Just purchased ScoreWatch, and I have one question.....

[memevertical]

Hi everyone, I decided to go ahead and start monitoring my Equifax score with ScoreWatch, I followed someone's advice (dont remember his username) and setup the alerts with the same score I have right now + 1. 

But here's my question: my score for Equifax is 628. And it's showing 4 things affecting my credit:

1. High credit usage (93%)

2. Short Credit History (Average 1 year, Longest 2 years 6 months)

3. Recently looking for credit (3 inquires in the past year)

4. Too many accounts with balances (all CC's have a balance)

Total CC amount owed is $2090.00, and I plan on paying enough to bring it down to 7% within 1 month. Now, when I put this into the FICO Simulator, it says it would go up to 747-787.

You guys think that by paying that amount I could really go up to that score range, or is FICO Simulator just getting my hopes up?

[Anonymous]

You can tinker with your score as much as you want...  You have a young credit file and the most important factor for you right now is to have your credit history mature with good records ofcourse.  Sounds as if you have no baddies so yeah you can see a nice jump if you pay down your cards but more importantly you should not let the balances carry over so you won't pay unecessary fees regardless of what your apr is.  Should practice paying in full every month or atleast pay down a chunk.  Otherwise that's money flying out your pocket through unnecessary cost of financing.

It's good to understand how to manipulate your fico score but it's also good to understand how to save money.

[memevertical]

Thanks for your reply!!

I'll be sure to post how much my score goes up after those payments, just so others can maybe benefit from it.

[Anonymous]

Since utilization is 30% of your score, getting those CCs paid down will give you a boost.

Each time your CR updates and your balances drop, you will see your score raise.

You did not mention if you have any negatives on your report.

[memevertical]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since utilization is 30% of your score, getting those CCs paid down will give you a boost.

Each time your CR updates and your balances drop, you will see your score raise.

You did not mention if you have any negatives on your report.

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Well, the only negatives are the short age of my accounts and the inquires I made this year, but aside from that, every CC and the Car Loan have never had any late payment. I have nothing on collection and nothing in public records.

[Anonymous]

Since your utilization is at 93% your score will increase as you pay the balances down.  I can't really say how much.

[BungalowMo]

Only one thing to add here...set up your alerts with your CURRENT score.  Then you will get an alert when your score changes in either direction.  Also, SW doesn't scan your report every day.  It's more like every 7 - 10 days, so if you're expecting a score change, be patient, they system will catch up in a few days.  (not that I pay attention to that...when I see a baddie drop or a cc balance go to $0 on my 3 in 1 I get every day, I get antsy & purchase another SW report!  )   Patience is not my stong suit when it comes to my scores!!

[mrldp40]

it may go up a bunch    but it will still be a young file