Doing pretty well, but what else can I do?

[gpie00001]

Hey, everyone. I'm trying to see if there's any way I can increase my credit scores some more, or if time is going to be my best friend on this. Here's what I've got so far:

Equifax:708

TransUnion:691 

1. Juniper card - opened August 2006, closed April 2008 (don't remember the CL, but think it was around $1500)
2. 1st Financial Bank USA card - opened May 2006, balance $192 of $9500
3. Capital One Platinum card - opened April 2007, balance $0 of $2800
4. Chase card - opened July 2007, balance $0 of $5300
5. Sears/Citibank Gold Mastercard - opened August 2008, balance $1300 of $3900
6. About $14,500 in student loans (actually down to about $9400, but credit reports don't reflect this yet)
7. First Horizon Mortgage - opened August 2008
8. Suntrust car loan - opened November 2008

Both Equifax and TransUnion say that my amount of debt is "very good" but I'm wondering if I pay off my 2 credit cards with debts, will that boost my score? Also, I will have a good portion of the student loans paid off in the next year (on one loan of ~$2500, I'll just pay the minimum for a while because it has such a good interest rate and I can deduct it on taxes).

Anything else I can do to help with my scores? I think I've still got a few points to recover once some of my loans are no longer considered new (but I'm not sure on that).

[Anonymous]

If you really need a quick score bump then, yes, pay down the Sears/Citi card...if not all the way off then down to 9-10 percent of CL. Try letting only one of your cards report a balance of 9% or less.   Otherwise time is your best friend. You have a very young report let your cards age....don't app for any more cards unless you absolutely have to.

[gpie00001]

Thanks for the info - I'll try to pay down the Sears/Citibank card to ~9% over the next couple of months. Would it also help my scores to try to get some CLI? Or would this only help in the same way as paying down my CCs (i.e., reduing my util)?

[Anonymous]

The CL only plays a factor when figuring util......so paying down balances and CLI would have same effect.

You want less than half your accounts reporting a balance and for CC that report a balance, keep the individual util below 9% and your overall revolving utilization between 1 and 9%.