

I am not carrying this balance because I have to, simply because I can (its 0% interest). ~~Should I try this?~~ Nevermind, I WILL try it. It has the possibility of quickly generating a little bit higher score.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 14:46:10 GMT

This is a log done by llecs that I have had bookmarked for awhile: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Score-impact-of-going-from-89-util-to-lt-10/td-p/698181

I am only going from around 18% util to around 1%, but llecs gained 15 to 20 points moving through this range. I am hoping for similar.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:12:08 GMT

22 July -

SDFCU just reported a $0 balance.... this is down from a previously reported balance of $1759. A new SW alert shows EQ is still at 710 (no change). Util is just slightly above 10%, so maybe I will get a score increase when BoA also reports a $0 balance in a few days. I had thought that just having another card at $0 balance would help slightly, but that was not the case in this instance.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

09Lexie — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:15:47 GMT

That is interesting. I would have thought so too.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

lg8302ch — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:26:54 GMT

@DaveSignal wrote:
22 July -
SDFCU just reported a $0 balance.... this is down from a previously reported balance of $1759. A new SW alert shows EQ is still at 710 (no change). Util is just slightly above 10%, so maybe I will get a score increase when BoA also reports a $0 balance in a few days. I had thought that just having another card at $0 balance would help slightly, but that was not the case in this instance.

That is very strange because I just lost 38 points for reporting "tiny" balances on 4 accounts of less than 10$ ... did not expect a heavy drop for such low balances. Util is less than 10%. Amazing punishment for not reporting 0 balance (Too many accounts with balances according to Fico)..... funny?

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 18:53:02 GMT

@lg8302ch wrote:
DaveSignal wrote:
22 July -
SDFCU just reported a $0 balance.... this is down from a previously reported balance of $1759. A new SW alert shows EQ is still at 710 (no change). Util is just slightly above 10%, so maybe I will get a score increase when BoA also reports a $0 balance in a few days. I had thought that just having another card at $0 balance would help slightly, but that was not the case in this instance.
That is very strange because I just lost 38 points for reporting "tiny" balances on 4 accounts of less than 10$ ... did not expect a heavy drop for such low balances. Util is less than 10%. Amazing punishment for not reporting 0 balance (Too many accounts with balances according to Fico)..... funny?

I think FICO must score it as a percentage, as in the percentage of open revolving cards with non-zero balances. I moved from 30% to 20% (2 of 10 cards showing a balance). I think that I probably would have seen something if I was moving from 50% to 20% but that is speculation. I hope to see something when BoA next reports at $0.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

lg8302ch — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:14:43 GMT

Looks like that to me to. The big score drop was when over 50% of my cards reported balances no matter in which amount. I will keep testing in the next months to come as gardening alone is not so interesting...just hope I do not get punished for playing around my scores

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 19:00:42 GMT

Just got a SW alert for BoA reporting $0 balance. This is down from about $1080 last reported. FICO went up by 5 points, now 715.

I only have 1 card (NFCU) reporting a balance now, which is reporting at 22.5% util for that card. Total utilization is at 8.7%.

Hopefully, paying this NFCU card down a little bit will generate some more points.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 19:37:21 GMT

PSECU scores are in! EX has increased from 715 to 722. This is due to the reduced utilization. I am waiting for NFCU to report at $450 on the 8th (down from $3150). This NFCU update will be the last attempt for a score boost before initiating the CLI requests.

ETA: Now that I look at it again, I am wrong. This increase was due to the last 2 inqs dropping off EX.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

09Lexie — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:12:23 GMT

It looks like your plan is working. 702 in July to 715

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

DaveSignal — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:18:54 GMT

@09Lexie wrote:
It looks like your plan is working. 702 in July to 715

Well, my scores are increasing as planned, but I have no idea whether the higher scores are going to get me anywhere. When the last card updates next week, I will pull a TU score. Hopefully, my credit card issuers will appreciate the improvement.

Re: CLI log - Planning to leave the garden if needed

09Lexie — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:20:18 GMT

Between the score bump and the gardening you should receive the CLI's .