What has been the highest jump in your Equifax scores that you have seen in a 1 to 2 month period. Trying to get idea because I did not have high enough score to get AT&T universal card automatically. So they reviewed it and said I had over 65 % utilization on my exsisting revolving accounts. I' ve paid off most of my cards and closed them and done bt on about 4 of the big balance ones. So I'm waiting on update for credit report and was curious how much my score would or could jump in the next 30-60 days. Let me know, thanks
It's not such a good idea to close a paid off card every time. Your utilization won't go down because you are reducing your available credit. On the point side, I recently had a 20 point decline just from one card going from 0 to 90% utilized (0%bt offer that I couldn't refuse). I would guess that your utilization going from 65 to the 10-20% range should be worth at least 20 points. Note overall utilization is an issue, but so is utilization with each card. My new mantra is never never never never use more than 50% of the cl on a card. As soon as you hit 51%, the fico points fly out the window in droves.
I only closed my little 200.00 credit lines from mervyns. target, and my 100 shell account. Which I think hurt me more than helped me, and I had too many accounts open so I had to do something. My score was 632. I'm waiting on 3 bigger cards to show paid off from the bt too. Thanks for responding.
It sounds like you are doing the right thing. I disputed a bunch of inquiries and my score jumped about 6 points on 1.5 year old inquiries. the balance issue sounds like most of your score problem.
Wolverine: I foound your comment about 51% utilization on one card interesting. Is this based on personal experience or on something you read? I am currently paying off very high balances on six cards and had planned on attacking the high interst ones first. My scores are in the 650 -660 range because of high utilization on all cards. If what you say is correct, I may need to revise my strategy.
Your current strategy of paying off the highest interest debt first is financially sound. Don't abandon it just to improve your score, which will catch up eventually. The UR is based on FICO's own guidelines below: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/creditscoring/present/sld008.htm
