Which way to go?

[Anonymous]

Hey all I want to acheive a +700 score in the quickest time possible. I'm currently sitting at 650. My wife is sitting around 720 (not sure of the exact numbers I don't have the reports in front of me). I have a $5K student loan as my oldest line of credit. (I'm making extremly slow progess at) and a Capital one card that I've had for about 2 years which has recently increased to $2K limit. My wife has a Capital One secured card with a $750 limit. (It was secured at $300 until recently). A 2 month old discover card with a $2500 limit, 6 month old Target card with a $250 limit and a CareCredit that we use for the dentist with a $1500 limit. She also has an Auto loan. I'm an authorized user on everything  with the exception of the auto loan. I do have a few Derogatory events such as late payments and collection accounts that have been paid off or current in the last 3 years. But I noticed that my existing tacticts haven't been helping my score. Which the recent increases in Limits my Cap 1 is almost at 30% of it's limit ($22) My wifes Cap one is $120 dollars from %30. The discover is a littler over a $1k to being at %30. The Creditone account is at %50.and the Target doesn't carry a balance. I've done some reading and just paying cash and not utilizing CC doesn't help your score at all. So is there a magic % to keep balances rolling at or around? 

[coldnmn]

Welcome to the forum! For best credit score having one credit card at 1% to 9% utilization at the statement closing is optimal.  You can use more just have cards reduced to that at statement closing. Good Luck with your credit journey!

[Anonymous]

Thank you! So then I have to keep one card around that happy number. I'm assuming statement reporting us mid month? Is there a standard or does everyone report differently?

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you! So then I have to keep one card around that happy number. I'm assuming statement reporting us mid month? Is there a standard or does everyone report differently?

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Almost all creditors report to the CRAs at the time they issue a new statement, so it's usually the statement balance that gets reported.    Just look at each of your statements to find the date, it will vary.

[Anonymous]

Ok thanks. Any other tips and recommendations? I work too damn much to not have a decent score. That could improve my score?

[Anonymous]

Your score is probably hurt by the following: 

 - little history (how old is your student loan?) 

 - baddies

 - high utilization

As cold said, you can help the util by making sure all your cards but one report a zero balance, and one card reports an under 10% balance. Now, this is an annoying thing to try to do constantly, so I would only do this the month before you want to apply for credit. The util is memoriless, which means that if you maximize your score this month by only having one account with a balance it will not help you next month if your cards are reporting a balance next month. In the medium term you can try increasing your limits on both your cards and your wife's cards. 

Now, as for the credit age, you might ask your parents to put you as an AU on some old credit card that they have. This might give you a boost. 

But likely the thing most holding you down is the baddies. This is because FICO operates with so-called buckets. See here: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/FICO-Scoring-Buckets-or-quot-Scorecards-q...

Basically, you are probably stuck in the Credit Score little league until the baddies fall off of your report, which might be a while. This means that regardless of how well you do in the meantime, your score may improve only a little. You should still try to get the best credit file you can though. 

Hope this helps