I am trying to increase my credit as much as possible over the next 1-2 years. I have 2 major plans, 1 purchasing a home and 2 turning my cleaning business into a bigger operation. Both of which involve having the highest scores possible, more so the cleaning (equipment purchases). My Transunion is at 744 and Experian and Equifax high 600's. Within the past year I have increased it from around 525ish on average. I now have 7 credit cards and 2 personal loans. The credit cards I understand from research to keep under a 7% utilization rate which I am doing and never missing a payment. I don't know what to do with my personal loans though. I would like to keep them open full term so they have a greater overall positive impact. My question is how much cash should I throw at them to get the principal down? I have read that lowering the principal will increase my score but I would prefer to keep cash on hand so am wondering how much of them I should pay down to have the greatest impact. One is for $6,000 and one for $2,500. Does anyone have any other words of wisdom for me? I have available cash so I am more then willing to take some high interest rate hits on loans if I can get them and they will help me within that 2 year period. Like I said I am not so much concerned with being charged a pretty penny over the long run, as long as it gets me to the highest score possible within the next 2 years. I understand as well that some things will be impossible to increase, like the age of my oldest account and things like that. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
