First, to put the most important thing in perspective, I'm terribly sorry to hear of your loss. I hope all is well with you and your family.
On to your question. How much you use your cards will not change your scores. It is how much of it you get reported at the end of each cycle that will.determine that.
What you want to do is only let one card report a balance at the end of each month. Somewhere between 1-9% of your total overall available credit. The other cards you want at zero. This maximizes your scoring if done this way.
Also, I think it would be a good idea to have some knowledge of your Fico scores, at least hear and there. There are many places you can get them. Search these forums for options and decide on what works best for you.
Best of luck!!
On to your question. How much you use your cards will not change your scores. It is how much of it you get reported at the end of each cycle that will.determine that.
What you want to do is only let one card report a balance at the end of each month. Somewhere between 1-9% of your total overall available credit. The other cards you want at zero. This maximizes your scoring if done this way.
Also, I think it would be a good idea to have some knowledge of your Fico scores, at least hear and there. There are many places you can get them. Search these forums for options and decide on what works best for you.
Best of luck!!
@Anonymous wrote:
Let me start off by saying this might be a long read. I have 3 credit cards- 2 Chase cards of which I am an authorized user and a Capital One Secured card. The Chase cards have limits of $4,000 and $10,000. The Capital One card a limit of $800. Only one card has a balance remaining, the card with a limit of ~$2600. My parents allowed me to be an authorized user on the 2 Chase cards and opened the accounts for me to build/repair credit. They both passed away this past year within 2 months of each other and my lawyer informed me that I didn't legally need to close the accounts. I've gone from a 520 to a 720 in about a year. I've used the credit simulator at Credit Karma and even if I pay off the remaining card's balance it won't raise my score. I do not use these cards ever. I pay for everything with my debit card. My question is ultimately this- will my credit score improve if I start using the credit cards (keeping each card's utilization low) every month and just pay in full each month? I do have one hard inquiry dropping in July. 3-4 others will drop next year. That will help some. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am 32 and unfortunately just starting to really care about my credit score. Thank you for reading.
I have no idea what my FICO score is. Is there anyway to get it for free or should I even worry about it?
Sorry about the loss of your parents.
I have a hunch that you're not supposed to use those cards if your parents have passed away. I think you should notify Chase that they have passed away, unless someone else is the executor, in which case the executor should notify Chase.
@Anonymous wrote:My damn lawyer.... I just found this "However, just so you know, it is illegal to continue to use a deceased cardholder's credit card. The executor who is handling the deceased's estate should report the death to all credit card issuers. The authorized user can also contact the credit card issuer and request removal from the card."
Yeah =/. I was skeptical of that when I read your initial post; my condolences as well.
Did you get the 520 from the Discover site? If I were you before those accounts were closed, I'd see about opening a minimum balance ($500 I think) BOFA secured card and if you can swing it, stuff $500 in a share account at Alliant and take out a share secured installment loan on that as well and then prepay it vis a vis this way:
Method:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/m-p/4506756#U4506756
Then focus on whatever the negatives are, get your reports from annualcreditreport.com and see what's on there explicitly for all 3 bureaus; CK is good but it doesn't see Experian which is what the Discover FICO site looks at, and Discover won't tell you what's on the report other than some summary data... you need the full details to address them; check over in Rebuilding Your Credit with the specific derogatory, medical debt usually can be handled more easily than other types quite often.
And yes, you should care about your credit; even if you plan to pay cash for a house it's always always good to have the additional resource available if Murphy strikes.
