Question about Score

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am trying to get my Husband's Fico Score up. He only has 4 credit cards. At the beginning of June I paid down the balances by 50%. When I did this his score was 640. Since then, it went up to 664. We want to buy a house so I am trying to get it as high as I can. If I pay off more of the balance, will it go up anymore? Thanks so much

[Lel]

Are all his credit cards reporting balances?  Having just one of the four report a balance might give him an added boost in score.

What is the current utilization on his CC accounts?  Getting the util below 9% can also improve his score.

[Anonymous]

All cards are reporting balances of less than 50%. So I guess the Utilization of his accounts would be around 40-50%. So if I pay them down more his score will go up more?

[Anonymous]

He has 4 Credit cards, all with low limits. Here is the new balances.

Orchard Bank - CL $300.00 / Balance $134.07

First Premier - CL $250.00 / Balance $104.17

GE Money(Care Credit) CL $1,000 / Balance $450.40

Capitol One CL $1,250 / Balance $583.82

Total CL $2,800 - Balances $1,272.46

[Anonymous]

Welcome!

Your FICO score doesn't just look at your overall utilization, it looks at the utilization on each account individually. For most effective scoring, the total utilization should be under 10%, with fewer than half your accounts reporting a balance. If it were me, I would pay off Orchard, First Premier, & GE Money. I would pay down Capital One so that it only had between $1 - $100 balance remaining. You can pay it any way you wish (depending on your interest rates), so long as 1 card is reporting 1-9% utilization & the rest are $0.

Keep in mind that your CR only shows the balance as of the date it is reported by the creditor. Most creditors usually report the balance as of the statement date (NOT the due date, check your CC statements or call the CC company to see what the statement date is). There are some creditors that report the balance as of the last business day of the month (Orchard might report that way, I know that HSBC does). In either case, make sure the balance is paid as you wish it to report by that date.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the advice. Hubby gets paid tomorrow so I am going to pay all off to $0 and leave a small balance on Capitol One. It will be interesting to see how many more points his FICO score will go up. This last time it took all his creditors 30 days to report the new balances. Thanks again for the advice. I really appreciate it

[Anonymous]

i have a question personal in nature... apparently you want his score to go up so you guys can JOINTLY secure a mortgage no??  Then if you are the one paying down his cards why do you think he's gonna end up helping with the mortgage??

I'm a guy and this just seems fishy to me seriously ...