Credit Score question ...

[Anonymous]

Hello

I recently checked my credit score through Equifax and wasn't best pleased at what i was seeing. I've had two credit cards for over 6 years and i can't see any missed payments on my report, so i'm unsure as to why my score was rather low. The only thing this could be is to do with something known as debt / avilable credit ratio

(or something) which i've just found out about, which supposidly counts for 30% of your credit score. 

I'm coming into a large some of money next month which will enable me to clear both my cards. Will this improve my score and if so is there any indicaction as to by how much.. 50-100 points or so ?

Kind regards, Wayne

[haulingthescoreup]

Hi, wayney, welcome to the forums!

Well, to make any kind of educated guess, we'd have to know the CL (credit limit) of each card and the reported balance on each; in other words, the balance showing on your FICO score report. What is your current FICO EQ (Equifax) score?

If you only have these two cards, and the reporting amount is high, you could get some serious score jumps by paying them down/ off.

Be sure to let one card report $10, and then pay it off before the due date, so you won't pay any insurance.

Then in the future, use them as needed through the month, but pay them off about 3 days before the statement is scheduled to post, or 3 days before the last business day of the month for US Bank, HSBC, and Orchard cards. Again, let one of them (doesn't matter which) report $10, and after the statement date but before the due date, pay it off again. Lather, rinse, and repeat.


edit to clarify the reported balance issue

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 02-19-2009 06:15 PM