@Anonymous wrote:Thanks TNT!
For those who are looking for a credit tip, I will share that my biggest FICO gains came from reducing my overall UTIL %. I gained probably between 80-100 points when I went from 85% to 6%. I accomplished this by not only paying off my cards, but also by seeking as many soft pull CLI's as I could. Not only did my overall UTIL drop, but the UTIL on the individual cards made a huge impact. Prior to reading these forums, I had no idea that maxing out a $750 or $1000 limit card would ruin my scores! This overall strategy of improving UTIL% worked wonders!
This is exactly what I'm trying to do also, as there's nothing else for me to do but pay down utilization and wait for inquiries to drop off. When I found this forum at the first of the year (and figured out what my problem was by reading the threads), my utilization was around 80%. It's now around 50% (secondary to paying down balances and getting soft CLIs). Subsequently, my scores have increased by 30-40 points over the past 4 months, so I know this strategy works. I'm not sure of how accurate the FICO simulator is, but if I can get my utilization down to 1-9% it says I could have a 750 score - would love to see that! And, that would correlate with the 80-100 point increase you experienced.
I'm hoping to accomplish this by the end of the year. Thanks again for sharing your story - it gives me hope... 
@TNTransplant wrote:@Anonymous wrote:Thanks TNT!
For those who are looking for a credit tip, I will share that my biggest FICO gains came from reducing my overall UTIL %. I gained probably between 80-100 points when I went from 85% to 6%. I accomplished this by not only paying off my cards, but also by seeking as many soft pull CLI's as I could. Not only did my overall UTIL drop, but the UTIL on the individual cards made a huge impact. Prior to reading these forums, I had no idea that maxing out a $750 or $1000 limit card would ruin my scores! This overall strategy of improving UTIL% worked wonders!
This is exactly what I'm trying to do also, as there's nothing else for me to do but pay down utilization and wait for inquiries to drop off. When I found this forum at the first of the year (and figured out what my problem was by reading the threads), my utilization was around 80%. It's now around 50% (secondary to paying down balances and getting soft CLIs). Subsequently, my scores have increased by 30-40 points over the past 4 months, so I know this strategy works. I'm not sure of how accurate the FICO simulator is, but if I can get my utilization down to 1-9% it says I could have a 750 score - would love to see that! And, that would correlate with the 80-100 point increase you experienced.
I'm hoping to accomplish this by the end of the year. Thanks again for sharing your story - it gives me hope...
No problem. I'm really glad to help.
I think that this forum has been so hopeful to me. It's my turn to provide a helpful tip whenever I can!
I hate to sound clichéd, but I sometimes felt that it would be impossible to ever see the (credit) day of light again! But, with lots of patience/persistance and plenty of advice from this forum, I've been able to completely turn it around.
So thank you all.