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Another page torn off the calendar, another month of gardening…
My score did drop a bit last month as I charged dental work to my lowest CL card. I'd expect it to pop back on the next cycle as I do PIF.
Hello everyone, I am checking in. My goal is a 745 (Experian Vantage3) by 8/1/25 and I am currently at 722. Also my TransUnion FICO8 is 745, Equifax FICO8 (from Citibank) is 755, and Experian FICO8 is 721. I think the Equifax FICO 8 is an oddity because it said the range is 250 to 900.
My main tactic is to get my largest balance card below 29% utilization, which means paying this down another $1200.
There are different methods for paying down credit card debt, like the snowball method (focus on the smallest debt), and the avalanche method (focus on the card with the highest interest rate). I am instead using the utilization method where I focus on the card with the highest utilization (even though it has a lower interest rate than other cards), because I think this will help my credit score more.
Starting Score: 726 (Experian VantageScore3)
I got a little careless at the end of my cycles in late February. I allowed five of my 11 cards to report a balance. Overall utilization is still relatively low at 8.99%. One of my 0% cards just went to about 45%. I had a short cycle on my AmEx HHS that I didn't keep my eye on and PIF the day after the statement closed. That will report at 27%. This will be a good science experiment for me to see what this does to my FICOs on all three CRAs. My prediction is that EX will be mostly unfazed, EQ will suffer about 10 points and TU will lose >20 points. We'll see.
INQs inching closer to having no affect. March will make this true on two of my INQs on TU.
Update: EX went up by three points to 816. I have no idea what the other two did. I no longer have access to EQ through Score Watch--I canceled it with the price increase. By the time I get my next TU update, I will have had so many other factors change it will be impossible to tell what the effect of having that many cards report a balance. My guess still stands though.