cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

New member - could use some sage insight

tag
Peanutbutter
Established Member

New member - could use some sage insight

I was hoping I could post a synopsis of where I am with my credit journey - any help, suggestions or insight would be great! Not 100% sure what I'm looking for, just not sure what the next step should be. Would love to get to the 800 club Smiley Happy)))

 

MyFico FICO scores as of 5/2015:

 

EQ 772

TU 767 

EX 770

 

Discover was posting FICO at 781 for 4/2015 with a 5k balance on a 8k CL.

Discover now posts FICO at 764 for 5/2015 $0 bal/9k CL.

Reasons:

  1. 1.PROPORTION OF LOAN BALANCES TO LOAN AMOUNTS IS TOO HIGH:

    The balances of your non-mortgage installment loans (such as auto or student loans) are high compared to your original loan amounts. As you pay down your loan your balance decreases, which reduces the proportion.

  2. 2.% OF BALANCES TO CREDIT LIMITS IS TOO HIGH ON REVOLVING ACCOUNTS:

    Balances on your revolving account(s) are evaluated in relation to your available credit. Credit usage is one of the most important factors to your FICO Credit Score. People with high balances as a proportion to credit limits generally pose a greater risk to lenders.

Credit Sesame FAKO (TU?) 745

Credit Karma FAKO's (TU) 742 & (EQ) 743

 

No Baddies. No Collections/Liens/Judgements. No lates.

No current mortgages (one reporting opened from 2009, reporting & closed in 2013).

 

One personal loan from a CU ~$15k, transferred to Earnest as of 5/2015 for lower 6.48% APR (originally 13.5% APR w/ the CU)

Two Gov't student loans (consolidated) ~$30k, transferred to Earnest as of 5/2015 for 3.99% (v) APR (orignially 7.25% / ea.)

 

According to Credit Karma:

2 IQ's on TU to fall off 9/2015 & 12/2015.

2 IQ'd on EQto fall off 12/2015 & 5/2016.

 

As of 5/1/2015 : 9 CC's - 2 store cards. $0 bal on all CC's except two Cap1 cards report AF's ($69 & $19, which they credited me the AF's when I complained so they're $0 bal on statements) and the Discover balance listed above (bal is currently $0).

 

As of the past few days I added an AMEX BCE (29K CL) and a CITI DoubleCash (11,6K CL) to my cards.  Nothing charged to them currently. 

 

Total CC CL (excluding the two new accounts above) ~$32k.

AAoA (I think) is 4yrs, 4 months.

 

 

phhewww! That was a lot - I think I covered everything I could.  So, what do you guys make of all of that?

Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
takeshi74
Senior Contributor

Re: New member - could use some sage insight


@Peanutbutter wrote:

Not 100% sure what I'm looking for, just not sure what the next step should be.


Well the former really determines the latter.  You mentioned that you wanted a higher score so we can at least go on that.  The good thing is that it looks like you have the two biggest factors covered with no derogs (impacts Payment History) and low revolving utilization (falls under Amounts Owed):

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx

 

Most of the remaining factors just take time and responsbile usage to build.

 

As for the cited reasons, nothing you can do about the first one other than pay your loan balances down.  As for the second, it sounds like your revolving utilization is fine but you need to consider that a scores is generated based on data in a credit report so it is your reported balances and not your current balances that matter.  While your accounts may be currently at 0 they may have reported balances.  Even so, it doesn't sound like something you need to fret over.

 

Sometimes you have to take those reasons with a grain of salt.  My TU 8 is over 800 and I have a couple of reasons cited as well.

 


@Peanutbutter wrote:

Discover was posting FICO at 781 for 4/2015 with a 5k balance on a 8k CL.

Discover now posts FICO at 764 for 5/2015 $0 bal/9k CL.


Actually, I didn't catch this on the first read.  When did you pay the 5K balance?  If it was after it reported then you might have 63% reporting on it which could explain the drop.

 

Pull your reports and verify the reported balance.  Credit Karma is a handy tool for monitoring your TU and EQ reports for free with weekly updates.

Message 2 of 3
Peanutbutter
Established Member

Re: New member - could use some sage insight

Hi Takeshi74,

 

I paid the Discover balance on 5/8/2015, so it may have been after it reported - CK shows it as reported in 4/2015.  I recently PC'd my Chase Slate card to their "upgraded" version that gives you your FICO score.  I checked it this morning and its at 771, but shows 8 IQ's, although it won't tell me who.  I'm guessing its AMEX, CITI and Earnest since all of these accounts opened within the last few weeks.

 

I can't remember where I read it, maybe Credit Sesame, but it was noted that I'd benefit from "varying" my types of credit - i.e. mortgage, car loan etc.  I have the personal loan already but they aren't currently reporting and I'm not sure if the age of that account will help/hurt my overall score since it only opened this month (but who knows how much time will pass between opening and if/when they start reporting).   Thoughts?

Message 3 of 3
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.