Boosting FICO Score for Apporama

[drchaos]

Current FICO score is 612.

I had a very successful Apporama last year but now the time has come to do the next one.

I have the following credit card debt:

Navy Federal Credit Union $0 (Paid off $8K on this card roughly ten days ago)

Edward Jones $20,588.00 (Limit is $25K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

US Bank $9,256.59 (Limit is $15K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

Bank of America $43,984.14 (Limit is $48K, 0% offer ends in May)

Wells Fargo $18,630.60 (Limit is $19K, 0% offer ends in October)

US Bank $10,279.20 (Limit is $11,300, 0% offer ends in June)

Citizens Bank $10,262 (Limit is $13,500, 0% ends in May)

Discover $4,893.60 (Limit is $6K, 0 % ends in April)

I initially planned to wait until April to pay these cards down and apply for new ones but I will need to spend at least $40K on business expenses before then so it seems that the best course of action is to get new cards down.

Currently I have $117,894.13 on these cards (combined limit is $137,800, not counting the Navy Federal Card as it is paid off already)

My initial plan is to pay the cards down so that the following balances remain:

Bank of America $19,199  = 39.99% of limit

Wells Fargo $7,599  = 39.99% of limit

US Bank $3,765.67  = 33.33% of limit

 Citizens $4,499  = 33.33% of limit

Discover $1,999  = 33.33% of limit

Total $37.061.67 (Including spenders I have roughly $200K of total credit across all cards)

If I do not pay these cards down any further before applying for new cards could I expect to get approvals with high limits or would I need to pay the cards down further to have any chance of success?

Any guesses as to the FICO score after these payments?

Thanks in advance.

[Blender]

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@drchaos wrote:

Current FICO score is 612.

I had a very successful Apporama last year but now the time has come to do the next one.

I have the following credit card debt:

Navy Federal Credit Union $0 (Paid off $8K on this card roughly ten days ago)

Edward Jones $20,588.00 (Limit is $25K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

US Bank $9,256.59 (Limit is $15K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

Bank of America $43,984.14 (Limit is $48K, 0% offer ends in May)

Wells Fargo $18,630.60 (Limit is $19K, 0% offer ends in October)

US Bank $10,279.20 (Limit is $11,300, 0% offer ends in June)

Citizens Bank $10,262 (Limit is $13,500, 0% ends in May)

Discover $4,893.60 (Limit is $6K, 0 % ends in April)

I initially planned to wait until April to pay these cards down and apply for new ones but I will need to spend at least $40K on business expenses before then so it seems that the best course of action is to get new cards down.

Currently I have $117,894.13 on these cards (combined limit is $137,800, not counting the Navy Federal Card as it is paid off already)

My initial plan is to pay the cards down so that the following balances remain:

Bank of America $19,199  = 39.99% of limit

Wells Fargo $7,599  = 39.99% of limit

US Bank $3,765.67  = 33.33% of limit

 Citizens $4,499  = 33.33% of limit

Discover $1,999  = 33.33% of limit

Total $37.061.67 (Including spenders I have roughly $200K of total credit across all cards)

If I do not pay these cards down any further before applying for new cards could I expect to get approvals with high limits or would I need to pay the cards down further to have any chance of success?

Any guesses as to the FICO score after these payments?

Thanks in advance.

---

No.

I think paying as many of those cards off or below 29% would give you the best chance at more approvals, but given the other statistics mentioned above, I'm not sure how high of limits you would get. You may also want to wait a reporting cycle for those individual and aggregate utilization numbers to reflect once paid. 

[drchaos]

Thanks for the feedback

Yes,  I do plan to wait for the payments to show up on my credit report before applying for new cards.

Would the revised plan work?

Bank of America $15,765  = 32.64% of limit

Wells Fargo $6,195  = 32.61% of limit

US Bank $3,252  = 28.78% of limit

 Citizens $3,890  = 28.81% of limit

Discover $1,715  = 28.58% of limit

Total $30,817 (Including spenders I have roughly $200K of total credit across all cards)

If this was the limit on how much I could reasonbly expect to pay down the cards would you suggest any changes to how I allocate the funds to each card?

[RSX]

i know these are at 0%, but the CRAs don't care about that - they only see the Utilization %

i think these 4 are the reason for your 612 score right now

Wells Fargo $18,630.60 (Limit is $19K, 0% offer ends in October)

US Bank $10,279.20 (Limit is $11,300, 0% offer ends in June)

Citizens Bank $10,262 (Limit is $13,500, 0% ends in May)

Discover $4,893.60 (Limit is $6K, 0 % ends in April)

it all depends whether you are working this for scoring or for finances - it seems like scoring is your priority - which means these ones need to be partially paid down

you reference $40k in business spend - i don't see any business cards in your list 

[SouthJamaica]

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@drchaos wrote:

Current FICO score is 612.

I had a very successful Apporama last year but now the time has come to do the next one.

I have the following credit card debt:

Navy Federal Credit Union $0 (Paid off $8K on this card roughly ten days ago)

Edward Jones $20,588.00 (Limit is $25K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

US Bank $9,256.59 (Limit is $15K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

Bank of America $43,984.14 (Limit is $48K, 0% offer ends in May)

Wells Fargo $18,630.60 (Limit is $19K, 0% offer ends in October)

US Bank $10,279.20 (Limit is $11,300, 0% offer ends in June)

Citizens Bank $10,262 (Limit is $13,500, 0% ends in May)

Discover $4,893.60 (Limit is $6K, 0 % ends in April)

I initially planned to wait until April to pay these cards down and apply for new ones but I will need to spend at least $40K on business expenses before then so it seems that the best course of action is to get new cards down.

