Credit Advice

My understanding is that by reducing your balances owed on your credit cards to something less than 20% of your credit line, you will immediately improve your FICO score.

Meaning if your credit card limit is $1000, your open balance owed should be less than $200.

This single attribute represents 30% of your total score.

My experience has shown a reduction to 50% of the credit limit gives you almost as much positive impact as a 20% balance and 50% will cost you a lot less.

It appears that maximum positive impact hits at someplace between 20-35% balance.

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! New laws say that the creditors can't leave you will a lot of unused available credit, they are required to lower your credit limits if you don't use the credit. So when you know you have the cash to pay it off or way down, charge up the cards once in a while and promptly pay it back down to 20-50% of the credit limit. That should preserve your high credit limits.

Otherwise you will need to monitor your credit limits and when they lower them call back in and ask for them to be reinstated at the higher levels.

Eternal Vigilence is the cost to get and maintain high credit scores.