If you had to guess at a possible increase...

[laz98]

I have an overall utilization of about 11%.  But some of my cards are over that:

56% - 300 CL

65% - 600 CL

67% - 550 CL

81% - 700 CL (stupid AF)

Any ideas on how much I can increase my score if I can pay these down to about 20% each?

I know it's a guess at best, but I'm trying to find ways to stay motivated about credit repair.

[Junejer]

Laz98, I figure on about 8-10 points per 10% of util in my bucket on EQ. I think that you might do better with taking the effort to get them to 0% one at a time. I think that you might get more bang for your buck that way. Have you tried the sim?

[laz98]

hi byrdman!  i actually thought of you saying this when i was posting

when you say "per 10% of util", is that on EACH card?  that could be a lot of points!  but as you said, that is for your bucket.  i am in the "dirty file" bucket you told me about on another thread.  any ideas on whether that might be good or bad, points-wise?  not all of my CRs reflect these negatives, at least TU doesn't.

i want to close my plains commerce card, which only has a $350 CL, & i was able to balance transfer to capital one, so it actually has a $0 balance right now.  (i actually called today, but i forgot it was sunday, so no one was able to help me anywhere except capital one.)

& i am thinking about closing my first premier card in january, even though it has a very low APR, considering a) my credit & b) the type of card it is, since it only a $550 CL & they told me i won't even be eligible for another CLI til april ("one per year, greedy customer!"), which means i would have to pay another $39 AF in february. overall, it's not a bad AF, but i am realizing how much i am paying in monthly fees & payment fees, thanks to this forum, & i would rather put that money to use paying down my balances.

(i know this information about closing cards doesn't seem relevant, but the reason i want to do it is to avoid running up balances again.  if i don't have the cards, there is no temptation for me.  i'm one of those people who will need to have lower CLs to avoid getting into a lot of trouble!)

i know i have used the simulator in the past, but i don't recall it giving me any good jumps.  i was kind of sad about it, actually, because i keep reading here how that's the easiest & fastest way to boost your score.  

[TerrenceATL]

To the OP and anyone else who has First Premier. If you have online banking, you can send FP a payment through your online banking and avoid the payment fees for FP. It will save you a lot of money if you add it up how much you've paid every time you made a payment. Just calculate the extra time it takes to go through, mine usually takes 3 days to get to FP and be posted.

[Junejer]

Hi Laz98. I was thinking for overall util, not each ind card. That would be more points than are available in the scoring model. I am in the same predicament with having to close an account due to an AF (Orchard). I might hold onto it for another year, especially if I can't get my util paid down before the end of the year.

[Junejer]

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laz98 wrote:

hi byrdman!  i actually thought of you saying this when i was posting

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Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

[laz98]

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@TerrenceATL wrote:
To the OP and anyone else who has First Premier. If you have online banking, you can send FP a payment through your online banking and avoid the payment fees for FP. It will save you a lot of money if you add it up how much you've paid every time you made a payment. Just calculate the extra time it takes to go through, mine usually takes 3 days to get to FP and be posted.

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thanks, i know several people have said this before.  personally, i don't really like chase's bill pay feature, so i would rather pay it through first premier's website.  also, i have heard so many stories of people not getting their payments posted on time, that i would rather use THEIR system so it gives me a confirmation number & i can prove when i paid their stupid bill.

[laz98]

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@Junejer wrote:
Hi Laz98. I was thinking for overall util, not each ind card. That would be more points than are available in the scoring model. I am in the same predicament with having to close an account due to an AF (Orchard). I might hold onto it for another year, especially if I can't get my util paid down before the end of the year.

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so i was right, my score won't go up much, even if i pay down my cards.  i guess i won't really bother then.  thanks again for your help!

[Junejer]

Individual util counts as well. Don't NOT (sorry for the double negative) pay off your cards. I think that you might get some nice points, maybe not 80 or 100, but some nice points anyway. You also have that "too many accounts with balances" thing that will factor in the points as well. I recently allowed a second card to report a balance and lost 11 points. The balance was stupidly low too. So, individual util counts--there is a dance between overall and individual that FICO does (and I don't know the formula/ratio) to decide how many points each is worth.

[laz98]

oh, i will pay them down, just not in as much of a hurry as i originally planned.  right now we are concentrating on my gf's first financial card, because they are raising the apr to 18.99 (it was 16.45 anyway).  but we have about $7k on there, since it's our highest CL, & we keep putting emergency crap on it that we can't afford to put anywhere else.

i decided to go ahead & close my plains commerce card, so that's one headache GONE!!!  i also got a $100 CLI (not much, but something) on my orchard platinum card.  that's now at $400, & i have only had it for 6 months.

i'm going to wait for the payment to post to my orchard gold card, & then call them & ask them to waive the AF.  haven't decided if i will close it or not.  $79 is a lot to pay,  but it's my highest CL (for a non store card).  capital one is rapidly closing on it, though, since they doubled my CL to $600 yesterday.  hooray!