I now have 2 unsecured and 1 secured card. I want to get increases on all three and improve my scores in the next six months. Is this good use of my credit? Mastercard currently have $281 used, $223 available credit plan to pay $81 this week then pay off $200 over next five months Visa currently have $60 used, plan to use $60, then $230 available credit plan to pay off $120 over next three months then use $120 and repeat Target plan to use $100, then $100 available credit pay off $100 over three months then use $100 and repeat Is this effective, or should I charge more? Steph
Pay more. Big payments are what tell the lenders that you can handle more credit. If you have a $500 card and you pay it off over five months, they think that maybe that's just what you should have. But if you pay it off at once they think $500 is easy for you to come up with and maybe you need a $1500 card. Nobody but a few top people at each company know what the numbers are, but I think you want payments to be 25-50% of your limit to impress them. That and show activity every month. Others here know some things about particular cards. Search the board's history for the name of a card and "increase" and see what there is. (Hey, R., nice idea, why don't you try it? Why, maybe I will, R.) Other companies seem to like it when you go up near your limit, then make about a 10% payment. They then figure you're in need of more credit and they come riding to your "rescue". Again, show them activity. Discover seems to do this. Providian does, sort of, although they appear to offer increases to anyone every 120 days as long as there is continuous activity and no lates. Finally, if you need your score extra high at a particular point, pay off all cards and stop using them for a couple months. 0% usage is a big boost over even 10% usage, which beats 25%, etc. Unfortunately I can't say from experience that this works. I learned the secrets after accidentally doing similar things in the past -- I've never gone out and done one of these things and observed the results. Maybe next year.
Who are your visa/mc companies? Target is on a fixed plan. We just discussed their policy (which sucks). Crap 1 is usually $50 per month increase, if you are a poor credit customer (end of story). Providian will offer you something after the 5th cycle. Probably $500 for $49 fee.
Yeah I was in on that Target discussion but was hoping maybe there were some tricks that the rep didn't know. Steph
I can say from many years of experience and from other users of this method, it works. Borrow close to the limit and make payments of about 10%. www.creditsense.com
