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@Anonymous wrote:
I let all my cards show a balance of 9% or under every statement and PIF every month. I hope to have a score in the mid 700's by next year.…
Also I'm debating taking advantage of the 0% APR for 15 months on my cash rewards Americard and purchasing a new laptop. What is the best way to go about this so it doesn't hurt my credit? Stop using my other cards and just pay cash until I pay off the balance is what I'm co side run doing. I will hit my 4K spending to get my bonus from the CSP in a couple weeks.
Congrats on the approvals. That's a nice bunch of cards.
How much do you want to spend on your laptop? That might help people who want to offer advice.
You're likely to "hurt" your score a bit, but the damage can be minimized. As long as you keep the 0% card from being maxed and you keep your other balances low or at zero, you should be OK as far as spooking anyone out. At that point, the tradeoff would be a few points off your score to gain a financial advantage. As you pay down the laptop, your score would climb.
You can continue to use any or all of your other cards. But the safest route would be to pay them down to zero before the statement hits. Your statement balances would be zero, and zero would be the amount reporting to the credit bureaus.
Actually, for a fully optimized score, the best tack is to leave a small balance on one card while letting the rest report zero. In your case, you'll have a "sort of" high balance on one card for a while, but FICO will still like the rest reporting zero.
First, Welcome to MyFico!!! There are tons of information and helpful advice here. Although, looks like you're doing a really good job of rebuilding your credit!
Congratulations on the approvals with some great lenders!!! You've one well for yourself. And as you say, gardening now sounds like an excellent idea.
Also, something that may help you get to 700s even quicker is to let only 1 or 2 cards (less than half of your reporting cars) report a 9% balance or less and pay the other cards to $0 before the statement cuts. Now, this is micromanaging. Some people only do this a month or two before making a big purchase - like a car. Others, like me, do it every month. I just want to always maximize my points every month (But then again, I only have three cards).
As for the laptop question, what percentage will the laptop be of your CL on the Americard? How fast do you intend to pay it off?
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks ItsPossible! I've been lurking here for a little while. Learned a lot!
Thanks for the reply!
The laptop is $1500 so maybe 40% of this card. I intend to pay it off in 3 months maybe 2. It really goes against my not carrying a balance philosophy but I need a new laptop as mine is having serious issues and is going on 5 years old!
You're welcome CGuru!!!
Now, I am not the expert that many of the folks on MyFico are. However, I would let my other cards report a $0 balance and then let the Americard report.(But I am also one that only lets one card report a balance anyway). Overall, a $1500 laptop purchase is only 9% of your overall revolving credit limit. And the 40% of one card will go down significantly as you pay it off in 2 to 3 months! I really don't think your score will be affected that much and any affect will recover once you've paid down the Americard as utilization has no memory.
That's my suggestion. But, others may chime in with their suggestions as well.
You want a new laptop and that's $1500 right?
You got approved for a 0% for 15 months right?
Do you plan on needing to micromanage your scores into 750+ for a mortgage or auto loan in the next 6-12 months?
If not then just get your new bling and don't worry about it!!!
When you're gearing up for something big is when you need to focus on dropping things down into the 9% club for a couple of months to make sure everything is updated and hits your reports for scoring. Otherwise....... not really a priority other than for your personal ego. As for keeping balances low or no.... being debt free is nice and carrying $1500 shouldn't be that big of a mental hurdle to deal with.
KILL Credit One! You don't need them anymore
Picking up as many cards as you did.... Plan on gardening anyway for 12 months to let things age and not to spook any of them into a CLD or closure. Just take your haul and baby them a bit for the next 12 months and work on CLI's instead of apps.
I posted something above that appears to have gotten caught in some kind of filter. But the upshot was that you can continue to use your other cards. While your one card has a higher than usual balance, pay the others down (or most of the others down) before the statement hits so they report a zero balance on your report.
hold onto that cap1 for a bit, even if you use it sparingly or once a year, use it for utilization padding of your larger purchase....like that laptop...
and heck it is an option that can grow, but usually slowly.... its not one to one but 750 is a good slice to counteract some of the laptop purchase..