CJAOV Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 I have recently started to care about my credit...or pay closer attention rather...up until 6 months ago, I never even checked my fico score. I have got loans and new cars fairly easily (not realizing I was paying 17%!!!) yes, yes I know ...I have made a budget and I can have everything paid off in 13 months.... I have 2 questions.. My oldest line of credit is a credit card. It is maxed. I know I need to pay it down, should I be using it at the same time? I read you need active credit? And what can I expect as far as my fico score raising in the 13 mo period? Is 200 points realistic? Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 There are like 17 different FICO scoring models. The one you're allowed to see (ONLY thru myfico.com...any other source is bogus) is the FICO Consumer Score. This is comparable to the FICO Bank Card Score (the "sucker" score) and does have "utilization" as part of the model. This is a measure of how much available unsecured credit you have available as opposed to how much you've used. A maxed out credit card is 100% utilized. If you want more credit cards, normally, you want utilization below 9%.However, the FICO Mortgage Score prefers 0% utilization...the FICO New Car Score doesn't care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amerikaner83 Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 what's with all the Washingtonians popping up here at CIC? damn What's your end-game? A high FICO or something else (house/car/out of debt/whatever)? Read the sig of the poster above me..manage your debt, not your credit score. I know I need to pay it down, should I be using it at the same time? I read you need active credit? And what can I expect as far as my fico score raising in the 13 mo period? Is 200 points realistic? Thank youIf you want to keep the card for whatever reason, you can use it to gas up once a month or so...pay it off after a day or two. "you need active credit"...well that honestly depends on your end-game, like I mentioned above. 200 points in 13 months is possible. Don't count on it, but it can be done, yes. Depending on your particular set of circumstances, that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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