debtisgood Tracker

Re: How # of cards with balance can effect FICO score

debtisgood — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:00:14 GMT

Awesome work Jello!

I trust your real world figures more than the Score Estimator, but it is interesting to note that I ran the Score Estimator for my credit profile for 4 cards (2-4 category) and 5 cards with all else the same (8 year credit history and 5 year loan history, no lates or derogs etc, under $500 balance and 0-9% util), and found that a 5th card boosts my score range by 5 points. Obviously this theoretical line of credit would have to be aged 6 months to a year and not carry a balance to have that positive impact, but it is yet another data point that your experiment is very valid. 5 revolving lines (likely with one being a store card) with only one reporting a balance seems like the best long term advice for people for minimum credit profile to max out your score.

Re: Recon worked for Fidelity card

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:41:06 GMT

Nice job! Human contact often greases the wheels. Enjoy your new card/benefits.

Re: How much will new accounts impact score & for how long?

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:21:57 GMT

An AAoA of 10-11 is still excellent and I doubt that will drastically reduce your score. I do think the inquiries and 5 new account flags will ding your score significantly. I am thinking potentially 40 points (down to 750ish FICO). That said I expect half of that to come back in 6 months and 80% to return after a year. I could be way wrong but that is my WAG.

Re: Wow 20 down but only 6 up? Makes no sense??

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:13:26 GMT

I would bet on the oldest account crossing a threshold as well. In that scenario you would be newly compared against older credit files that may be stronger in aggregate.

Re: How high can I score with low AAOA?

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:09:58 GMT

Rarely does anything over 760 mean anything. At that time you should be able to touch 790 or 800 with a totally clean report and that aaoa and total history.

Re: Line of credit

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:06:30 GMT

Someone without a job, math skills, or food in their stomach. It is unsecured and subject to discharge in bankruptcy of course.

Re: What was your 1st credit card?

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:03:33 GMT

MNBA ML+ with something like a 3klimit. I would't have gtten it if I didn't have a brokerage account with them already.

Re: Chase Sapphire - Credit Score

debtisgood — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:40:27 GMT

I don't have a chase sapphire but I do have a visa signature and world mastercard and both report my limits and say flexible revolving credit account. I think it all depends on whether you get a good CSR by luck of the draw.

Re: Increase Credit Limit

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:22:57 GMT

Does your card have an automated system online that will give you an instant answer? My Citi card did and the one time I asked for a CLI the automated system only did a soft pull. If its automated and it was soft once it is a good bet it normally is!

Re: Closing Orchard Secured Card for Unsecured Card Good Idea or Not?

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:20:05 GMT

I would take the deal too - unless it has a high annual fee. The secured credit line is a builder card and it served its purpose, it built your credit to the point that someone would give you a revolving unsecured loan. This new card will likely too be a builder card that will lead you to even greener credit pastures (rewards cards or low APR cards).

Re: offer for new card

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:16:13 GMT

Congrats on the nice new CL and thanks for the new info on Cap1. I am not a big fan of them, but it will be interesting to see if they can have top notch customer service on their new higher tier credit cards and build their rep up.

Re: EQ score drops 15 points

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:12:49 GMT

The TU scores can differ because there are different year versions of the Transunion score sold. Or they could have been pulled on different days after changes to your account.

Your score could take another sizeable ding when the new card reports, but this should only occur if it lowers your average age of accounts significantly.

Re: Capital One Platinum Ceiling

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:06:48 GMT

If you wait until your scores are in the 720-730 range you could apply for a couple of the cards mentioned above that pay 5% in rotating categories (another is the Citi Dividend World Mastercard) and you could have a stable of cards paying you 5% in various categories each quarter. You could be able to average 3% back if you got lucky and they each had good categories that didn't overlap.

Re: Am I getting the most out of my credit?

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:58:50 GMT

Even if the AU gives you a ton of added history, you may get a boost from removing it due to lower utilitization and a possible re-bucketing. If the AU card always has a high balance reporting then it may be doing you more harm than good. If you are in a bucket with lots of people with old credit who pay on time, your 44% utilization may score very poorly. Without the AU card you may be in a younger credit bin where 15% utilization scores relatively well.

If this is a one time thing then it is probably best to keep the card, if the balance has been near this high for a long time I would have it removed.

Re: balance on one card or spread across several to keep UTL under 10%

debtisgood — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:52:32 GMT

You can always rotate which cards you let report a balance (this is trickier if you are carrying balances and not paying in full). That way your cards will no close due to inactivity and one one will report (hopefully with a low balance). Also you can use all the cards you want and simply pay in full before the monthly statement date for all but one card and the cards should report with a 0 balance.

Re: Capital One Platinum Ceiling

debtisgood — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:22:36 GMT

What type of rewards are you looking for? Capital one venture has a 1.25 percent reward rate and lots of flexibility but some other cards will return up to 2 percent on airline tickets or cash into aninvestment account.

Re: Why isn't my score moving?

debtisgood — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:47:05 GMT

The fact that your AAoA is listed before your utilization also indicates the ding at 11% was very minor as 4 years AAoA is not bad (not terrific, but not terrible). As Greg mentioned, your new score may not be generated yet, but I wouldn't expect a huge move when it is.

-debtisgood

Re: The new math of Fico credit scores

debtisgood — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:11:29 GMT

They will sell the newest TU when its 2098 and someone realizes that the 98 TU score on this site is actually a 100 year old model.

Re: Store card to improve my credit mix.

debtisgood — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:58:22 GMT

They don't subtract from your mix, they HELP your mix. As a matter of fact, if you do not have a store card you could gain 10-15 points on your report, especially if a new account will not hammer your AAoA. I gained 10 points when I opened my Macys store card (1st store card) which more than balanced out the hit in the new credit and AAoA portions of the score. I am not saying this tradeoff is true for everyone but if someone is building a credit profile, I would recommend *ONE* store or gas card.

Re: My father has lung cancer

debtisgood — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:52:34 GMT

Very sorry to hear this Matt. My aunt recently had surgery for slow growing liver tumors and the surgery went well. If they catch it when its small I think the odds are definitely a lot better. Best of luck to your father and your family.