Getting over the 700 hump

[rsl1313]

Hi All,

 I am confused about scoring changes that I have seen lately. I am a bit over 4 years out of Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I started reading these posts about a year and a half ago and have tried to implement practices that have worked for others in my situation. I have 3 credit cards (2 Cap 1 and 1 Discover). I have been paying 2 of them to zero and 1 at less than 10 percent. The other day when I paid one Cap 1 card to zero my score went down 8 pts. Also it doesn't seem I ever get a bump from Transunion by paying my balances that way, yet I got a 10 pt. hit for adding a new account (mortgage). I have never been even close to 1 day late since my bankruptcy, which consisted solely of IRS debt. Does anybody have any thoughts? I really want to apply for an Alaska Airlines signature card but feel like my scores are a little low still...

Equifax 676

Experian 684

TU 655

[Anonymous]

Hi there.  A couple of things.

One, you said you paid a card to zero the other day.  I'm assuming you are also inferring that it reported a zero balance.  You didn't say though if this was one of the 2 cards that you usually let report zero or if this was your 3rd card that normally reports a balance... thus meaning that all 3 of your cards reported zero balances at the same time.

Two, less than 10% really isn't the right target.  You want 8.99% or less.  I know it doesn't seem like a big difference, but if you can in at 9.4% aggregate utilization it would be scored as 10% under FICO models which wolud result in a score ding as you'd be crossing a threshold from the best range to the second best range utilization wise with respect to FICO scoring.

All you can really do is give your profile time.  If you don't miss any payments and keep your utilization between 1% and 8.99% you're going to be maximizing 2/3 of your FICO scores.  The other 1/3 is really only achieved over time but allowing your accounts to age, your negative items to age and fall off, inquiries to age, etc.

You are on the right path.

[rsl1313]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I am pretty sure that the card that reported a balance had $86 on it for statement balance but it may have reported as zero also. I hope I am one of the lucky ones in regard to the way my tax liens are reported after July 1st. In the meantime I will just keep doing the best I can. Thanks again for the help...