Moving balance to another CC

[razingkane]

My goal was to get my score from fair to good. I paid off one CC and paid off 2/3 of another CC and my credit score did not move. I received a letter from a CC stating my credit limit was being increased. I didn't touch the card and my credit score did not move. I called a CC and asked them to lower my interest rate as I have paid on-time and have been doubling my payments for a year. The CC lowered my interest rate from 15.750% to 15.000% Still no movement of my credit score. All this happened within 15 months. I sent in an application for a WAMU CC because it was 0.00% on balance transfers for a year. WHAM! my credit score goes up to 678. I'm now sitting in "GOOD". WOO-WHO!

Now my question is this. If I move the $1800 from the CC with 15.000% interest rate to the WAMU card with 0.00% for a year, will this lower my credit score?

[NightStar]

Moving debt from one card to another will not affect the score. Because nothing changed, usually opening new accounts brings the score down, other wise it was the right mix of credit that you had not had before that helped increase the score.

Suprised the score didn't go up when you had the credit limit increase. But it should improve as you pay the debt down. What percentage of the card does the balance make up?

It is ideal to keep balance below 30% of the available credit limit.

What does your overall credit history look like? Credit cards, mortgage, auto loans, installment loans. How many of each do you have. Maybe it is a matter of time for you to round out your credit history with the right mix of credit.

[razingkane]

Originally Posted by NightStar

Moving debt from one card to another will not affect the score. Because nothing changed, usually opening new accounts brings the score down, other wise it was the right mix of credit that you had not had before that helped increase the score.

Suprised the score didn't go up when you had the credit limit increase. But it should improve as you pay the debt down. What percentage of the card does the balance make up?

It is ideal to keep balance below 30% of the available credit limit.

What does your overall credit history look like? Credit cards, mortgage, auto loans, installment loans. How many of each do you have. Maybe it is a matter of time for you to round out your credit history with the right mix of credit.

I'm down to 3 cards w/6000.00 total debt. No auto loans or installment loans. I have a 10 year old mortgage which has never had a late or missed payment. All of my problems stem from late payments/write off's which happened between 1998 and 2003. One card is down to 450.00 which is the next one I'll pay off. Then the 1800.00 I want to move to the 00.0% WAMU account.

Gesh, is it possible that the light I see at the end of the tunnel is NOT another train. It's been a long 10 years.

[NightStar]

That is good a mortgage and credit cards. I would work on paying down them credit cards.

Maybe at some point you can add an installment loan to the mix of credit you have already. You could use it to pay down debt. You want to periodically add installment type loans to help the mix of credit.

Periodically request credit limit increases. You want it that you only use 30% of the credit limit, that way the credit score benefits the best that it can.

[Ally]

I'd agree that working to make timely payments on your credit cards will definitely help. As your total amount of indebtedness goes down, your credit score should raise up..

[omitdebtcom]

Well, your credit score can change slightly depending on total percentage of debt to credit. Keeping credit cards below 50% of the total limit is healthy for your credit report, so the question is, what is the limit where the $1800 currently resides. If the limit on that card is not $3600 or more, swapping some or all of the balance over to the new card might help (if it does not exceed 50% of that cards limit).

Not to mention save some bucks in finance charges. Saving the money is worth more if you arent looking to extend credit again right away. Your credit score will bounce up and down all the time, and is only most important when you are needing more credit, so save some money first and foremost, your score will work itself out even more then because you will be paying back debt faster and less chances of any late payments.