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What's next?

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GOALIS850
Established Member

Re: What's next?

Awesome thank you Walt_K!!! I think I'm just going to play with it in the next few months that I wont be apping for anything.

Message 11 of 20
Walt_K
Senior Contributor

Re: What's next?


@GOALIS850 wrote:

Awesome! Thanks Rhaeny! One last question I was looking at my credit report and it shows whats the highest balnace that I've had througout the month even if I pay in full every month. Will it look bad if in a month that I know I won't be apping if a card with a 1000 limit reports 900 as highest amount used? I always pif every month.


It will ding your score for that month because that card will be near maxed out, but it isn't going to have a long term effect on your score. 

Some might tell you that you don't want to have a card report 90% for fear that lender or other lenders will look at it and take adverse action (AA), e.g., lowering your credit limits, closing accounts, etc.  I think those fears are overstated.  Back during the credit crunch, that was probably more of an issue.  Today, it might be an issue if you were talking about carrying multiple accounts at 90% utilization, or carrying an account at 90% for a long time paying only the minimum and continuing to charge to that account.  But having one account go to 90% one month, especially an account with a relatively low limit, should not be an issue.  I think banks are fairly rational and understand that charging $900 on a $1000 limit is a lot different than charging 90% of a $25K limit card. 


Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Current Score: EQ 681 (04/05/13); TU 98 728 (01/06/12), TU 08? 760 (provided by Barclay 1/2/14), TU 04 728 (lender pull 01/12/12); EX 742 (lender pull 01/12/12)
Goal Score: 720


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Message 12 of 20
Rhaeny
Valued Contributor

Re: What's next?


@Walt_K wrote:

This is mostly correct.  1% isn't the best for everyone.  Some people find their absolute max at 2% or 7%, etc.  And there are some people that can have balances on more than one card and not see a difference.  In general though, only letting one card report and having it report 9% or less of that card's CL (not total CL) gives the best results.  Where the sweet spot is, from 1% to 9%, really varies by individual report.  But you're talking about only a few point difference at that point. 

 

Well, in general we've said the same thing.  But I was speaking about him in particular because he's 18 or 19 and only has 3 TL's.  So for him there is not much for Fico to calculate with a total CL of $800 across 2 cards and an auto loan. He needs to show an on time payment history and when he apps he needs to show util as low as possible which why I said 1%.  As his credit profile continues to grow and a better mix of TL's are established then yes maybe 1% may not be his sweet spot but again, we are talking about an $800 total CL.  I think he should stick with the basics for now and test his own waters with scoring as I mentioned eariler.  So yes I do agree with some of what you said but I think that advice is better suited for someone who is much more established credit wise and with much higher much higher limits than he does.  IIRC there is a negative code that says something along the lines of "your total CL is less than $2K" or something like that....can't really remember the exact wording because I've seen it years ago on mine...LOL!


Major CC's - Barclay's ($5.5K) | Barclay's Sallie Mae MC ($5K) | DCU ($7.5K) | Discover IT ($1.4K) | Genisys Visa ($1.4K) | NFCU Visa ($22K) | Navcheck ($15K) | Chase Freedom ($5K) | SDFCU Visa ($8K) | Amex BCP ($9.5K) | Amex Delta ($10K) |Store CC's| -Amazon ($4K) | Catherines ($850) | JCP ($4K) | Macy's ($1.7K) | Avenue ($850) | Victoria's Secret ($1.4K) | Walmart ($4.1K) | Paypal SC ($1.3K) | HSN ($2.5) | Sears ($2.6K) | Sams Club ($4.1K) |Goal|: Age with grace to 750 across the board |Last app|: 3/3/2014
Message 13 of 20
Rhaeny
Valued Contributor

Re: What's next?


@GOALIS850 wrote:

Awesome! Thanks Rhaeny! One last question I was looking at my credit report and it shows whats the highest balnace that I've had througout the month even if I pay in full every month. Will it look bad if in a month that I know I won't be apping if a card with a 1000 limit reports 900 as highest amount used? I always pif every month.


The "high balance" is just that....the highest balance your card has hit and doesn't play a part in your score calculation.  The balance (not high balance) and your CL are the only amounts that play a role in your score (Utilization).  Now in a manual review it can be questioned but I really wouldn't worry about it.  So in the example you gave above your balance is zero and CL is 1000 so your util is 0% for that card.  The high balance will still report as $900 and not affect that 0%.


