Utilisation Game Plan ????

[Anonymous]

Hi to you all,

I was hoping if you can help me with ideas on how to use my credit cards to get my score up in the next 3 - 5 month ?

I have 3 credit card and 1 store card .

Store card $ 700 limit with $ 0 balance right now just paid the balance off I use the card every other month.

Amex with $ 7000 limit and $ 1000 balance.

Amex with $ 2500 limit and $ 100 balance.

Capitalone $ 6600 limit with 500 $ balance.

What you think I should do to get my score up please.

My be one card it may get transfer to another card or closed I don't know because it Costco Amex card.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'll start by saying I'm not an expert and there are others here that are far more knowledgable, Creditguyindixie, Thomas Thumb are two for sure.

If you look at just utilization and how it affects your score, many here have studied the process, experimented with it and determined that 1 card reporting a balance at 9% or lower and the rest of your cards reporting $0 balance tends to put you in the happy spot for FICO scoring.  From what you show as your current balances, you're not far from that objective. Others will probably be able to give you a better idea of expected score jump.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi to you all,

I was hoping if you can help me with ideas on how to use my credit cards to get my score up in the next 3 - 5 month ?

I have 3 credit card and 1 store card .

Store card $ 700 limit with $ 0 balance right now just paid the balance off I use the card every other month.

Amex with $ 7000 limit and $ 1000 balance.

Amex with $ 2500 limit and $ 100 balance.

Capitalone $ 6600 limit with 500 $ balance.

What you think I should do to get my score up please.

My be one card it may get transfer to another card or closed I don't know because it Costco Amex card.

---

Fico models look at three factors relative to revolving credit. They are:

1) Aggregate utilization across your open accounts (this one carries the most weight)

 - Keep this under 9% at all times. Note [Inverse reported gaining around 5 points dropping from the 8% - 9% range to the 4% - 5% range but no further gain dropping to the 1% - 2% range]. So, under 5% might provide some additional benefit to you.

2) Number of open accounts reporting a non zero balance

 - Given your profile, you need to reduce the # of cards reporting to one only for best results (3 cards reporting may be costing you 10 to 15 points relative to 1 card reporting)

3) Individual card utilization.

 - The amount you let report on a single card needs to be be low enough so your aggregate utilization stays under 9%.  No harm in holding down utilization on the single card that reports to under 9%, I just have not seen convincing data showing the need. This is something you could easily test.

Right now it looks like your aggregate utilization is right at 9% with the highest utilization on a given card being 14%. Going forward drop to reporting a balance on one of your two higher CL cards only and you should be optimized.

If you have time, consider a 2-step approach to see how your profile is scored relative to # cards reporting.

a) Drop # cards reporting from 3 to 2 (zero balance on lower limit AMEX)

b) Drop # cards reporting from 2 to 1 (you pick which higher CL card reports a balance)

Side note: Use your cards periodically to avoid inactive status (at least once every 3 to 4 months).However, you can pay off charges before statements cut to avoid balances reporting to CRAs.

[Anonymous]

Like TT says, you want all your cards reporting at $0 except one.  The remaining card should be a true credit card (not a charge card) and should report a small positive balance, so that your total utilization is small (1-5%). 

Is that financially doable for you?

This "all zero except one" rule doesn't have to be adhered to every month -- just in the two months before you need your scores to be their highest. 

Do you understand how to control the amount that a card reports?  As TT observes, you can use a particular card quite a lot and still make it report $0 to the credit bureaus.  Let us know if this isn't 100% clear.

Is there a particular credit need that you have coming up five months from now?  (Like a car loan or home loan?)

Do you have any installment loans on your profile?  (Car loan, Personal loan, Student loan, mortgage?)

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi to you all,

I was hoping if you can help me with ideas on how to use my credit cards to get my score up in the next 3 - 5 month ?

I have 3 credit card and 1 store card .

Store card $ 700 limit with $ 0 balance right now just paid the balance off I use the card every other month.

Amex with $ 7000 limit and $ 1000 balance.

Amex with $ 2500 limit and $ 100 balance.

Capitalone $ 6600 limit with 500 $ balance.

What you think I should do to get my score up please.

My be one card it may get transfer to another card or closed I don't know because it Costco Amex card.

---

Let the Amex 7k card report a balance of $600 or less, and let the other 3 cards report a zero balance.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for the help,

For the last 2 month I believe I reported $ 0 balance on CapitalOne and American Express with the lower limit, but the Amex card with the $ 7000  I keept balance reporting between $ 600 - 900  .

Just to make sure I understand you correctly you want me to pay off CapitOne to $ 0 balance before the due date and the same thing on the Amex card with the lower limit also pay it off to $ 0 balance before the due date.  Now other hand the Amex card with the $ 7000 limit you want make to keep the balance reporting on it at $ 600  or less every month so that between 1 - 5 % Utilisation  ?

Thanks you so much again

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you so much for the help,

For the last 2 month I believe I reported $ 0 balance on CapitalOne and American Express with the lower limit, but the Amex card with the $ 7000  I keept balance reporting between $ 600 - 900  .

Just to make sure I understand you correctly you want me to pay off CapitOne to $ 0 balance before the due date and the same thing on the Amex card with the lower limit also pay it off to $ 0 balance before the due date.  Now other hand the Amex card with the $ 7000 limit you want make to keep the balance reporting on it at $ 600  or less every month so that between 1 - 5 % Utilisation  ?

Thanks you so much again

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Yes. If you do that your score will be optimized in terms of capacity utilization of revolving debt.

You left out the store card; let that one report zero balance too.

[Anonymous]

Ok, good plan thanks you so much.

[Anonymous]

Hi again,

Can anybody tell me about a good site that I can monitor my all 3 credit report at least monthly I do not mind paying for a site that  do not sell my information to creditors ?

I did look at FICO.com product, but the only offer EQ monthly.

I tried the trail on Experian , but the also do their report only so I canceled.

I heard credit karma sells your information if you sign up with them.

Credit check total I don't know if they sell your info or not or if any good ?

Please if you know legit site that offers monthly 3 credit pull and monitoring please, please let me know ?

I do not care about the score if they are FAKO , but I do not mind if they are Fico too.

Thanks again

[Anonymous]

You mention that Karma sells your information if you sign up with them.  Here's a page from Karma which seems to say that is not true.

https://www.creditkarma.com/article/is-credit-karma-a-scam

Look for the section entitled: "Will you give away or sell my information?"

Credit Check Total may be a good fit for you, since you are fine with paying a monthly fee.  There's some kind of clever way to get their normal fee cut in half.  There are tons of threads here on the Forum that describe that.

With CCT you will get the FICO 8 Classic score from each bureau and a new monthly report.  I think it also gives you unlimited pulls of your score and report from Experian.