Improving Credit Score and Applying for Personal/Business Credit Advice

[Anonymous]

Goal 1, Get Persoanl Credit to to above 700, Apply for CSR and/or Amex Plat

I currently have a personal credit score of 624 TU, 656 EQ with a balance of $5000 on a CSP(my only card currently) with 17% total utilaiztion according to chase credit calc I my score can go up to around 720 if I pay off my balance which I plan to do in the next few days. How long would that payment take to reflect upon my credit score? 

Goal 2, Get Approved for Chase Ink Bussiness Preffered and Costco Citi through Business Credit

I recently established my photography business as and LLC and filing as an SCorp. Also still waiting on my Duns number. I will open a Chase checking/savings under business name. I'm still in process of trying to build business credit, hoping to get at least 50k limit with the Chase

So my question is which is the best way to proceed to securing the these cards succesfully, my first post on the site so forgive me if this is posted in the wrong area, and advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Goal 1, Get Persoanl Credit to to above 700, Apply for CSR and/or Amex Plat

I currently have a personal credit score of 624 TU, 656 EQ with a balance of $5000 on a CSP(my only card currently) with 17% total utilaiztion according to chase credit calc I my score can go up to around 720 if I pay off my balance which I plan to do in the next few days. How long would that payment take to reflect upon my credit score? 

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BLUE: You should not pay off the balance in entirety.  Doing so will cause all your cards to have a $0 balance, which FICO does not like.  Far better would be to pay off almost all of the balance, but leave $10 on the card.

GREEN: Your new (much smaller) balance will appear on your credit reports 4-8 business days after your statement prints.

[Ardecko]

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@Anonymous wrote:

GREEN: Your new (much smaller) balance will appear on your credit reports 4-8 business days after your statement prints.

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Given this particular card is the CSP(a Chase card), it would actually show up a few days after the payment hits, as Chase updates mid-cycle if you pay to 0.

See: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Chase-mid-cycle-report-for-0-balance/m-p/4966225#M14513...

Edit: Not that I'm saying you should. If you're eeking out points, you should AZEO as suggested.

[HeavenOhio]

Just to add to the posts above, allowing all cards to report a zero balance dings one's score. And as mentioned, Chase reports zero whenever one pays to zero. Getting a Chase card to continuously report a non-zero balance while avoiding interest can be done, though.

1. Before your statement cuts, make a payment to bring the card down to your desired balance. This would be somewhere between $5 and 8.9% of its limit.

2. After the statement cuts, charge something and let the transaction post.

3. Once one or more new transactions post, pay your statement balance in full (but don't bring your current balance to zero).

4. When it's time for the next statement to cut, go back to step 1.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for any confusion!  Ardecko is certainly right that, if the OP were to pay it zero, then the bureaus would update the zero balance shortly after that, due to the unusual policy Chase has of updating immediately if you pay to zero.

That's why I addressed that first and indicated that paying to zero would be a mistake, since FICO penalizes profiles in which all cards are at zero.  Instead, I recommended that our OP not pay to zero but rather pay to a positive but much smaller balance.

I then addressed the question of how long such a payment would take to affect the score.  Note that I used the phrase "much smaller" to describe the new balance -- not zero.  Paying to a small positive number will take effect a few days after the next statement prints.

It's hard to know exactly what the FICO impact would be of going from a CC utilization of 20% to 0%.  The 20% util is incurring a score penalty but so would 0%.  My guess is that the OP would end up losing a few points -- since I am guessing that the All Zero penalty is just a bit more than the 20% penalty.  But perhaps the 20% is a bit greater, in which case he'd gain a few points.

[HeavenOhio]

OP, I just reread your post, and it looks like you're probably working with VantageScores from Credit Karma and Chase's Credit Journey. Lenders don't use those scores. You should grab your FICO8 scores to get a better idea of where you're at. An easy way to do that is to sign up for a $1 trial at CreditCheck Total, then cancel before the trial is over.

Once you know those scores, people here will be better positioned to advise you as far as when to apply or for what product. AMEX, for instance, uses a FICO8 score based on Experian.

If you're interested in a CSR, I'd talk to someone at Chase about how to proceed. I believe they now only allow customers to hold one Sapphire product at a time. You may be able to product-change (PC) the CSP into the CSR, but that isn't likely to earn you the CSR's sign-up bonus. Another option would be to PC the CSP into another product and apply for the CSR.

In the meantime, follow the advice above about your CSP balance. Keep it continuously reporting between $5 and 8.9% of its limit.