My wife and I had some tough times back in 2006. We were trying to sell two houses and buy a third -- all at the same time. For a brief period of time, we had 4 mortgages and had to go 60 days late on one. We have one mortgage now, but its an ARM which resets in September, so I am trying to eek-up our FICOs, looking to refinance in about 2 months.
OK. here's the deal. I have five credit cards, my wife has one.
Me:
AMEX - $0 --
Citibank #1 - $5 / $5800 limit ~17% -- 16 years old
Citibank #2 - $700 / $12,000 limit ~ 17% -- 15 years old
USAA - $8200 / $11,000 limit -- 10% 4 years old
Capital One $1800 / $6000 - 2% 7 years old (not a typo, it's TWO PERCENT from a former balance transfer with no expiry date that I did in 2003 
)
)Wife:
BOA - $12,900 / $24,000 - 17% -- 7 years old
I recently added my wife to my two oldest accounts, since they're old accounts and that would help her credit score without seriously impacting her utilization.
But, regarding myself, would it help my score to spread-out the $8200 between the three cards, so I am below 50% on each? Paying them off is not really an issue, per se, since I hope to pay-off the cards when we refinance.
Also, I imagine that it would not help my score to transfer any of my wife's balances to me.
So, whats the best strategy for raising my score, other than paying off the debt?
My EQ FICO 689
My EX FACO 680 TU FACO 682
