Hello, everyone~ I'll be applying for a $200k HELOC thru Indy Mac in one month, and am looking to boost my score as much as possible before then. I've got no delinquencies or derogs on any CBRS, but have high revolving debt (only 36% avail) which is keeping my score in the 640 range. I've followed the advice here on getting all balances under 80% high credit and am working on paying balances down (currently $28k). I recently ordered my bureaus, and my 'top negative factors', in order, were: 1) Revolving balances too high 2) Too many inquires (8 in last 12 months, 0 in last 6 months) 3) Too many accounts w/ balances I'm working on #1 and #2, my question to you is about #3. If I consolidate my 3 Citi cards into 1, I'll wind up w/ 2 less accounts, and have one Citi card with a limit around $25k. Would this help or hurt my score in the short term?? I know its not good to move balances around right before a CBR will be pulled, but if it helps to improve the #3 factor pulling my score down...will the benefit outweigh the damage done by transferring balances? My rate on the HELOC will be directly proportional to my median FICO score....just a few points means tens of THOUSANDS of dollars! Thank you so much for your advice! Cordially, Tim
Bump...any responses would be most appreciated! I've read all the threads on the Citi BDD and other Citi consolidations, but have never seen what the short term result is on FICO scores... Thanks,
I don't know the impact on score. If you kept your oldest card and got all of the limits combined, I think it would be minimal, because your age of history and ratios would stay the same. But it is FICO, so who knows?
