Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
here is a post i made during the year where i added a bunch of credit cards:
so in that 6 months it was up 36 points. if there is a quicker way to raise a credit score, i dont know it.
Interesting. Were you building towards something? A home purchase perhaps?
I ask because when I bought my first property every aspect of my credit was scrutinized, even though it was 750+. Only a month or two prior to seeking a home I had opened up a very low limit credit card and secured a low-interest car loan, and the financing institution grilled me about my intent. It took me by surprise because there was never even a hint of funny in any of my finances.
Interesting. Were you building towards something? A home purchase perhaps?
I ask because when I bought my first property every aspect of my credit was scrutinized, even though it was 750+. Only a month or two prior to seeking a home I had opened up a very low limit credit card and secured a low-interest car loan, and the financing institution grilled me about my intent. It took me by surprise because there was never even a hint of funny in any of my finances.
nope. i had no idea that my credit score would go up and it wasnt important to me. i was just trying to get sign up bonuses for credit cards. the increase in credit score was just an unexpected "benefit."
Credit Karma has a program that lets you estimate how your score changes for various items. https://www.creditkarma.com/
Gah, that didn't work. The tool only gives the option to "close your oldest credit card". This one is not that.
I use Credit Karma, but I didn't know about that tool. I have a credit card that is going close today if I don't use it. I've never used it. It's $10K credit with something like a 24% interest rate. I don't need it and I don't want to use it, but I'm wondering if closing it will hurt my score because of the lower amount of available credit. I'm leaning toward letting it go. My current score is 797, and the only cc usage I have is a card with a $1K limit for which I get points that accumulate and then shave $25 off the principal of my mortgage. I pay it in full at least once a month, so I never have a balance. I have another card with a 10K limit and a better interest rate in case of emergencies, and then I've got a couple of others, $4K and $7K limits. Also have a couple of store cards with limits around $1K that I use for shopping because I get rewards and deals when I use them. Again, they are paid in full immediately after use.
What say you, Oh wise City-Data people? Use it today or let it go? I'm leaning toward let it go.
Gah, that didn't work. The tool only gives the option to "close your oldest credit card". This one is not that.
I use Credit Karma, but I didn't know about that tool. I have a credit card that is going close today if I don't use it. I've never used it. It's $10K credit with something like a 24% interest rate. I don't need it and I don't want to use it, but I'm wondering if closing it will hurt my score because of the lower amount of available credit. I'm leaning toward letting it go. My current score is 797, and the only cc usage I have is a card with a $1K limit for which I get points that accumulate and then shave $25 off the principal of my mortgage. I pay it in full at least once a month, so I never have a balance. I have another card with a 10K limit and a better interest rate in case of emergencies, and then I've got a couple of others, $4K and $7K limits. Also have a couple of store cards with limits around $1K that I use for shopping because I get rewards and deals when I use them. Again, they are paid in full immediately after use.
What say you, Oh wise City-Data people? Use it today or let it go? I'm leaning toward let it go.
Just because you pay in full mothly doesn't mean you don't have a balance on your credit report because that all depends on timing of the reporting. The bigger issue is utilization. If your utilization is really low and would stay that way with the card in question closing it shouldn't be a big deal. On the other hand if the card is fee free I would probably have already charged something and paid it off
Gah, that didn't work. The tool only gives the option to "close your oldest credit card". This one is not that.
I use Credit Karma, but I didn't know about that tool. I have a credit card that is going close today if I don't use it. I've never used it. It's $10K credit with something like a 24% interest rate. I don't need it and I don't want to use it, but I'm wondering if closing it will hurt my score because of the lower amount of available credit. I'm leaning toward letting it go. My current score is 797, and the only cc usage I have is a card with a $1K limit for which I get points that accumulate and then shave $25 off the principal of my mortgage. I pay it in full at least once a month, so I never have a balance. I have another card with a 10K limit and a better interest rate in case of emergencies, and then I've got a couple of others, $4K and $7K limits. Also have a couple of store cards with limits around $1K that I use for shopping because I get rewards and deals when I use them. Again, they are paid in full immediately after use.
What say you, Oh wise City-Data people? Use it today or let it go? I'm leaning toward let it go.
it seems very insignificant so you should do whatever you want to do. if you are concerned about utilization, you could call up one of your other credit cards and ask them to increase your credit limit.
Just because you pay in full mothly doesn't mean you don't have a balance on your credit report because that all depends on timing of the reporting. The bigger issue is utilization. If your utilization is really low and would stay that way with the card in question closing it shouldn't be a big deal. On the other hand if the card is fee free I would probably have already charged something and paid it off
Yes, that's correct. My credit report always shows some utilization because I use the card on which I earn points all month long. That doesn't matter. It's always less than $1,000.
Should have said "I don't carry a balance into another period". But you knew what I meant.
it seems very insignificant so you should do whatever you want to do. if you are concerned about utilization, you could call up one of your other credit cards and ask them to increase your credit limit.
I'm not, really. The only reason I took this card back when they offered it to me is because I had just traveled to Europe for the first time, and that's when I learned that many credit cards charge foreign transaction fees. Capital One does not, and I have a CO card with a $4K limit, so I used that.
Then TD offered me this card with a $10K limit and also no foreign transaction fee. I thought I might travel again and it would come in handy. I haven't, and what I will probably do is let it close and if I want to travel abroad again, I will just use the Cap One and ask for an increase if I need it.
Interesting. Were you building towards something? A home purchase perhaps?
I ask because when I bought my first property every aspect of my credit was scrutinized, even though it was 750+. Only a month or two prior to seeking a home I had opened up a very low limit credit card and secured a low-interest car loan, and the financing institution grilled me about my intent. It took me by surprise because there was never even a hint of funny in any of my finances.
utilization seems to be a giant factor. just to take a quick peek on creditkarma, the equifax score for me was 807 in March 2017. My June score was 664 just now. my utilization is 27% for the June score and probably 5-7% for the March score.
i just bought a house and i am doing a bunch of renovating. i picked up a discover credit card that had a 0 balance transfer fee and 0% apr for 18 months and put $35k on it. so the utilization will be high until i decide to pay that off.
You are over 800 and your wife has a score of 700, and you have adequate income. You will have absolutely no problem qualifying for a mortgage at a good rate. There is no reason to rush to raise her score.
However, go ahead and get her one good mainstream credit card and use it every month and pay it every month. I don't think it will make her score shoot up, but it will raise her score a bit by the end of the year (as long as nobody misses any payments).
Make absolutely sure your wife is on board about not using the credit card to make impulse buys. Maybe designate it to pay the grocery bill, or some other relatively fixed expense, and nothing else. Her score is 700 so she must be pretty good at managing money.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
