Update: my credit score went from 611 to 738 in 14 months and the only thing that really moved it was getting my card use under 10%

Nathan Hunt · 2026-10-19T05:15:05.079192+00:00

I pulled my report back in January of last year at my kitchen table in Rochester and it was sitting at 611, which was bad enough that a landlord ran it twice and I got nervous both times. I had two cards near the limit and I figured paying them down slowly over a year would fix it, but that barely did anything for the first four months. What actually changed it was paying each card down to under 10% of the limit before the statement closed instead of waiting for the due date, so the low balance is what reported to the bureaus. I did that with my $1,200 card and my $2,500 card and the score jumped 40 points in about eight weeks, then kept creeping up after that. I never opened anything new and never had a late payment in all that time, so it was really just that one timing thing. Did you all see a faster jump from paying before the statement date or from asking for a limit increase? I'm trying to figure out which one to lean on next.

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Update: my credit score went from 611 to 738 in 14 months and the only thing that really moved it was getting my card use under 10% | Credit Advice - Thought Shares