Building Credit back up

[Atalia Abat]

I am 23 years old and I am starting over with my credit. When I was 18 I was married for a short time and owned a condo. Eventually that ended in a foreclosure. It's been about 3-4 years since that was reported on my credit and I have been trying to build my credit back up since. My score is at 609 right now.

I have a credit card with a $500 limit, balance at $400
I have a store card with a $250 limit, balance at $200
And about 3 other old accounts that I had paid balances on and closed years ago.

I have been paying a little over minimum payment on my cards each month but want to pay them down quite a bit more.

Any suggestions on what I can do to build my credit and get my score back up? Should I try to pay my cards down completely or leave a little balance on them?

[Eduardo A.]

I was in your position and one of the BEST things I did was become a member of creditboards.com. Their credit forum deals only with credit and rebuilding it. You should become a member and read a few stickies over there.

What I would do is pay those cards off because those high balances in relation to your limits is hurting your utilization. Once you have done that, you may want to apply for a secured card or a rebuilding unsecured card. Those will also help your score.