I have 4 cc's and only one with a $250 balance. My UTL is 3%. Back in January my score was 650 EQ and UTL was like 90%. I was hoping the score would jump to 700 or so after paying all those cards off/down but it only went to 678 EQ. It has not budged since. I have a bunch of paid collections, the most recent was paid off in 05. I had 7 "Citi Financial" small loans that were all paid and in good standing starting in 99 and the last was paid off in 06. I know those types of loans can hurt too... I don't have any repo's and have never filed for Bankrup...All that I have currently active on my report is my mortgage opened a year ago, my car loan 2years ago, and my 4 cc's (only one has a balance as stated above) I am just wondering what else I can do to get it higher or if my score is as good as it can be until more time goes by...
Q: If I were to use my cc's and get the UTL over 10% to lower my score for a month then pay it back down to below 9% the following month, do you think the score would go higher than the 678 or just go back to that?
Q: Can or should I get the Citi Financial accts removed? They were never bad accts and it gives me a lot of history with it starting in 99 so I would think it could hurt my score if they were removed.
Any help would be greatly appreciated 
Let me know if you need more info
So it will just take sweet time 
You think it would hurt or help to get a department store card to add to my mix? Right now: Cap one, Citi, Amex, and Chase.