hello, credit help please??

[Anonymous]

So P you suggest to pay down 70% on every one of those first? then work on paying them in full afterwards?

[GregB]

Any CC with util over 80% seems to be considered "maxed out". I would get all CC below 80% of their individual limit. Actually less than 79%.

There is also seems to be a negative with over 50% of your open Revolving Accounts with a balance. This may not matter if you only have 2-3 accounts but, as an example, if you have 10 accounts you want 6 or more to be reporting $0. With lots of accounts I have seen more movement with that change than large changes in overall utilization. Lately I have seen no change from overall util of 63% down to 38%.

These steps seem to be more universal than steps at certain overall utilization. Some people see movement at 50% or 30% but some people don't.

I know some people that do manual reviews on loans who have commented that having a balance on a jewelry store card is a red flag. Your car loan application might not even be getting a manual review.

[Booner72]

Hi Sarah - I'm going to hijack your post for just a quick second to get -P's opinion on something.....I am a big fan of -P by the way.  Maybe the reply will help you, also, which I hope.

So anyway, my lovely mentor,  you said "Then the major jump will come when you get below 10% utilization"  --Please define "major jump" for someone with a "dirty file."  (hate that term btw).--   I need 16+ points to get to 640 by  early next week.  We're doing rapid rescore, I'm leaving 50 bucks on one of four cards.  Last neg. was 2/10 when judgment posted.  Other than that clean credit over 2 yrs. 

thanks.

[slarano]

I'd attempt to pay down each card one by one. First, I would obviously pay off the smallest of your balances, as another $0 balance card can't hurt, especially when it'll take less than $300 to get two of your cards to $0 balance. Second, I would attack whichever balance has the highest APR. If you have any cards that have been known to give BT offers, try paying down that card first. Once it's close to, or at $0 balance, your ccc might offer you a BT deal, at which point you can take full advantage of that. Even if they don't, it's still another card with a $0 balance! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Just paid off another, the Zales card is now zero'd out.....

I have balances on jewerly cards because I just got married two months ago. We have $1200 each month to pay down on debts. We allocate $200 a week for our food/gas/etc and the rest goes to paying off our debt.

[Anonymous]

oops I forgot to add that we both have Billmelater accounts, do those ever report to credit?

[Anonymous]

ok here is what actually shows up on just my credit report.... I've paid off $2053 on revolving which has not posted to my report yet.

Score currently shows on Equifax as 601... yikes.... the other one was an experian score.

  CREDIT REPORT as of 07/11/2011

Open Accounts	Total#	Balance	Available	Credit Limit	Debt to Credit	Monthly Payment Amount	Accounts with a Balance
Mortgage	1	$117,402	$4,352	$121,754	96%	$995	1
Installment	1	$9,749	$2,148	$11,897	82%	$290	1
Revolving	10	$10,759	$3,191	$13,950	77%	$267	6
Other	0	$0	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0	0
Total	12	$137,910	$9,691	$147,601	93%	$1,552	8

[slarano]

BillMeLater does not report trade lines, but does have a habit of hard pulls whenever you make a BillMeLater purchase. Inquiries hurt! Start paying down your revolving as quickly as possible, you'll see larger jumps at 50% util. then at 30% then eventually at 10%.

[Anonymous]

What really is weird is this, my husband's score is 629, both of us have no lates and no judgements and he has more outstanding credit but his score is higher??? Credit is wack.

  CREDIT REPORT as of 07/11/2011

Open Accounts	Total#	Balance	Available	Credit Limit	Debt to Credit	Monthly Payment Amount	Accounts with a Balance
Mortgage	1	$117,402	$4,352	$121,754	96%	$995	1
Installment	1	$9,749	$2,148	$44,488	82%	$742	1 (has error, closed acct 454 per month, credit limit should be $11897.00)
Revolving	7	$16,350	$1,727	$18,077	90%	$309	6
Other	0	$0	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0	0
Total	12	$143,501	$98,227	$184,319	78%	$2,046	8

[slarano]

The sooner you educate yourself about, and embrace, credit, the sooner you can better your credit profile and better your life. I'm guilty of it as well, but now I know that the only way to make it better is to emerse yourself, and not look at credit as if it's only a hindrance. In reality, it can be one of our biggests personal assets.