Very discouraged with credit cards and UTIL... Help!

[Anonymous]

So, I am finally to the point that I have ONE baddie left on all 3 reports .. FIRST PREMIER. a CO from 2009, due to age off in April, but fighting with them everyday due to mutliple inacciuracies reporting across the Big 3.  To that end, I finally have the attention of the right person (a VP!) who called me and it seems to be moving.

SO...My UTIL now is at 60%.  High, I know -- my scores are TU 566 EQ 561 EX 582 FICOs.  Here is where I'm at now:

Barclay Apple VISA:  $2,600 / $3,000 CL   - 0% APR

Western FCU Visa:  $2.50 / $1,000 CL  (1% UTIL)

Capital One QS1:  $300 / $1,000 CL (30% UTIL)

FingerHut:  $0 / $250

Credit One:  $150 / $600 CL  (28% UTIL)

CareCredit:  $1348 / $3,000 CL  (45% UTIL - 0% APR)

By month's end, I will be at around 40% UTIL overall.  When can I expect to see a score jump?  That lowers me 20% UTIL and under 50%, which I know is better than over 50%.... If I can this down to 25% or less, would I see a maximized jump?  I really want to see my scores over 620 or 640 even within 3 months.  The last late was one year ago and it was only a 30 day late on student loan, all credit card debt is current.  AAofA 7 years, oldest 13 years.  Any advice will be appreciated, it has gotten discouraging!  

I keep trying and want to see a bigger boost. . My VantageScores seem to go up faster as well.  Thank you !!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So, I am finally to the point that I have ONE baddie left on all 3 reports .. FIRST PREMIER. a CO from 2009, due to age off in April, but fighting with them everyday due to mutliple inacciuracies reporting across the Big 3.  To that end, I finally have the attention of the right person (a VP!) who called me and it seems to be moving.

SO...My UTIL now is at 60%.  High, I know -- my scores are TU 566 EQ 561 EX 582 FICOs.  Here is where I'm at now:

Barclay Apple VISA:  $2,600 / $3,000 CL   - 0% APR

Western FCU Visa:  $2.50 / $1,000 CL  (1% UTIL)

Capital One QS1:  $300 / $1,000 CL (30% UTIL)

FingerHut:  $0 / $250

Credit One:  $150 / $600 CL  (28% UTIL)

CareCredit:  $1348 / $3,000 CL  (45% UTIL - 0% APR)

By month's end, I will be at around 40% UTIL overall.  When can I expect to see a score jump?  That lowers me 20% UTIL and under 50%, which I know is better than over 50%.... If I can this down to 25% or less, would I see a maximized jump?  I really want to see my scores over 620 or 640 even within 3 months.  The last late was one year ago and it was only a 30 day late on student loan, all credit card debt is current.  AAofA 7 years, oldest 13 years.  Any advice will be appreciated, it has gotten discouraging!  

I keep trying and want to see a bigger boost. . My VantageScores seem to go up faster as well.  Thank you !!

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I think you'll see a bigger jump when you pay off at least half your balances so you aren't being penalized for more than half your tradelines with a)more than 50% of tradelines with balance. The next big jump is getting the remaining ones under 30%.

[happypill]

You say that you only have on baddie from 6 years ago, but then you say you have a 30 day late on a student loan 1 year ago.  Can't really give useful advice without accurate information.

Regarding utilization, the biggest drag you have is your Barclay Apple card.  You need to take that way down to see a real improvement in scores.  You should try to zero out some of those cards and if you must carry your balance on just one or two cards, no higher than 30% on any single card (below 10% would be optimal).

[dethkultur]

Well maybe your definition of baddie is different from FICOs definition of negative information, and to be realistic, you have a bunch of negative information with scores in that range. A late payment a year ago all on its own is very recent to a creditor, and worth probably 80 points, and you infer you have others. Unfortunately, your score improvement will be slow and steady while you find a way to get those off your reports, and sometimes getting one off won't even improve your score at all. Your biggest improvement will be when you get the last 2 off.

You may get to 620, but it will probably take more than a 7 year account aging off your report. Time will help, if you stay spotless from here going forward. EVERYTHING that is a late payment is a baddie.

[Anonymous]

So you're saying to get all credit cards below 50% FIRST, then work on lowering all below 30% after that?  I will have a few at 0% end of month.  Barclay I was financing an iMAC...hence the balance.  I can lower that additionally by about $500 this month, and get interest waived :-)  They help me every month on interest.  

