Hi kyomagi,
Hope this helps answer a few of your questions.
kyomagi wrote:
So i have 4 Credit cards. 2 paid off 100% no balance. 1 with a $60 balance on a $500 limit. Last card has a $600 Balance on a $1000 limit. Had this card down to $300 but had to take care of some bills last week. Now I am planning on buying a house in may/june of 2012. I was wondering how the scoring goes for this. If i pay it down gradually in stead of all at once, does my score still go up every month i pay it then a big jump once its paid off, or should i pay it off now and will that score jump and then build from that? FICO scores on both individual card utilization and overall utilization. Most folks see their best FICO when they're below 9% individual and 9% overall. There's really no set cutoffs for utilization and FICO impact - but generally speaking you'll see FICO scores improve as utilization decreases. There seems to be categories (like, say, something like 20-30%, a number I just randomly pulled out of my head - nothing real in those numbers) rather than points for each individual utilization reduction. And those categories can be rather broad (i.e. 30-50% or some such - again just numbers I pulled out of my head - nothing real in those numbers) - they certainly morph and will vary from person to person as well as for one person over time. You may want to pay down your $600 balance because 60% utilization is high. Other creditors will see your utilization when they do account reviews and soft pull your credit report. High utilization on other cards may affect the way they manage your account. Also, aside from FICO, your cc card holder gets nervous when you maintain a high utilization and you may see some AdverseActions i.e. lower CL's as you slowly paydown. If you have the means, you may want to get your utilization down. You'll save interest money and you'll look good to your creditors as well. The general mantra is to keep all cc's but one reporting a zero balance; with the remaining one reporting less than 9% for best FICO scores - and it keeps the creditors thinking you're golden as well. Paying utilization down over time does not trump paying down utilization up front FICO-wise.
IIm really confused. I just want to make sure my scores go over 680 so i can get a regular loan, as it stands from a month ago, my TU Credit was 677 (Lender Pull) (If it's a lender pull, it's probably a FICO) and EXP Credit was 675 (experian.com) (that's a FAKO score, sorry to say) . My EQ was 622. (my fico score)
ETA: clarification on how absolutely unknown the ranges for utilization absolutely are. absolutely unknown. absolutely! 
Remember they vary for each individual and they vary with time for one individual - I'm not trying to give any accurate guidelines here. At all.
My personal observation is that paying down slowly has given me better FICO score... When my CC balances are up and I do big payment in one month to get them down, it has not effected my FICO score very much. When I pay down over a couple of months, my FICO score improves more...
I understand that previous balance and amount paid is supposedly not part of the formula... But with 6 years of closely monitoring my reports, I've observed this several times. It's almost like the big payment is discounted because the money might have been borrowed from a friend to pay balance down...
I know it's not supposed to work that way... Only reporting my personal observation of my FICO credit scores... So don't shoot me.
@Anonymous wrote:My personal observation is that paying down slowly has given me better FICO score... When my CC balances are up and I do big payment in one month to get them down, it has not effected my FICO score very much. When I pay down over a couple of months, my FICO score improves more...
I think it's more probable that you are getting the bigger better scores because of the combination of your UTIL decreasing and that your length of history and aaoa is changing over the time you are taking to pay down your accounts. Scores are generated off your then CURRENT reports. Not last month's reports or UTIL. When you are making your big payments, are you paying them off completely or leaving a small balance on one? If you pay off completely, I could why the score wouldn't go up as you have no UTIL. But if you read these boards, you can see what paying down UTIL does for people from one report to the next.
