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Too many accounts have balances

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ArisGreek
Frequent Contributor

Too many accounts have balances

Hi there,

 

While I have great scores, the one thing that is bothering me is that 2 of my reports say I have too many accounts with balances.  The only accounts that I have with balances are my mortgage, car payment, and student loan -- naturally.  I also have my one home depot card with a balance of over $200 but all my other credit cards are $0 balance. Does the "too many accounts with balances" affect installment loans, too? I guess I find it offensive that too many accounts have balances when 3 of those accounts are inevitable to have a balance...

 

It's strange to me...Can anyone shed some light please?

===========
TU: 745(TU98) | EQ: 774 | EX: ? | NO BADDIES!
What's in my wallet? AMEX Platinum, United Presidential Plus World Elite MC, AMEX JetBlue, Nordstrom Visa Sig, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Discover More, AMEX Zync, Citi AAdvantage Plat Select Visa, Banana Republic, Home Depot
Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Too many accounts have balances

 


@ArisGreek wrote:

Hi there,

 

While I have great scores, the one thing that is bothering me is that 2 of my reports say I have too many accounts with balances.  The only accounts that I have with balances are my mortgage, car payment, and student loan -- naturally.  I also have my one home depot card with a balance of over $200 but all my other credit cards are $0 balance. Does the "too many accounts with balances" affect installment loans, too? I guess I find it offensive that too many accounts have balances when 3 of those accounts are inevitable to have a balance...

 

It's strange to me...Can anyone shed some light please?


 

How many total opne accounts do you have? It sounds like maybe you only have 3, or possibly 4, CC's. Either that, or your SL is in fact unconsolidated SL's, and you have one for each semester or something.

 

The formula seems to like having half or fewer of all open TL's with balances. If you have relatively few CC's compared to open installments, it's easy to get this message.

 

Back when I had a mortgage and two SL's, I opened a bunch of CC's, partly to avoid this ding, so that's one way of fixing it. But it's probably not that huge of a ding, as these things go. If you have great scores, as you say, this might well be the worst thing that the formula can come up with.

* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 2 of 8
ArisGreek
Frequent Contributor

Re: Too many accounts have balances

Hi Hauling,

 

This is my current scenario:

 

  • Citi AA World Mastercard - $3,000 limit -- $0 balance
  • Citi Home Depot Card (Store card only) - $3,250 limit -- $210 balance 
  • AMEX SPG - $600 limit -- $0 balance
  • AMEX Zync - No pre-set spending limit -- $0 balance
  • Saab Car Payment - $379 monthly payment
  • Student Loan Payment - $139 monthly payment
  • Mortgage - $1,210 monthly payment
My student loans are consolidated, however.  I just don't understand. I feel like I am on the island of misfit credit.  I have no bad marks on my credit at all. AAoA is 4 years 9 months and my credit history is almost 11 years.  I just do not understand why I have such trouble with things.  I have no inquiries either, if at most maybe 1, which was in 2009.  It just really baffles me.  I think I have a healthy balance of credit but creditors do not seem to think so.  
===========
TU: 745(TU98) | EQ: 774 | EX: ? | NO BADDIES!
What's in my wallet? AMEX Platinum, United Presidential Plus World Elite MC, AMEX JetBlue, Nordstrom Visa Sig, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Discover More, AMEX Zync, Citi AAdvantage Plat Select Visa, Banana Republic, Home Depot
Message 3 of 8
MarineVietVet
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Too many accounts have balances

 


@ArisGreek wrote:

Hi there,

 

While I have great scores, the one thing that is bothering me is that 2 of my reports say I have too many accounts with balances.  The only accounts that I have with balances are my mortgage, car payment, and student loan -- naturally.  I also have my one home depot card with a balance of over $200 but all my other credit cards are $0 balance. Does the "too many accounts with balances" affect installment loans, too? I guess I find it offensive that too many accounts have balances when 3 of those accounts are inevitable to have a balance...

 

It's strange to me...Can anyone shed some light please?


 

My advice? Ignore it. I'm told by Equifax that I have "Too many accounts" (38) while TU tells me "The balances on your non-mortgage credit accounts are too high". My scores are just fine so I don't give this a second thought.

 

You say you have great scores. That's all that matters.

 

BTW may I ask where you got your reports?

 

 

 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800, 10/10-813
TU - 10/10-774
You can do the same thing with hard work

 

 

 

 

Message 4 of 8
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Too many accounts have balances

That's actually a great list of cards. I'm trying to remember --your history is a bit short-ish, right?

