topic Re: Credit Card Rebuilding Help in Rebuilding Your Credit

Credit Card Rebuilding Help

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:32:44 GMT

Hey guys,

I am currently rebuilding my credit and the whole thing has had a strong learning curve. I am finally understanding some of it though. I had 1 question which I guess I didn't understand at first. I have a few credit cards now, at first I really didn't use any of them. I guess doing this does not help you build up your credit much. Since then I have started to actively using most of them. Now I'm not talking about a 1 month score bump I'm talking long haul what is better to pay off my balance in full every month or keep paying it down then charge again ? or does it not even matter as long as your showing on time payments and using them. I don't need to use the cards to buy anything its just to help my credit. I'm not spending $500 and maxing them out its a simple $50 charge here maybe $100 there. I don't really care about saving $2 from intrest, I just want to know if its better to carry a balance and show payments on it every month on time, or to pay it off in full. I'm looking at purchasing a house next year and need to get my score up 40-50 points minimum before then and the higher the better.

Re: Credit Card Rebuilding Help

tdrjustus3 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:07:49 GMT

You should PIF all except one and let that report at 9% or less utilization.

Re: Credit Card Rebuilding Help

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:12:20 GMT

For optimum FICO scoring, as the other poster said, all but one report 0 balance, the other at 9% or below. YMMV and you can tinker with the % to see where it gives you the best score.

Also, making on time payments over a 6 month to year time frame, letting the CC age, will help a lot.

Re: Credit Card Rebuilding Help

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 12:28:33 GMT

I know this already, I'm talking other than the slight score BUMP if you have everything paid off at 0 or 9% usage, does it make a diffrence for 2 year payment history if the balance is paid off in full each month or has a balance that is paid on time each month ? Is there a difference on how it is reported ?

Re: Credit Card Rebuilding Help

qd — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:35:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I know this already, I'm talking other than the slight score BUMP if you have everything paid off at 0 or 9% usage, does it make a diffrence for 2 year payment history if the balance is paid off in full each month or has a balance that is paid on time each month ? Is there a difference on how it is reported ?

I think if you are talking longterm, it doesn't matter if you PIF or carry a balance as long as you pay on time every month. I don't think the CRA reports will show whether or not you carried a balance. They just show that you paid on time every month. If you are not apping for new cc or mortgage, then keeping your utilization down to 9% on one card and the rest at 0% has less importance IMO.