Hello friends, Glad to be back.
I've just recently paid nearly all of my accounts down to 0, after nearly a year of heavy heavy utilization. I am determined not to be in that position again, and am now focusing on maintaining stellar credit.
I'm still waiting for my new 0% balances to report. Last I checked my FICO score (as provided by some of my banks) was around 610.
I'm sure it will shoot up 100+ points as I'm now under 30% utilization (as the case has been in the past when my utilization has dropped substantially). It's funny, I went to sign up for CCT (which I canceled sometime last year) and it kept telling me there were technical difficulties. I called and was told this was a problem connecting to one of the credit bureaus. Now I'm reading all of this stuff about Equifax having been breached. Most likely not a coincidence.
In any event, now that I am in a stable position with regular income I was hoping to take advantage of my current situation to accomplish several things.
1. Increasing my existing credit limits with soft pulls.
-I'm already planning on attempting the AMEX 3x Soft Pull CLI (which I have attempted in the past to no avail - albiet with high AMEX Utilization at the time)
-Discover Soft Pull CLI
2. Obtain more credit with 0% interest
-I was considering applying for a Chase Slate. Currently I've got a CITI SImplicity with 0% interest until some time next year, that is the only card with a relatively high balance, although it will be paid in full before interest hits the account.
3. Finance a new watch
-I've had my eye on this relatively nice watch that I'm determined to get
I'm considering either purchasing it on a 0% card (like the Slate), or applying for Tourneau Financing which will allow me to purchase the watch (~$6-7000 Pre-Owned) for 0% interest with 30 equal monthly payments - effectively costing at most $233 a month.
Until my scores update I'm not in a position to make a move or ask for data points, but I thought I'd get the ball rolling and see if you guys had any good suggestions!
