Best credit score bump from utilization?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. Current score is 650 on myFico Score watch (just joined, really looking to up our credit), but that is with our one current cc (Chase) at close to 100% utilization. I just paid it down to less than 30%, looking forward to the bump it will give us to have it so much lower. However, we really want to apply for a Delta Skymiles Gold card in the next month or so. Do you think the bump would be significantly higher if we paid it down even more? What's best? A zero balance? 1%? 10? 20?

There are things on our credit we can't do much about (a BoA paid CO from two years ago, three 30-day-lates from the same time period, that would be the Chase card.) But utilization is something we can control to up our score, and paying this card down + getting a couple more cc's is part of the plan.

[Shock]

1 to 9 percent is optimal. But there's only so much you can utilize. 

The CO and lates can be removed, but it will require alot of legwork.

At some point you will have to get a couple more credt cards

[azguy13]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone. Current score is 650 on myFico Score watch (just joined, really looking to up our credit), but that is with our one current cc (Chase) at close to 100% utilization. I just paid it down to less than 30%, looking forward to the bump it will give us to have it so much lower. However, we really want to apply for a Delta Skymiles Gold card in the next month or so. Do you think the bump would be significantly higher if we paid it down even more? What's best? A zero balance? 1%? 10? 20?

There are things on our credit we can't do much about (a BoA paid CO from two years ago, three 30-day-lates from the same time period, that would be the Chase card.) But utilization is something we can control to up our score, and paying this card down + getting a couple more cc's is part of the plan.

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Getting your UTL down will make for a nice score bump. I cannot tell you how much, but when I paid mine down from around 90% it was close to 40 points or so.

I went through BoA's facebook page and found a link which brought me to a page that I enterred in my info and why I was contacting them. I had a 30 day late on my mortgage from 2012 that I as asking to be removed. It took them about a week, but they did remove the 30 day late which bumped my EQ score by 33 points. They were very nice and professional as I explained why I was late and they were understanding.

I have not dealt with Chase in regards to removing baddies but I am sure someone else who has can jump into the conversation and help.

I would wait until Chase reflects the payment, pull your report, and see what your score is before apping for Delta. Although score is only a part of an approval, it never hurts to get the bump

[avggoal700]

Im also waiting to see my new report since my overall UTI just went down but I'm guessing not by much since I stil have 2 cards with around 90% each.  

[Anonymous]

Yeah, getting a couple more credit cards is on the agenda for sure. So, we should go ahead and pay down to 9% utilization then? (Before applying for the Delta Skymiles card).

I tried to get BoA to remove the CO, but they wouldn't budge, and part of their answer kind of implied that it wasn't old enough for them to even consider. IDK. I know the premise around here is to try and try again, so I will probably send another GW e-mail to them at some point. Haven't tried on the Chase 30-day-lates, but from what I'm reading, Chase is pretty hard to budge, and once they're a couple of years old their effect on your credit is much less...true?

[-Wade-]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone. Current score is 650 on myFico Score watch (just joined, really looking to up our credit), but that is with our one current cc (Chase) at close to 100% utilization. I just paid it down to less than 30%, looking forward to the bump it will give us to have it so much lower. However, we really want to apply for a Delta Skymiles Gold card in the next month or so. Do you think the bump would be significantly higher if we paid it down even more? What's best? A zero balance? 1%? 10? 20?

There are things on our credit we can't do much about (a BoA paid CO from two years ago, three 30-day-lates from the same time period, that would be the Chase card.) But utilization is something we can control to up our score, and paying this card down + getting a couple more cc's is part of the plan.

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1 % on one card is the best

[bch238]

I was around 50% utilization with a couple cards at 90%.  My score was 730.  I paid down most cards to zero with two reporting around 5% and my scores jumped to 800 in one month.  No other factors affected this, i.e, I had a perfect payment history, no derogatory information, there were no inquiries falling out of date, etc., so I can only conclude that the change in utilization affected my score.

[avggoal700]

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@bch238 wrote:

I was around 50% utilization with a couple cards at 90%.  My score was 730.  I paid down most cards to zero with two reporting around 5% and my scores jumped to 800 in one month.  No other factors affected this, i.e, I had a perfect payment history, no derogatory information, there were no inquiries falling out of date, etc., so I can only conclude that the change in utilization affected my score.

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This is very good info to hear

[-Wade-]

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@bch238 wrote:

I was around 50% utilization with a couple cards at 90%.  My score was 730.  I paid down most cards to zero with two reporting around 5% and my scores jumped to 800 in one month.  No other factors affected this, i.e, I had a perfect payment history, no derogatory information, there were no inquiries falling out of date, etc., so I can only conclude that the change in utilization affected my score.

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Yes Util. is a big factor in your Score