which is better to pay down to 50% or 25% of a credit limit

[cobaltnv]

I doubt you are going to see a score jump to 600. You still have balances on 7 of 7 cards. I would throw at least another $400 at the debt to pay off 6 of the 7 cards. Ideally you would have $750 to pay off all the debt.

Rapid rescores are expensive. WHen are you trying to close?  If balance updates are all you need call the credit card companies and ask they if they will do an intercycle update. 

[Anonymous]

well we'll see what happens...i will have all the accounts that i listed paid to amounts listed by tomorrow.

as far as a credit background goes and the 2 accounts that i paid off here goes

we have the following accounts ontop of the ones already listed

hsbc furniture row ~4200 balance

aspire card (closed) 674.44

aspire card (closed) 611.72

merrick bank (closed)565.21

auto payment to chase bank ( for my subaru ) 1.5 years old no lates balance of ~18800

 auto payment to americredit 2yrs 5 months old no lates balance of ~14800

bankruptcy ( just me ) discharged 3 years ago

paid off derogatory

southwestern bell phone bill ( which was bogus we didn't owe it, but my mortg. broker said we had to pay it) from 2005. paid off

medical collection from this past dec. paid off.

other than that...that's pretty much it.

what do you guys think? I know i am not paying down all my open accounts but i am doing all i can with what i have to work with.

[PayingTheBills]

Those three closed accounts still factor into your balance, but your "credit limit" on those accounts is now $0.00.

So those closed accounts are still affecting your revolving utilization, in a very negative way.  If you have the funds, I would attempt a PFD on those accounts.

Paid collection accounts do not help your FICO score, but may help a little when doing a manual review like the one your mortgage broker does.  Start a GW letter campaign to SW Bell to ask if they will remove it and read up on the HIPAA process here on the forums for how to get the medical collection deleted.

What kind of Subaru you driving?  I have a 2006 WRX through Chase bank that I still owe $16k on.  Let me know if there's anything you need to know to get started on the PFD, GW or HIPAA process. Anything to help a fellow boxer engine owner.

[Anonymous]

will do...i'll see what i can do...i have an 07 wrx tr...went 13.2 @ 101 last year...should be in the 12's this year with a GMBCS and an opensource reflash. they are alot of fun to play with! are you on nasioc ? also check out subark.net ...that's our local subby club that i run.

[PayingTheBills]

My 06 WRX is Stage 2 with Cobb AP, Cobb catless DP and Scoobysport catback.  My SN on NASIOC is "2002 HKS WRX"

I previously had a 2002 WRX before a soccer mom ran over it.

Back on topic, good luck with the credit gardening. In the meantime, at least you have a cool car to get around town in.

[Anonymous]

ya it's fun...i love it! we won't drive anything else now but a subaru after buying this car. plus our local dealer sponsors the club too so i foresee good deals in my future

[Anonymous]

well here's an update on what has happened.... as of this past Friday none of my wife's accounts have updated but mine on the other hand....2/3 of them have reported as being paid off or below 25%. my middle score jumped over 50 points and when the last one reports should push me over the 620 mark hopefully.Mt trans. score is now over 610... i need 38 points to get my middle score to qualify me. My wife's score actually went down from last month ( remember her accounts have not updated at all ) and my lender is expecting her score to jump high enough to get us where we need to be. she needs like 75 point now ( her score actually dropped quite a bit )

fingers crossed....they are pulling our credit again this afternoon to see where we stand.

Message Edited by boostdog on 03-10-2009 11:40 AM

[PayingTheBills]

First off, congrats on the FICO increase!  Getting your util to <9% might net you some or all of the 38 points you need on your middle score.

Have you tried any PFD's on those closed accounts?

[Anonymous]

no i don't have any $ available yet to do that...so far so good we're just waiting on all the bureu's to update, which is taking forever! anyway i'll keep this thread updated as we progress.

Thanks!