Currently I have $117,894.13 on these cards (combined limit is $137,800, not counting the Navy Federal Card as it is paid off already)

My initial plan is to pay the cards down so that the following balances remain:

Bank of America $19,199  = 39.99% of limit

Wells Fargo $7,599  = 39.99% of limit

US Bank $3,765.67  = 33.33% of limit

 Citizens $4,499  = 33.33% of limit

Discover $1,999  = 33.33% of limit

Total $37.061.67 (Including spenders I have roughly $200K of total credit across all cards)

If I do not pay these cards down any further before applying for new cards could I expect to get approvals with high limits or would I need to pay the cards down further to have any chance of success?

Any guesses as to the FICO score after these payments?

Thanks in advance.

---

I don't think the time has come to do the next one. I predict it will be a bust if you try it.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@drchaos wrote:

Current FICO score is 612.

I had a very successful Apporama last year but now the time has come to do the next one.

I have the following credit card debt:

Navy Federal Credit Union $0 (Paid off $8K on this card roughly ten days ago)

Edward Jones $20,588.00 (Limit is $25K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

US Bank $9,256.59 (Limit is $15K, I will pay this card off in full on Friday)

Bank of America $43,984.14 (Limit is $48K, 0% offer ends in May)

Wells Fargo $18,630.60 (Limit is $19K, 0% offer ends in October)

US Bank $10,279.20 (Limit is $11,300, 0% offer ends in June)

Citizens Bank $10,262 (Limit is $13,500, 0% ends in May)

Discover $4,893.60 (Limit is $6K, 0 % ends in April)

I initially planned to wait until April to pay these cards down and apply for new ones but I will need to spend at least $40K on business expenses before then so it seems that the best course of action is to get new cards down.

Currently I have $117,894.13 on these cards (combined limit is $137,800, not counting the Navy Federal Card as it is paid off already)

My initial plan is to pay the cards down so that the following balances remain:

Bank of America $19,199  = 39.99% of limit

Wells Fargo $7,599  = 39.99% of limit

US Bank $3,765.67  = 33.33% of limit

 Citizens $4,499  = 33.33% of limit

Discover $1,999  = 33.33% of limit

Total $37.061.67 (Including spenders I have roughly $200K of total credit across all cards)

If I do not pay these cards down any further before applying for new cards could I expect to get approvals with high limits or would I need to pay the cards down further to have any chance of success?

Any guesses as to the FICO score after these payments?

Thanks in advance.

---

If you want a significant score boost, get all individual card balances to under 29%. Fico looks at the highest utilization on any of the cards. So, leaving even one card at a higher level defeats the purpose.

Your aggregate utilization is hurting your score quite a bit also. For a significant score boost, get it below 9%. If you get ALL cards below 29% and aggregate below 9% AND if you have a clean file, these reductions in utilization could net you 60-70 points.

Applying for new cards while utilizations are elevated as shown is asking for denials. Your specified paydowns will demonstrate ability to manage debt thus reducing denial odds. However, it will help odds quite a bit more and likely increase future SL if:

1) utilizations are further reduced to below the specified 29% card and 9% AG thresholds.

2) your most recent revolving account has reached 12 months age.

3) you avoid any new hard inquiries until after the tbd application spree.

[RSX]

@SouthJamaica   I don't think the time has come to do the next one. I predict it will be a bust if you try it.

Agreed ^^^

also - i did an app spree just under 2 years ago and i still regret it.. i won't be doing another

this is an example of what will happen to my report(s) in Feb/March 2024

Feb 17 - 6 INQ will be 2 years old

Feb 21 - 2 INQ will be 1 year old

Mar 21 - 2 INQ will be 2 years old

Feb 17 - 3 Accts will be 2 yrs old

Mar 21 - 2 accts will be 2 yrs old

i regret it - and i will breathe a sigh of relief when all these are updated

i only opened 2 accts in 2023 - May and June - and one was an Overdraft LOC (which doesnt really count for much)

the only benefit is raising your Total CL

the negatives are  - killing your AAoA - your INQ count goes up - more cards to spend the same amount on - more cards to manage and use to keep open

Good luck with your paydown path and whichever way you decide to go

[drchaos]

Thanks for all of the helpful feedback.

It seems I need to pay down the cards a bit more than I expected to.

As I crunch the numbers and figure out how I am going to manage all of this I had a related question.

Once I have made the last of the payments to reduce the card balances to a more manageable level how many days do I need to wait for this new information to show up on the credit reports before I apply for the new cards?

[SouthJamaica]

---

@drchaos wrote:

Thanks for all of the helpful feedback.

It seems I need to pay down the cards a bit more than I expected to.

As I crunch the numbers and figure out how I am going to manage all of this I had a related question.

Once I have made the last of the payments to reduce the card balances to a more manageable level how many days do I need to wait for this new information to show up on the credit reports before I apply for the new cards?

---

It varies based on the lender, what the reporting date is, etc.

[drchaos]

If I were to pay all five of the cards with remaining balances down to just under 29% that would leave me with a total debt on these cards of $27,975 out of my total credit limits of $244,100 which amounts to 11.46% utilitzation.

Would that leave me in a good position to get high limit approvals when I do the applications?