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Credit Score & High Uti. Rate

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wakefield622
Established Member

Credit Score & High Uti. Rate

Hi, 

 

My husband is doing wonderful with paying down his CC Debt. This year so far he paid off Target - $200 ... Home Depot...$1,500....Dell...$800 and Capital One $500 (We do charge gas on this card each month and pay it off in full at the end of the month). We just made a $565 payment to Chase bringing it down to $1,082 owed. Our last card is Citi...we have a limit of $5,200 and there is $5,000 charged on it. I am guessing this is what is holding his score back - being so close to the limit. Chase is scheduled to be paid off this month so we will be snowballing all of those min payments onto Citi. WE are looking to be CC Debt Free by 12/31. 

 

When can we expect to see improvements in his score (currently 625)? 

 

Also, once CC's are  all paid off....how should we use them each month to get his FICO scores up? 

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2 REPLIES 2
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Credit Score & High Uti. Rate

Hi wakefield622!  Welcome!

 

Congrats on your awesome debt paydown!  That has got to feel super!

 

FICO looks at utilization in two ways - overall and individual.  So, your overall utilization is dropping steadily, which is awesome.  You might want to grab a calculator and keep track of what it was and what it is now.  That's a fun number to watch drop and you'll see some FICO action as it decreases.  Some folks see significant FICO points as their utilization comes down.  Occasionally folks will throw out some utilization "cutoffs" - but the exact cutoffs seem to vary between individuals. 

 

And, of course, FICO recognizes the paydown as the OriginalCreditors report the new balances to the CreditReportingAgencies.  They usually, but not always, report on the statement date.  Then it takes a day or several for the CRA's to receive and update their records.  Experian tends to update most quickly, followed by Equifax, and then by TU.  YMMV!

 

And lastly, FICO also notes how many of your revolving accounts are reporting a balance.  The general rule of thumb is that the best score is obtained by letting only one account report a balance.  You can tool around with that and see what number works best for you - but one is most always a good number.  What that'll mean for you at this point is when your Chase is paid off, you will only be revolving a balance on Citi.  You may see some FICO points if that's the only card reporting a balance - in other words you might want to time your Cap One card (as well as your other cards) so that it is always reporting a zero balance even though it's being used during the month.  Then, when your Citi is paid off, you might want to follow the "let all your accounts but one report a zero balance; with the remaining one reporting less than 9% utilization" for highest FICO scoring on utilization.

 

Congrats!  Let us know how things are going as you move along!  We're rooting for you!

Message 2 of 3
wakefield622
Established Member

Re: Credit Score & High Uti. Rate

SO AWESOME!!

 

I love all and any information I can get! Smiley Surprised

 

Thank you for replying and ready to take this head on!

Message 3 of 3
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