@SouthJamaica wrote:
@ptatohed wrote:I have a lot in common with many of my MF friends and lots of differences. One of those many differences is I have never once done or cared to do anything in particular to change or raise my credit score. All I have ever done is simply use credit responsibly. I only use the credit I need and I pay on time (car and home) and always pay in full (credit cards). That's it. Scores in the 800s. Feel free to practice all the acronym stuff but, honestly, my advice is to just use credit responsibly and your scores will follow.
Sorry but your conclusion, "just used credit responsibly and your scores will follow", is simply untrue.
Examples abound, and I know you know these are all true:
1. A very responsible credit card user with 3 cards, each having limit of $5000, spends $2500 month on each card, and pays the balance in full the day after receiving the statement. That person is deemed to have 50% aggregate utilization, and 50% utilization on each card, and has no cards reporting zero balances. Despite being very responsible, this person is losing a lot of FICO points across all scoring models, on all 3 grounds: high aggregate revolving utilization, high individual account utilization, and lack of zero balances.
2. A very responsible credit user who has paid off every loan he or she has ever had, and has no open loans, is losing a lot of FICO points.
3. A very responsible credit card user, who pays off all of his or her cards before the statements cut, is losing a substantial amount of FICO points.
Many other examples can be given. It is simply a useful tool to have some understanding of the FICO scoring quirks, and merely being a responsible credit card user increases the likelihood that your scores won't be awful, but won't guarantee you the highest tier scores.
Can you satisfy the scoring quirks accidentally, without knowing what they are? Of course you can. And many people do, some of them the people with the highest scores. But it's not a bad idea to know the rules of the game.
Yes, if you want your absolute highest possible score at a particular moment, it's good to know the rules. But paying your cards off in full every month, on or very near the due date, will, over time, give you a score that is "good enough" to get best tier rates etc for credit cards.
@KatzNDawgs wrote:
@Pony4her wrote:Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.
Transactions
Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12
Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?
If you don't want any util to report, pay by the statement close date of Mar 12.
They're saying my due date is 2/21, statement close date is 2/27. So when do I pay to report 0 utilization and increase in score?
@Pony4her wrote:
@KatzNDawgs wrote:
@Pony4her wrote:Thank you for responding, plz excuse my confusion here. Just trying to get this right. Since I just activated my Am Ex Blue, can you advise when I should pay my balance? I've read pay it to zero before the statement cuts, according to the below, what would my statement cut date be? The below is what I see when I log in. I also made a $169 charge tonight, CL $1k.
Transactions
Since Feb 10. Closing Mar 12
Also, I have a Discover $2k CL, should I leave at zero and use it next month after I pay the Am Ex to zero?
If you don't want any util to report, pay by the statement close date of Mar 12.
They're saying my due date is 2/21, statement close date is 2/27. So when do I pay to report 0 utilization and increase in score?
From your other thread I see you mentioned this was your husband's delta gold and not your new blue card. If you want 0% util, pay before the statement date of your card of Mar 12th.