Quote:
Originally posted by Sly_RJ
So... my credit was around 680 the last time I checked. Here's my current situation...
Visa #1: $500 with $1,500 limit.
Visa #2: $900 with $1,500 limit.
Discover #1: $1,400 with $3,500 limit.
Best Buy (Visa): $1,000 with $1,200 limit (just got this one.)
For recurring fees, I have AOL, Netflix, and Phat Servers spread out on two of the cards. The only other recurring fees I have I usually pay cash (cable, phone, cable Internet at about $100 monthly).
I was planning on paying a couple of these off this month, but after reading some of the advice on this thread, maybe I shouldn't.
What should I do from here on out to keep my credit score up and improve it?
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680 is not a bad score Sly...
but, to keep building, what I'm doing is, like I said, pay everything you can with a credit card. Then pay down the cards. Minimum payments aren't going to help you on credit cards. Yeah, it may add some stability to your report, but it'll cost you too much in interest to do that. So, I like to mix it up a little and pay some in large chunks, and others in full. Then run 'em up again, and pay 'em down again. I'm doing one right now... I just ran one up to $5700 and I'm gonna sit on that with minimum payments until Sept 15th, then pay it down in full.
The trick is to put the credit card companies in YOUR pocket... not the other way around. If you have more than a few cards, don't be afraid to call the one that you have the worst interest rate on, and tell them, "look... I really don't need your card anymore, I have plenty of others. Either drop my interest rate, or bump my limit, or drop the annual fee or just cancel the card." 9 times out of ten they will hook you up with something. You can usually do this like, once a year or 18 months with these companies. But you need to be in the right place before you do that. Don't call them when your other stuff is maxxed out, because you got no leverage.
I know this works, because I had a bankruptcy on my report, and within 5 years of the bankruptcy, I had unsecured Platinum and Gold cards with limits in excess of $5k each.... and that was several years ago.
and I still have that bankruptcy on my report, (they last ten years now) and I was able to buy this house based solely on my credit.