 

You're getting this ding because you have "only" 7 open TL's. Half of seven is 3.5, and since you can't have a half a tradeline (possibly First Premiere... Oh, never mind), that means you can only have 3 accounts reporting balances to avoid getting hit for "too many accounts with balances." 4 is over half of 7.

 

But if all your cards reported $0, you'd probably get dinged for that, and the ding is probably worse. As one of our members memorably put in their siggy, "Dinged if you do; dinged if you don't."

 

If you're not shooting for a specific score by a specific date, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's just killing you, and you don't mind another inq on Experian, you could try for a third AmEx at the beginning of 2011. It wouldn't show as a new account, due to the back-dating, and then you'd have 8 open TL's, 5 of them CC's. Half of 8 is four, so you could have four accounts (the 3 loans plus a CC) reporting balances without the ding.

 

Whether it's worth it just for that is up to you.

 

(For anyone else reading, if you get a subsequent AmEx, it reports the month that it was open and the year that your first account was opened. Getting subsequent cards in January - February - March makes them even older than if you had gotten them in October - November - December.)

* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 5 of 8
ArisGreek
Frequent Contributor

Re: Too many accounts have balances

Hi Marine,

 

I get the TU through MyFico and I get EQ through ScoreWatch since I've subscribed to it for a long time. EX I use through American Express since I get it free plus my one free EX report through Massachusetts.  

 

It just drives me nuts to see "Too Many Accounts With Balances" as a negative.  I mean, how many is too many? Most people have a mortgage and/or a car payment at least and a lot of people I'm sure have student loans.  *grumble* I should ignore it but TU is my lowest score by like 30 points which baffles me. I can't seem to find anything else negative on hear causing the reason to be so low. *sigh*

 

I should just get over it Smiley Wink

===========
TU: 745(TU98) | EQ: 774 | EX: ? | NO BADDIES!
What's in my wallet? AMEX Platinum, United Presidential Plus World Elite MC, AMEX JetBlue, Nordstrom Visa Sig, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Discover More, AMEX Zync, Citi AAdvantage Plat Select Visa, Banana Republic, Home Depot
Message 6 of 8
MarineVietVet
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Too many accounts have balances

 


@ArisGreek wrote:

Hi Marine,

 

I get the TU through MyFico and I get EQ through ScoreWatch since I've subscribed to it for a long time. EX I use through American Express since I get it free plus my one free EX report through Massachusetts.  

 

It just drives me nuts to see "Too Many Accounts With Balances" as a negative.  I mean, how many is too many? Most people have a mortgage and/or a car payment at least and a lot of people I'm sure have student loans.  *grumble* I should ignore it but TU is my lowest score by like 30 points which baffles me. I can't seem to find anything else negative on hear causing the reason to be so low. *sigh*

 

I should just get over it Smiley Wink


I understand. My TU score is 39 points less than EQ and I don't know why but that's just the way it is. With a few minor differences the 2 reports are pretty close. Both show:

 

1. Utilization of 1%

2. Only one CC account out of 7 showing a balance

3. Less than half of all TL's showing a balance

 

But TU doesn't seem to like me.  Smiley Sad

 

Just don't become obsessed over it. I've been there and it's not a happy place.

 

 

 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800, 10/10-813
TU - 10/10-774
You can do the same thing with hard work

Message 7 of 8
ArisGreek
Frequent Contributor

Re: Too many accounts have balances

@Hauling,

 

Whoa, that was very informative. I appreciate that post.  My credit history is 11 years-ish so it's not short.  I didn't even think of that 7 tradeline (3.5) type of deal...That actually makes a lot of sense.  Yeah maybe I'll app for another AMEX in Feb or March but to be honest with you, I think that may be a little excessive with AMEX. I can only use them so much. I use my AMEX SPG for SPG hotels since I stay at them frequently and I use my Zync for everything else. The AA Citi World card is used when I book AA flights. So I get the miles AND the points for spending of the flight.

 

But thanks for the help! This is good info.

 

-M

 

 

===========
TU: 745(TU98) | EQ: 774 | EX: ? | NO BADDIES!
What's in my wallet? AMEX Platinum, United Presidential Plus World Elite MC, AMEX JetBlue, Nordstrom Visa Sig, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Discover More, AMEX Zync, Citi AAdvantage Plat Select Visa, Banana Republic, Home Depot
Message 8 of 8
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