I am trying to get a little advice on rebuilding my DH's credit from the front end (temporarily forgetting about the possibility of removing past derogs). In a sense I think his credit score may be worsening a little because he paid off his two car loans and very recently, his mortgage. The derogs are from maybe a year ago. Since then he's been paying off a small but unsecured VISA from Providian. This is helping somewhat. How do we maximize score growth from the front end? All those fine MS Money folks will say is "pay your bills on time," LOL. Of course it's more complicated than that! We're getting rid of reportable bills right and left, so ... we need to build thoughtfully!
Thanks for responding! I'm not sure what his score is. It's probably worth paying to find out. I ran him through the ... erm ... "somethingKnowledge?" site several months ago but I've found their score to be on the wild and crazy side. I'm looking through a credit record from last year (I will order new ones from the big three next month) and from what I see, his only truly open accounts are the one $2000-limit CC in his name, and several other CCs where he's the AU. PS, that reminds me, should we run up the balance close to 2K on that card (then pay it off) or does it matter much?
If I'm wrong, somebody will correct me (no active CCs right now--still digging out). NEVER go over 50% utilization ($1000). "Optimum" for FICO is around 30% of CL ($300). I would suggest getting his reports and seeing what's on there, and pay for the score www.myfico.com is good. Then you can better come up with a plan.
The only reason to run it up to $2K and then (hopefully the next month) pay it off is if the card doesn't report limits. If they only report high credit, this is a way to make the high credit close to your limit. But pay it off quickly (or return what you bought) after it bills and reports so that you don't keep your utilization too high.
