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Hey guys,
I haven't ran my credit report since January 2nd, 2009.
My EQ report from January 2nd was a 683.
4/18/2009- EQ: 717
I am very glad to see this increase, as I know it was from a few high balances that I ended up paying off in the past 3 months. So, out of my 6 accounts, now only 2 show a balance....and after this month, only one will (I BT'ed 450 from a 21.50% interest rate TIRES PLUS card (tires), to a BT rate of 3.99 on my Discover).
So, now I only have one card with a balance of about 1,000 dollars out of I think 13.5k available credit to my name. My boss owes me 650-700 of that balance, and he is going to start paying me 50 dollars a week to pay down the balance, and the remaining 300 is my balance that will be paid down 20-25 dollars a week.
I hope within the next 5 months, when I pay off this and finally become debt free (Although it was never a problem, I am being smart with credit)....my score will be in the 730's or even better yet 740's given another year to my credit history....then I can get a good loan
Kenny D
I know that feeling and its amazing.
We work hard today to collect our rewards tommorow.
Congrats.......
I kinda had the same thing happen to me. On Mar. 25th I got a Score Watch credit alert that my Equifax score had zoomed up to 719!!!!!!!!! However, just a month prior my Equifax score was 682. I haven't done anything differently and nothing's changed on my credit report. I've been paying down debt and I'd put like an extra $75 or $100 a month towards my debt repayment. I figured (and I don't know) that my debt/credit utilization must have changed and put me over some magic number which made my FICO score go up??? My utilization is still high at 61%....dang, if I hit 40% utilization...I'll be in the 800 range...HEHEHEHEHE. Just kidding...but I thought it would take me years to hit the 700's. I've figured that it's gonna take me about 18-24 months to pay off this $7,000.
I do have question about the utilization ratio thing...I have several store credit cards that have zero balances and I haven't used in years but are still showing on my credit report as open (no I'm not gonna to cancel them...learn that from this board)....are those credit lines part of my utilization even though I haven't used the cards in years????
@Anonymous wrote:I do have question about the utilization ratio thing...I have several store credit cards that have zero balances and I haven't used in years but are still showing on my credit report as open (no I'm not gonna to cancel them...learn that from this board)....are those credit lines part of my utilization even though I haven't used the cards in years????
yes, as long as they're reporting as "open". in order to ensure they continue to report as open you may want to use them say every 3-6 months, or so depending on the issuer, so they are not closed due to dormancy.
if the issuer happens to be hsbc, they can be particularly quick to close for nonuse so use them (at least for a small purchase) or lose them is a rule of thumb.
Score_building, thanks for the clarification! I have only two cc's - MC & Visa - the rest are store cc's & one LOC. So, I went back & checked all the cards & LOC (it reports as revolving) that reported for March 09 and recalculated my utilization and now my utilization is at 50%. So, my utilization reaching the 50% mark is probably what increased my Equifax score to 719.
Thanks again Score_building for your response!
Thanks for the comments.
I have 1,000 more in debt that will be payed off within the next 3 months. Then, I am going to hit up all of my credit cards for another CLI (I hit them all up on January 1st, 2009 and got a CLI on every card except of course, AMEX lol), and then keep the process going.
My goal is to have a 730 score, because when I am going to go buy a house this October, I want it as high as possible.