WOW, paying off $15K in CC debt made my FICO score jump up to 688!

[joshuagraham]

Perhaps the banks will start offering to up my limits? Am I now considered "prime"?

[justbroke]

You usually need to be around 720 for the credit card companies. Many of them are stingy when it comes for credit line increases with some of them half-way decent. Discretionary lenders, and even those driven by scores, will factor in your income, expenses, and housing payments to arrive at a credit limit.

As you found out, usage (utilization/availability) is one of the biggest components of the FICO score. Only payment performance ranks higher. You may already know that there are many different scoring models (even within FICO!) which are used by different banks for different reasons. Your score, 680+, is "good" credit and you should be able to obtain credit.