Major CC's - Barclay's ($5.5K) | Barclay's Sallie Mae MC ($5K) | DCU ($7.5K) | Discover IT ($1.4K) | Genisys Visa ($1.4K) | NFCU Visa ($22K) | Navcheck ($15K) | Chase Freedom ($5K) | SDFCU Visa ($8K) | Amex BCP ($9.5K) | Amex Delta ($10K) |Store CC's| -Amazon ($4K) | Catherines ($850) | JCP ($4K) | Macy's ($1.7K) | Avenue ($850) | Victoria's Secret ($1.4K) | Walmart ($4.1K) | Paypal SC ($1.3K) | HSN ($2.5) | Sears ($2.6K) | Sams Club ($4.1K) |Goal|: Age with grace to 750 across the board |Last app|: 3/3/2014
Message 14 of 20
GOALIS850
Established Member

Re: What's next?

Thanks Rhaeny! That makes a lot of sense!

Message 15 of 20
GOALIS850
Established Member

Re: What's next?

Thanks! Now I just need to figure out when the new cc reports and I'll be good to go Smiley Very Happy

Message 16 of 20
Rhaeny
Valued Contributor

Re: What's next?


@GOALIS850 wrote:

Thanks! Now I just need to figure out when the new cc reports and I'll be good to go Smiley Very Happy


Well, because I'm an addict, I have a monitoring service for each CRA Smiley Very Happy

 

But EQ and TU let you see the actual dates of the reported balance each month.  That is the date you want.


Major CC's - Barclay's ($5.5K) | Barclay's Sallie Mae MC ($5K) | DCU ($7.5K) | Discover IT ($1.4K) | Genisys Visa ($1.4K) | NFCU Visa ($22K) | Navcheck ($15K) | Chase Freedom ($5K) | SDFCU Visa ($8K) | Amex BCP ($9.5K) | Amex Delta ($10K) |Store CC's| -Amazon ($4K) | Catherines ($850) | JCP ($4K) | Macy's ($1.7K) | Avenue ($850) | Victoria's Secret ($1.4K) | Walmart ($4.1K) | Paypal SC ($1.3K) | HSN ($2.5) | Sears ($2.6K) | Sams Club ($4.1K) |Goal|: Age with grace to 750 across the board |Last app|: 3/3/2014
Message 17 of 20
Walt_K
Senior Contributor

Re: What's next?


@Rhaeny wrote:

@Walt_K wrote:

This is mostly correct.  1% isn't the best for everyone.  Some people find their absolute max at 2% or 7%, etc.  And there are some people that can have balances on more than one card and not see a difference.  In general though, only letting one card report and having it report 9% or less of that card's CL (not total CL) gives the best results.  Where the sweet spot is, from 1% to 9%, really varies by individual report.  But you're talking about only a few point difference at that point. 

 

Well, in general we've said the same thing.  But I was speaking about him in particular because he's 18 or 19 and only has 3 TL's.  So for him there is not much for Fico to calculate with a total CL of $800 across 2 cards and an auto loan. He needs to show an on time payment history and when he apps he needs to show util as low as possible which why I said 1%.  As his credit profile continues to grow and a better mix of TL's are established then yes maybe 1% may not be his sweet spot but again, we are talking about an $800 total CL.  I think he should stick with the basics for now and test his own waters with scoring as I mentioned eariler.  So yes I do agree with some of what you said but I think that advice is better suited for someone who is much more established credit wise and with much higher much higher limits than he does.  IIRC there is a negative code that says something along the lines of "your total CL is less than $2K" or something like that....can't really remember the exact wording because I've seen it years ago on mine...LOL!


We're really arguing over minutiae at this point, but you said that the closer OP gets to 1%, the closer he'll be to his sweet spot for highest score.  As far as I am aware, there's no general rule that people with thin history and 3 TLs acheive max score at 1% utilization.  It seems to vary for each individual report where in the 1-9% range they see their highest score.  This usually doesn't matter unless someone is right near a cutoff for an interest break, but just wanted to point out that it might not be 1%.

 

I don't see what the total $800 CL has to do with it. If we assume he's going to let balance report on the card with the $500 CL, we're talking about experimenting with balances between $1-$45.  Not like he's going to get into serious debt seeing if his score changes by letting a 9% balance report. 

 

I was not aware of a negative for having a total CL less than $2K. Are you sure about that?  What we usually hear is that FICO does not look at limits, it looks at utilization percentage only.


Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Current Score: EQ 681 (04/05/13); TU 98 728 (01/06/12), TU 08? 760 (provided by Barclay 1/2/14), TU 04 728 (lender pull 01/12/12); EX 742 (lender pull 01/12/12)
Goal Score: 720


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge
Message 18 of 20
GOALIS850
Established Member

Re: What's next?

Alright thank you so much guys!!! I will experiment back and forth and see which one works best for me. Smiley Very Happy

Message 19 of 20
stormb28
New Contributor

Re: What's next?

Off topic, where are you finding PT work @ $38k @ 19 years old?
Message 20 of 20
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