I've been in the garden for a while and I'm not planning on leaving in the near future.
I've dabbled with the idea of a Walmart card but don't see me using it (no WM gas around here) so I don't see the point in having it for the report.
Everyone seems to go out on spree and apply for a bunch of cards at one time which to me seems backwards.
Once I decide to pull the trigger on some cards; would it be better to app all at the same time or to do 1 at a time stretching them out say once every couple months.
my thought process is adding 2 or 3 cards all at one shot would drop my AAoA drastically, but if I add 1 then add another one 6 months later wouldn't that lessen the blow? Pluse your not taking all those hard pulls at the same time.
Right now my AAoA is around 2 years and I won't be apping for anything for at least a full 9 months from now. Just not sure which would be the better scenario.
XxRaVeNxX wrote:
CS800 wrote:My logic for app sprees:
1. All the inqs age/fall off at the same time
2. All the cards report at the same time so initially no drop in AAoA while apping.
On the flip side, some creditors might get nervous because of all the new inqs and CLD or FR might and I say might happen.
+1...but on that note...some people say, creditors may not see the inquiries if the app spree is done close together...like the same day...
The inquiry is recorded in real time, so if another lender pulls a report from a bureau, and you had just apped and had another lender pull from the same one, then they should see the inq.
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If you assume AAoA just for say the 3 cards alone (somewhat reasonable since you can average seperately mathematically before aggregating appropriately):
App spree at one year mark:
1 year on 3 tradelines = 1 year age / 1 year AAoA
Spreading it out 6 months at a time at one year mark:
1 year on one, six months on another, 0 age on a third = 6 months AAoA.
Also from a pure FICO perspective in addition to the AAoA shift, you're going to have 2 inquiries still counting against you (for a while still) in the second scenario instead of they're being gone for scoring purposes in the first.
Final point in the spree's favor: payment history is the king of FICO, even though it's undersung on this forum taking second fiddle to the revolving utilization we talk so much about. Positive unblemished history is the road to gold-platedness for all of us, and for both underwriting and FICO, we look a lot better with one year on a tradeline if we do need to apply for anything else, than a bunch of sporadic ones spread out throughout the year in this case.
End of the day, since FICO scoring is utterly time dependent, it's mathematically better for one's score between six months and two years definitely, and likely up to around four years total... that the app spree method winds up being better for one's FICO health. 4 years down the road it's mostly irrelevant with the way AAoA appears to be calculated, and there'd be diminishing returns eventually on payment history too.
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Revelate wrote:If you assume AAoA just for say the 3 cards alone (somewhat reasonable since you can average seperately mathematically before aggregating appropriately):
App spree at one year mark:
1 year on 3 tradelines = 1 year age / 1 year AAoA
Spreading it out 6 months at a time at one year mark:
1 year on one, six months on another, 0 age on a third = 6 months AAoA.
Also from a pure FICO perspective in addition to the AAoA shift, you're going to have 2 inquiries still counting against you (for a while still) in the second scenario instead of they're being gone for scoring purposes in the first.
Final point in the spree's favor: payment history is the king of FICO, even though it's undersung on this forum taking second fiddle to the revolving utilization we talk so much about. Positive unblemished history is the road to gold-platedness for all of us, and for both underwriting and FICO, we look a lot better with one year on a tradeline if we do need to apply for anything else, than a bunch of sporadic ones spread out throughout the year in this case.
End of the day, since FICO scoring is utterly time dependent, it's mathematically better for one's score between six months and two years definitely, and likely up to around four years total... that the app spree method winds up being better for one's FICO health. 4 years down the road it's mostly irrelevant with the way AAoA appears to be calculated, and there'd be diminishing returns eventually on payment history too.
Thanks this was helpful! I guess when I'm ready for some better cards, I'll do them at the same time.
Something I didn't think about that someone mentioned - some pull different reports. So perhaps I should do my homework on which cards usually pull which reports and try to keep to ones that don't choose the same one.
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