Quote:
Originally Posted by NICKG
the way the figure your score involves your available credit vs your balances. We have balances that are low in relation to our limits(fact of life that we have them, but truthfully we are WAY better off than 95% of the usa). Anything, alledgely, over a 35% ratio of balance to available is a negative towards your credit. Like many others here, we use the cards as we need to, but again i stress that MOST people don't use them responsibly..,.other have the oppositre view and are judgemental and condescnding if you have ANY balance..we are in the middle, our total debit is always coming down and was really the result of fixing our home after we were ripped off by a builder (he left our house completely torn aparts and it at one point had only a partial roof in the back)
Living with that debit is not that bad for me, I know we are still well within our means and we are paying them off. This just comes as a nice suprise that kinda screws us for other things at a time when it really didn't need to happen. (employers use credit scores to hire, other cards regularly view the scores and raise rates if a rapid up tick in useage occurs)
I have managed to save some $ (not alot but a month's salary) to have some emergency funds, but i am not really wanting to use them to pay these off in one chunk and leave me with no savings
|
It helps your credit score to have a -small balance at the time your credit is run- it shows you can handle debt. Actually carrying the balance and paying interest helps no more than just always using the card and paying it off each month.
Are you buying a house or a car right now?
If not then the lowered limits don't hurt you one bit if you really are going to pay off the balance. Nobody's going to not hire you because your credit score dropped 20 points.
If you are buying a house or car you should wait until this unsecured debt is paid off anyways.