Why is my credit score low & how can I improve it?

[Anonymous]

As everyone would say, get your cards down to a ZERO balance except for 1 card which should be utilized between 1-9%

[Open - Credit Card] Barclays Bank Delaware - $2610/$3000 Get this below 30/20/9%

[Open - Credit Card] West Elm - $2299/$3200 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] NFCU - $5962/$15900 - No missed payments

Get these cards below 30/20/9%. Each drop below 30%, 20% and then below 9% will trigger a nice score increase. That's the easiest score increase you can get, and the one you have the most control over.

[guykara]

Cool. I'll get that taken care of ASAP. Then it's just a waiting game, I suppose!

[Anonymous]

Patience is still a virtue. You can always write good will letters to ask for negatives to be withdrawn or deleted. But work on your utilization percentages. Once you've done that, update us with your score increases. 

[guykara]

So...I decided to eliminated the debt. I paid off a bunch of CC debt and I'll be selling my car tomorrow for $9300. I'll be sharing with my fiance for a bit so I can save up some more money / let my scores rise until I buy a new car . Here's an update of the accounts as they'll reflect by the end of the month:

[Open - Credit Card] Barclays Bank Delaware - $0/$3000 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] Chase Bank - $1000/$5000 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] West Elm - $100/$3200 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] NFCU - $2000/$15900 - No missed payments

[Open - Auto] NFCU - $0 - No missed payments

So close to debt free I can smell it! By the end of September I know I'll have the rest of this paid off. May be looking at purchasing in November/December time? We'll see!

[guykara]

Sorry - double post.

[Anonymous]

Wow I love the positive, focused intention to be debt free. That more than anything will give you such freedom and joy. It definitely empowers you far more than just getting another credit card to lower your utilization. I like how you have a plan are following it. 

You're on a debt snowball to success. Those balances are well below 20%. Keep working away at them. Each card you can get to ZERO the better you'll be. 

Then just keep a small, very small balance of between 1-9% on just 1 card. Zero balances on all your cards except for 1. 

Update us in a few weeks once your accounts update with the CRAs and you get your new scores. 

[guykara]

Car sold!

Here are how my balances currently reflect:

[Open - Credit Card] Barclays Bank Delaware - $1300/$3000 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] Chase Bank - $1000/$5000 - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] West Elm - $100/$3200 (0% interest) - No missed payments

[Open - Credit Card] NFCU - $2900/$15900 - No missed payments

[Open - Auto] NFCU - $6000 - No missed payments

The car dealership I sold the car to said it'll take around 1 week before NFCU receives their check and around 3 weeks before I receive the difference. So in ~3 weeks I'll be paying off Barclays to 0, Chase to 0, West Elm to 0, and possibly a little more on NFCU. At that point NFCU will be my only debt. Since my AAoA is so low (because of all of my new CC's) - Should I consider closing some of my accounts that I just opened a few months ago? Will that help my AAoA? Barclays, Chase (2), and West Elm were all opened around 3 months ago.

Thanks for the help and positive words!