Forever On The Garden Due To Decreased Scores***

[Anonymous]

I do have installment loans but nothing recent. All over 6 months old. My scores did not drop until the last two cards were added which were Lowes and Home Depot that I acquired in January. I definitely have some store cards and will be closing most of them once they hit one year. I will keep Wal-Mart, Lowes and possibly Home Depot after a year as these will still have use to me. I'm also thinking about closing one of my Cap1 cards since they are both now QS1... no need for two but it's unfortunate they don't combine limits.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@racer-x wrote:
Imperfect- i didnt change jobs, not in 3 yrs. same profession for 25 yrs, never unemployed. 2 job changes in 25 yrs.

The accts that were cut were at 30% utilization. The usuck bank acct was 50% and had been for over a yr. it was my buffer acct and usuck was my main back. 4tl's and direct deposit with them. I felt 'safe' with them.

Point is, i didnt expect aa to happen to me but i sorta see why.
I knew i was running up my usage a bit but i also knew i would be pifing quickly. All i needed was another week and aa would have been avoided. Problem was the reporting and updating to the cra's wasnt keeping up when i pifd.

Struggles, wasnt calling you personally naive, just everybody in general.
Like i said, i just ran up some debt, 30% worth on 4 cards. Big whoop. Pifd within week of the aa.
I think what got me was that i went from 0% to 30% util on those accts. lesson is if you pif all the time, better keep doing that and dont change your spending/payment patterns

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Yes, but as has been pointed out to you earlier (other threads), you bring it up EVERY GOSH DARN TIME.  Please let it go.  Why not just provide a link to your thread, so everyone know the full scoop, and leave it at that?  Fear mongering is not helpful.  And while you come back with explanation, it's not how you started.  No more debate on the subject, this is now considered off topic for this thread.  Thanks for understanding.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I do have installment loans but nothing recent. All over 6 months old. My scores did not drop until the last two cards were added which were Lowes and Home Depot that I acquired in January. I definitely have some store cards and will be closing most of them once they hit one year. I will keep Wal-Mart, Lowes and possibly Home Depot after a year as these will still have use to me. I'm also thinking about closing one of my Cap1 cards since they are both now QS1... no need for two but it's unfortunate they don't combine limits.

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Okay, it's the number of store cards.  In a normal profile, you would be sitting pretty. Adding a lowes or Home Depot (these are generally large lines), usually raises the score.  In your case, it was just two too many.

Even when they are closed, a small ding is there, until about two years have passed.  I would keep the cap one's open, unless AF can't be waived with EO, because those are your buffer cards to build the score up.  Might take longer gardening for you, but you will get there in about 2 years.  Just keep two store cards, or the three you mentioned if you can add maybe discover in a year.

[Anonymous]

Awesome advice! Thank you so much! Discover is definitely on the list but not until either the very end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, depends on where I'm at at that point. I do have one more question. If I do decide on a CLI on any of my cards later in the year that requires a HP, would this have much of an impact on scores?

[Imperfectfuture]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Awesome advice! Thank you so much! Discover is definitely on the list but not until either the very end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, depends on where I'm at at that point. I do have one more question. If I do decide on a CLI on any of my cards later in the year that requires a HP, would this have much of an impact on scores?

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Pulls you out of gardening (first post in garden thread explains gardening).  The goal is to build positive credit, I got a 3500 Amex with only a 500 secured card and 1250 rebuilder showing.  Let the accounts age, HP's for cli's makes it look like you are seeking credit (and for those soft pulling your reports, they wonder why).

[Anonymous]

Got it! Gardening mode for sure! Thanks again for being so helpful!

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
That definitely makes sense. How many cards should be reporting?

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1

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This is a little too simplisitic, and gets way more airtime than it deserves, "keep all cards at zero and let only 1 report".

For the MyFICO Score Gamer, it can be tried, but it is not reasonable to expect an average cardholder to try to accomplish for years and years, because it requires paying before statement cut. The score difference is not meaningful to the average user anyway.

Letting cards get used, letting them report the used balance, and then PIF those amounts by the payment due date on as many cards as necessary, and limiting the number of balances generating interest costs is the best overall advice. Scores will average out over time, will be mostly influenced by that payment history and keeping utilization at a lower level if possible.

Not letting cards report balances on the statement naturally, as charges go on the card, also puts the cardholder into a straightjacket: IF ANY ONE of those previously zero balance cards takes on and reports a statement balance, the score immediately interprets this as "Taking On New Debt", and the score takes a significant hit. The score does recover, but the cardholder is better advised to keep a small balance reporting on each card, PIF by due date, so that the change is only relatively minor in the score as the balance changes month to month. The score will stabilize at a level very close to "all cards at zero" even if all cards have a small balance.

[Anonymous]

Awesome! Thank you for the advice!

[racer-x]

Imperfect- not sure how explaining and giving examples of mismanaged credit activity csn lead to aa, is not helpful....especially to somebody like the op with low history.

I was rebutting your ' new job' statement. That was not a fact.

I think its a disservice not to discuss what may happen when situations like the ops happen.

[TRC_WA]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Okay! So I should basically pay off the rest as soon as possible and then PIF once used after, before statement cuts and only let one report? I know under 10% is recommended so this would be on one card onl

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Yes, that.

I haven't really bothered with it and always let my cards report. However i'll usually pay my Chase cards down to zero if the addtl balance over what is due isn't a whole lot. Lol. I like using my grace period.

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Agreed... unless you have this infatuation with your scores being the best possible at all times the number of cards reporting be it 1 or 10 doesn't matter if you aren't applying for any new credit.

FICO has no month to month memory so if you lose points this month for letting 8 cards report a balance and are planning on buying a car 3 months from now just make sure you pay down all your cards in May to get the best possible FICO score reported in June.

I gardened for 2014... opened 4 accounts in December... new car in January.  Now I'm gardening for 2015.  The number of cards reporting doesn't matter... because I am not applying for anything till the end of the year at the earliest... around the time early exclusion has my BK13 falling off my reports.