@Anonymous wrote:
I'm looking to get a general idea of what I can do to future-proof my credit situation and make sure I'm taking advantage of the system in every way possible. I'm pretty happy with my mid-700's score, but I thought I'd post here because someone recently gave me the notion that there's always more I can do.
Beyond a certain point the effort to increase your score and the benefit that you see from increasing your score diminishes. Think of it as a curve. At the mid-700's you're getting to the steep point of the curve.
@Anonymous wrote:
- Any of these accounts should be closed (most of them aren't really neccessary... I really use credit only as a backup for when I don't have immediately available cash on a big purchase or if I'm caught between inter-bank transfers)
- Any of them should be maximized (should I be asking for more credit so my overall usage is lower?)
- Generally are there other things I could do to stay on top of my game.
Consider the factors that affect your credit score and use them as a starting point instead of going about it backwards. Additionally, you haven't provided enough information for us to answer your questions. Your credit is scored on on time payments, utilization, age of accounts, derogs, etc. Only you can determine if an account is needed or not. You haven't told us the age or number of all your accounts. You haven't told us your limits or utilization. That said, the general advice to maximize scoring is:
Keep reported utilization low. You can pay prior to the statement date to lower reported utilization. You can also charge less to decrease utilization. You can also increase your credit limits to decrease utilization. How you want to tackle utilization is up to you. Consider the impact on utilization that closing accounts will have.
Pull all your reports and review them for items to correct/update as well.
@Anonymous wrote:
P.S. I'm also mildly curious as to why people are comfortable posting sensitive information about credit scores and credit cards publicly on these boards. I realize there's a trust factor, and I'm banking on that, but I'm curious nonetheless.
What is someone going to do with your credit score? Even with your credit score the info can become quickly out of date as soon as your reports update.
