topic Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower in General Credit Topics

Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:07:23 GMT

If I have 3 credit cards: total credit 1) CL$4700 owe $3761 24.99/28.99%, 2)CL $8327 owe $7511 23.99/25.24% and 3) new card $10,000 no balance owed but 15.99%. Should I make sure all 3 are under 35% and put some of the credit from cards 1 & 2 over onto 3 to get my credit amounts below 35%. Trying to get my score higher like everyone else is. New balances would be 1)$2328 2)$4596 and 3)new balance $4348. Is this a good idea? Any suggestions.

current EX: 659

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

score_building — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:29:45 GMT

in general, i would first get both killer rate cards under 50% then under 30%. then pif or pay down one and then the other.

if you can't pif which is highly recommended since you are paying what are essentially default rates on two accounts, a short cut of sorts would be to orchestrate some BTs either to your current 10k limit card or a new card or both to begin to get out from underneath paying 23.99 - 28.99 APR immediately if possible.

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:50:08 GMT

I can't pay them full. That would be ideal. I pay a lot extra on them every month and never late. Not possible at this time to PIF. I asked if they would lower the interest rate, but that was a waste of time. They could care less. We just refinanced our mtg to 4.875% with no problem. Thanks for your advice.

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

llecs — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:58:43 GMT

It isn't a bad idea. However, if you are looking for a better jump, getting one CC to report $0 could help your FICO score more. You won't see large point gains until you bump under 10%.

BTW, where did you get your EX score from?

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:01:04 GMT

I got the score off of myfico. I still get scores. Is this a wrong number?

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

score_building — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:08:41 GMT

@llecs wrote:
It isn't a bad idea. However, if you are looking for a better jump, getting one CC to report $0 could help your FICO score more. You won't see large point gains until you bump under 10%.

BTW, where did you get your EX score from?

agreed. however, there is also the concern (with ut being above 50 on any card) of remaining a bigger AA target..

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

score_building — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:10:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I got the score off of myfico. I still get scores. Is this a wrong number?

EX is no longer available through myfico is it EQ score perhaps?

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:16:26 GMT

I'm so sorry it is Equifax.

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:28:11 GMT

1) CL$4700 owe $3761 24.99/28.99%,

2)CL $8327 owe $7511 23.99/25.24%

3) new card $10,000 no balance owed but 15.99%

So if I take the top 2 credit cards I have that have balances and take them both to 50% and put the balance on the new card and keep that below 50% it should help? or be better then what I have?

24.99/28.99%, 1) CL $4700 new balance owed would be $2350

23.99/25.24% 2) CL $8327 new balance owed would be $4164

15.99% 3) CL $10000 new balance owed would be $4758

EQ659 wanting to bust 700!

Re: Getting credit cards to 35% utl or lower

score_building — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:44:47 GMT

yes. once you get both under 50 pay one down to under 30 ASAP and then under 10 and repeat this on the other. ultimately try to aim for having only one card with a balance under 10 for best score result.

because you have 3 cards you will continue to get hit for the "too many cards with balances" ding until you have only 1 card reporting a balance (less than 1/2 of your revolving accts.) so as llecs touched on ideally you'd want to get two of the three to zero to avoid this ding as well.