As for baddies, I guess I was misinformed as to what constitutes a baddie ... I'm a nurse, not a credit expert!  Hence my visits here to you wonderful people!  Thank you guys, all this really helps me.  I just would LOVE to see 620-640 by christmas.  

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So you're saying to get all credit cards below 50% FIRST, then work on lowering all below 30% after that?  I will have a few at 0% end of month.  Barclay I was financing an iMAC...hence the balance.  I can lower that additionally by about $500 this month, and get interest waived :-)  They help me every month on interest.  

As for baddies, I guess I was misinformed as to what constitutes a baddie ... I'm a nurse, not a credit expert!  Hence my visits here to you wonderful people!  Thank you guys, all this really helps me.  I just would LOVE to see 620-640 by christmas.  

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No. Get at least half your tradelines to 0% first, then work on the remaining ones, getting them down to 50%, 30% and eventually 0%. From that point on just PIF when due.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  I was told under 10% is the same as 0% in FICOs eyes, just as anything over 90% is viewed as MAXED OUT to FICO?  ?  I can easily get my cards to 9% (about 4 of them), plus one is at 0%.  So I will do just that..get as close to 0% as I can and go from there.  Thank you !!

[Anonymous]

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@dethkultur wrote:

Well maybe your definition of baddie is different from FICOs definition of negative information, and to be realistic, you have a bunch of negative information with scores in that range. A late payment a year ago all on its own is very recent to a creditor, and worth probably 80 points, and you infer you have others. Unfortunately, your score improvement will be slow and steady while you find a way to get those off your reports, and sometimes getting one off won't even improve your score at all. Your biggest improvement will be when you get the last 2 off.

You may get to 620, but it will probably take more than a 7 year account aging off your report. Time will help, if you stay spotless from here going forward. EVERYTHING that is a late payment is a baddie.

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I think you could get to 640 by Christmas,  It took me about 6 months to get from 595 to 646.  What dethkultur is correct, though.  Even a 30 day late within the last years will cost a lot of points,  My son in law had 750 score and let his auto payment slip to 30 days late last October and his score dropped to 660 practically overnite.  My advice is to work on that Barclay Card and try your best to get it under 50% and 0 balance the rest.  You should see a good increase when this is accomplished as well as with the aging of any baddies.  Good luck, It can be done, just takes perseverance.  

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks.  I was told under 10% is the same as 0% in FICOs eyes, just as anything over 90% is viewed as MAXED OUT to FICO?  ?  I can easily get my cards to 9% (about 4 of them), plus one is at 0%.  So I will do just that..get as close to 0% as I can and go from there.  Thank you !!

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With regards to aggregate utilization - it has a MUCH greater impact on score as compared to utilization % on specific cards. Here are thresholds to look at for aggregate (overall) utilization: Under 50%, under 20% and under 10%.

1) Reducing overall utilization to under 20% will have a significany impact on score. Going from under 20% to under 10% not so much.

2) The # (or %) of cards reporting a non zero balance is a factor in scoring. Try to get down to 2 cards reporting a balance (only one reporting might be optimal)

3) The % utilization on an individual card has very little impact (if any) on score unless it is maxed out (something North of 80%). You can allow an individual card to report 60% or 15% utilization and it really won't impact score except as it affects overall utilization. 

For example: Assume you have 5 cards each with a $1000 CL and you post $600 in total charges:

Case 1 - report $150 balance on 4 cards (15% UT each), $600 total, and zero on 5th card - 80% of cards reporting a balance

Case 2 - report $600 balance on 1 card (60% UT on one), $600 total, and zero on other cards - 20%, 1 card, reporting a balance.

Case 3 - report $120 balance on 5 cards (10% UT each), $600 total - 100% of cards reporting a balance.

Case 4 - report $300 balance on 2 cards (30% UT each), $600 total - 40% of cards reporting a balance.

Case 5 - report $200 balance on 3 cards (20% UT each), $600 total - 60% of cards reporting a balance

a) Your highest score should be Case 2 - the 60% UT on an individual card is not of itself a negative in scoring and you have "optimized" the # (or %) of cards reporting a balance.

b) Case 3 should result in the lowest score because you have are using all your tradelines.

c) Depending on profile Case 4 will likely produce a higher score than Case 1 because 50% or more cards are reporting a balance in Case 1. 

@*** Some people have reported a score change if an individual card goes over 30% utilization - however I have not experienced a change at 50% or even 80% on Fico 8 (only Fico 4 @ 80%) ***

Will score be higher for Case1 or Case 5 or will there be no difference?

With regard to baddies or other negative factors such as lates, really not much to say other than pay by due dates and let things age off.