@kyobakes wrote:
if you go to the "accounts" tab on your CR, then expand detail on accounts, there is a section that says "loan type." It changes for accounts.
basically, in all of this, i was just wondering if i had any extra benefit to my score by having the target "charge account" on there or not..
I was pretty dang excited when I found the categories you’re referring to on those tabs, but later I learned how loosey-goosey they were. For example, I have two JCPenney store cards, one is listed as a “charge account,” one as a “credit account.” One student loan is listed as “student loan” and another is listed as “credit account.” BofA (a bank) CC and Alliant CU (a credit union) CC are both listed as a “credit card.” And a $200,000+ mortgage is listed as a “credit account” (same category as my JCPenney store card). It’s sort of like trying to have a conversation with someone like me about the intricacies of football – it ain’t in there.
So, if you were to close your only merchant account, you would not see a score loss simply for closing your only merchant card. It may affect your FICO because of impact on utilization or AAofA, but not because of the TYPE of card that it is. If you only had one bank or national credit card and you closed it, you would see a score loss simply due to losing that type of account. (Score gains for opening that type of account--the first one-- seem to be somewhere around 20-30 points). That’s because FICO gods have placed bank and national credit cards on their scorecard. Merchant cards are simply not there. (At least not yet…. who knows what the future holds?!)
Check out the guinea pig posts, amongst others, for some recent anecdotal info.
FICO holds many mysteries, but much of how they look at credit cards is specifically, thankfully, amongst the published info. FICO score codes are available to us, it might even be helpful to maintain a list here – similar to the list for high achievers - based on what shows up on everyone’s reports.
Both I and DH opened merchant accounts specifically based on information from these forums regarding merchant cards providing a FICO score boost. While I’m a pretty nice girl and not likely to poke anyone’s eye out – and while I do LOVE my Macy’s card (as in LOVE LOVE LOVE my Macy’s card) – I prefer to make my decisions based on as much accurate information as possible. (Now, having accurate info, I would still open my MACY’s card – Did I mention that I LOVE my Macy’s card?) I’d hate, particularly, to send any one of my young adult children here and have them open a merchant account falsely believing that it will enhance their FICO score because of the type of card that it is; or keep a merchant card open believing that it will enhance their FICO score simply because of the type of card that it is. I also understand that this issue is a bit tender to some individuals I respect – and something of a can of worms. But it seems to me that getting accurate information out (along with sharing personal experiences) is one of the raisons d’etre for these forums.
OP deserves an answer to "basically, in all of this, i was just wondering if i had any extra benefit to my score by having the target "charge account" on there or not..." The answer is (dare I say it): No, having a Target (or any other merchant) account is not helping your score in and of itself. That being said, if you have no open revolving accounts, opening any revolving account (merchant or bank) will yield you a score boost, and a bank (or national credit card) revolving account will yield a more significant score boost.
Best wishes kyo!! That's a great question - one that is rightfully asked frequently - and one that we should definitely share info on.
