A New Record High for My FICO Credit Score: 721

I'm pretty excited about sharing the latest news from my debtscape: my FICO® credit score has hit a record high 721. I was actually expecting a bigger jump this month, because I made two $1,000 payments on two separate credit card accounts. 2 payments in the $1,000 range should have caused my score to jump higher than 2 points, according to the handy FICO Score Simulator that's available to me when I access my Providian account online. But I'm thinking that perhaps only one of the two payments is being reflected in my new 721 score, because there's always a lag with these types of updates.

You know, the only reason I keep my Providian (which, by the way, is now Washington Mutual) account open is to have access to my FICO score for free. The credit line on my Providian account is $9,500, which is decent, but I don't use the card, because the annual percentage rate is close to 20%--actually, it may be higher, but I have no idea because it's been a very long time since I used the card for purchases (as you've probably already figured out, I got my Providian card way back when my credit score was pretty bad.) I really have too many credit card accounts open right now, which can look bad in the eyes of certain creditors, so if it wasn't for the free FICO access, my Providian card would have been consigned to the cruel and efficient teeth of my shredder many months ago.

At this point in my life, it feels good to be able to say, "I'm comfortable with my current debt burden," and mean it.

I'm trying to see if I can make a ~$700 payment to one of my Citibank® credit cards, which would bring the account balance on this particular card down to zero. If I can manage to spare the cash, it would be a great thing, because then I would be left with only one consumer credit card with a balance. I have two business credit cards, each with a very manageable account balance, but I'm OK with carrying business debt at this point: the business-related credit card debt is helping to build a credit history for my company, and I need to be able to cycle in and out of debt for certain business expenses (I'm enjoying a year-long, interest-free period on 1 of my business credit cards, so my business-related debt really isn't pinching me that much at this point.)

For those of you who like visuals, I've posted an updated screen shot image of my charted FICO credit score below:

That's it for now. Stay tuned, and thanks much for reading.

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