topic Re: Plan to optimize FICO in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:12:33 GMT

Please comment if this is a good plan to optimize FICO, and add any recommendations/ suggestions as well:

Get all cards down to zero balance except for 1

Have a 9% overall utilization (would not have to mean solely on one card, though, correct? Just 9% overall? Please confirm)

Continue requesting CLI's on cards without HP's (HP's not wanted)

Pay down major cc's first( I read that FICO scoring model gives you more points for paying down major cc's first vs. store cards; is this correct?)

I'm apping for 2 more majors and then none further

I moved a couple of small balances from hgh-interest store cards over to the major cc's. Would you recommend doing this on a larger scale level?

Other recommendations?Please also include recommendations that you think would minimize chances of any AA. I read a thread a while agoe on BOA AA and got a little nervous. Thanks everyone!

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:14:40 GMT

also, as I'm going along, is it better to pay off smaller balances first so as to have fewer cards reporting a limit? I really wanted to bring down balances on a couple of the majors first. It doesn't give me a sense of accomplishment jut to pay off a couple of small store card balances - I'd rather use that same $ to reduce the majors balances, and from what I read, the FICO model gves you more points for payments on majors vs. stroe cards. Correct?

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:40:07 GMT

Get the one card 9% or under for biggest boost. Zero on the others. 9% overall may not be as high.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:42:37 GMT

What's your current score ? Do you have any installment loan payments ?

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:48:06 GMT

No installment loan payments ( really would prefer not to have any). Current score is likely between 715-718 (Waiting for it to update after just getting 8k in CLi's and making

$2, 000 in payments.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 02:48:58 GMT

Thanks swampthing! That helps to know.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 03:01:12 GMT

If you don't need a jump right away don't take out any installment loans . It will just take some time . Increase you Cli every 6 months make on time payments .i took out a loan and paid it off in 6 months jumped me 30 pts.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 03:07:03 GMT

I'm sort of doing the same just to get my score as close to 850 as possible. Never did a BT. Just charging and paying and using my RH card to report. I pay around 600.00 a month on it. Have no idea what else you can do. Have mtg, installments, PLOC, etc. Time is on Fico's side.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

NRB525 — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 03:55:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Please comment if this is a good plan to optimize FICO, and add any recommendations/ suggestions as well:

Get all cards down to zero balance except for 1 Well, I don't agree with this as a strategy that will gain more than a few points. But each person has to make their own choices.

Have a 9% overall utilization (would not have to mean solely on one card, though, correct? Just 9% overall? Please confirm) If you have 9% overall utilization across all cards, that's good. Making that 9% by loading up one card is likely bad, because that single card has to have a high utilization on its own. If you mean 9% utilization on the one card, 9% of that one card CL, that is more reasonable (but here again, I don't agree with the "one card only" reporting methodology) In my opinion, having 9% overall utilization and having several cards that contribute to that 9% is not a bad thing. It may not be optimized to the last point, but it's easier to work with, and gets the file showing usage across multiple cards. That usage, again in my opinion, is helpful to show payment history and potentially keep lenders from getting scared when they see usage on cards later. In my case, I'm coming down from over $100k in open balances, so I've reached the point my CCC feel comfortable with my payment history, and the last CLD was over two years ago.

Continue requesting CLI's on cards without HP's (HP's not wanted) Of course

Pay down major cc's first( I read that FICO scoring model gives you more points for paying down major cc's first vs. store cards; is this correct?) I really doubt the FICO models are able to make that distinction. You can pay down whichever card you want to first, although it is often better financially to pay down the card with the highest APR first, save on interest cost.

I'm apping for 2 more majors and then none further

I moved a couple of small balances from hgh-interest store cards over to the major cc's. Would you recommend doing this on a larger scale level? Can you list out your cards, their CL and current balances? It makes it easier for folks to provide pertinent suggestions.

Other recommendations?Please also include recommendations that you think would minimize chances of any AA. I read a thread a while agoe on BOA AA and got a little nervous. Thanks everyone! Reports of AA happen. AA happens. I had AA in the form of CLD on nearly all cards after the credit crisis. You get through it. It isn't the end of the world. Predicting when and to whom it will happen is very difficult. So it is best not to worry about it too much, as long as you are just using your card for your regular spend.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

Revelate — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 04:16:22 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Please comment if this is a good plan to optimize FICO, and add any recommendations/ suggestions as well:

Get all cards down to zero balance except for 1 Well, I don't agree with this as a strategy that will gain more than a few points. But each person has to make their own choices.

Have a 9% overall utilization (would not have to mean solely on one card, though, correct? Just 9% overall? Please confirm) If you have 9% overall utilization across all cards, that's good. Making that 9% by loading up one card is likely bad, because that single card has to have a high utilization on its own. If you mean 9% utilization on the one card, 9% of that one card CL, that is more reasonable (but here again, I don't agree with the "one card only" reporting methodology) In my opinion, having 9% overall utilization and having several cards that contribute to that 9% is not a bad thing. It may not be optimized to the last point, but it's easier to work with, and gets the file showing usage across multiple cards. That usage, again in my opinion, is helpful to show payment history and potentially keep lenders from getting scared when they see usage on cards later. In my case, I'm coming down from over $100k in open balances, so I've reached the point my CCC feel comfortable with my payment history, and the last CLD was over two years ago.

Continue requesting CLI's on cards without HP's (HP's not wanted) Of course

Pay down major cc's first( I read that FICO scoring model gives you more points for paying down major cc's first vs. store cards; is this correct?) I really doubt the FICO models are able to make that distinction. You can pay down whichever card you want to first, although it is often better financially to pay down the card with the highest APR first, save on interest cost.

I'm apping for 2 more majors and then none further

I moved a couple of small balances from hgh-interest store cards over to the major cc's. Would you recommend doing this on a larger scale level? Can you list out your cards, their CL and current balances? It makes it easier for folks to provide pertinent suggestions.

Other recommendations?Please also include recommendations that you think would minimize chances of any AA. I read a thread a while agoe on BOA AA and got a little nervous. Thanks everyone! Reports of AA happen. AA happens. I had AA in the form of CLD on nearly all cards after the credit crisis. You get through it. It isn't the end of the world. Predicting when and to whom it will happen is very difficult. So it is best not to worry about it too much, as long as you are just using your card for your regular spend.

They could actually (the pink) as store cards are labelled differently in the bureau's datasets, Retail or similar.

That said I don't know where the theory of balances on national bank cards are better than balances on store cards. There's been no suggestion that I've seen of that here in this forum or certainly not repeated: limits are limits.

Whether store cards are worth less or score less (or are even a penalty) is still up for some debate. It has been suggested by a former FICO employee that it counts differently, but what that really entails isn't well known and we don't have much data on it. My personal opinion is getting a store card isn't necessary anyway with how easy rewards cards are to obtain which rather renders whether they count less or not pretty moot. Very few store cards are actually worthwhile even if you shop there.

Re: Plan to optimize FICO

damnedanddetermined — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 21:33:27 GMT

you didnt take a hit from paying off your installment loan in 6 months? Hmmm, I got one that I want to pay off too, but afraid it will ding my score.