@laboi_22 wrote:So I just pulled my free Wal Mart FICO and my score is 706. It tells me that what's keeping my score from improving is that my UTL is too high. I have a UTL of 17% last time I pulled an EQ report. My question is this: how do I get my current cc's to increase the limits on my cards? I never carry a balance. I always PIF however when statements cut it might show a higher balance then it's PIF shortly after. Is the answer higher credit limits? I use my BofA card a good bit and I get paid back from my company for using my card for business expenses (I work in sales for a large corp) and so that money might not arrive before the statement cuts so it's hard to pay down before the cut date. I always PIF though before the due date on each statement. Should I be using my AMEX business card which does not report on my personal credit for these expenses and leave all of these cards alone until they get higher limits? I'm in gardening mode now for the next 6 months so I don't want to add any new accounts. Below is a list of my current accounts with CL:
BofA CL 1000 increased to 5000 recently (4 months old)
Capital One 500 never use never carry a balance 7 months old
Orchard bank about to close 300 CL never use no balance 9 months old
Chase Freedom CL 1000 PIF each month 276 balanace due Oct 7 3 months old
Amex Green - business card for my own small business
Gap 650 CL
JCP 300 CL
Walmart 700 CL
thanks
You can certainly try for CLI's, but it's a heckuka lot easier to just pay your balance a day or two before the statements post. That way they'll show $10 or $0 or whatever.
Orchard used to report the balance as of the last business day of the month, but recently HSBC/ Orchard cards seem to be reporting the statement balance instead.
If you're really trying to wring the last few points out of your score, have all but one report $0, and that one exception report ten bucks or so, just some figure under 10% of the CL on that card. (Be sure to then pay off that amount before the due date, which is easy to forget.) Oddly, most of us lose points for all cards reporting $0. 
From what I've read, Cap One isn't doing customer-requested CLI's at this time, and Chase generally pulls a hard inquiry for a CLI, so IMO, it's way simpler to just pay early.
@laboi_22 wrote:That's what I was thinking. Thinking about switing my BofA card to my gas and grocery card and PIF before the statement date cuts. Then place all of my work expenses on my small business Amex card since it doesn't report. Kind of worried about using AMEX all the time. They are a strange beast! At least this way I'll always have almost 0 UTL on my cards until my banks up my limits. AMEX is my main concern though. If I start spending more than I normally do each month - than I have been lately I should say- then they are going to FR me. FR is not a problem because I didn't lie about it but it would leave me with no card access for 1-2 weeks. I could always use the other cards but then UTL is a factor right now. Ugghh I wish AMEX was easier to work with!!
Why?
I've run my AmEx cards, both charge and revolving, up and down all the time, paid them off in full, and I've never been FR'd. That includes when my Gold card (the first one) was only a few months old, my scores were in the upper 600's, and I had pretty much no history with them.
eta: I'm not making light of those who have undergone an F/R: it's no fun, and frankly, I wouldn't go through it. But F/R's are not that common. Also, your AmEx is a business card, correct?
They want people to use their cards. That's how they make money, via the transaction fees. 