Updated FICO score since closing 20+ CC accounts

youdontkillmoney · ‎07-01-2015

PenFed updated my FICO NextGen Score on their website after closing 20+ cc accounts, still up there:

834

800+ means:

-These FICO® Scores are in the top 20% of U.S. consumers

-Demonstrate to lenders that the consumer is an exceptional borrower

Anonymous · ‎07-01-2015

@youdontkillmoney wrote:
PenFed updated my FICO NextGen Score on their website after closing 20+ cc accounts, still up there:

834

800+ means:
-These FICO® Scores are in the top 20% of U.S. consumers
-Demonstrate to lenders that the consumer is an exceptional borrower

Congrats! But no offense, with a score in the 800's or high 700s I would expect you to have significantly higher limits that what you have.

How many inquiries do you have, what is your annual income, and what is your AAOA?

youdontkillmoney · ‎07-01-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@youdontkillmoney wrote:
PenFed updated my FICO NextGen Score on their website after closing 20+ cc accounts, still up there:

834

800+ means:
-These FICO® Scores are in the top 20% of U.S. consumers
-Demonstrate to lenders that the consumer is an exceptional borrower

Congrats! But no offense, with a score in the 800's or high 700s I would expect you to have significantly higher limits that what you have.

How many inquiries do you have, what is your annual income, and what is your AAOA?

^^^^^^^

Hi. When I apply for cards I don't counter with higher limits, as what is provided is sufficient, especially since I use AMEX mostly and Visa/MC secondarily (my AMEX max. approval is $120,000); I'd probably just need $5,000 on Visa/MC, again, AMEX Plat (NPSL) is sufficient for my lifestyle. Also I don't really call in to ask for more because I don't need it plus that will be a hard pull. I have 5 inquiries in 2014 (during my ap spree in accummulating 20+ cards), so that is a factor in bringing score down plus average age of accounts is only 5 years (due to app spree in accummulating 20+ cards in the past; but oldest card is AMEX since 1991 or 24+ years). Annual income is $130,000, wife's is $160,000. Her score is actually higher than mine, she only has one Citi simplicity w/ $7,500 limit but is AU under my AMEX and IberiaBank Visa. We both have zero debt, and my pholosophy in using credit and paying credit is I charge everything I can to my AMEX, pay in full and even pay before statement closes not because I calculate how it will affect FICO, but for personal reasons, I like knowing I am paid off, in fact, I overpay and have a credit on all my accounts right now (they owe me money). Been operating like this for years, I do okay this way. Been gardening since will start the mortgage process early 2016.

I mentioned in a different thread all the 20 other cc's I cancelled was a huge mistake applying for them in the first place ("collector mentality"), since all the time and effort and hard pulls is recorded on my credit report...only to cancel them all. Big mistake I made...but I learned from it and that is how I got to this place with only four cc's.

Anonymous · ‎07-01-2015

Thank you for the reply. I am newish to the CC game. Just trying to profile people and realizing score doesnt always matter. I do like that you dont ask for more than what you need.

Do you feel that your personal lines of credit helped you out significantly with your scoring? Just curious as my bank does not offer any small loans, only lines of credit. And from their description it sounds just like a credit card.

youdontkillmoney · ‎07-01-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for the reply. I am newish to the CC game. Just trying to profile people and realizing score doesnt always matter. I do like that you dont ask for more than what you need.

Do you feel that your personal lines of credit helped you out significantly with your scoring? Just curious as my bank does not offer any small loans, only lines of credit. And from their description it sounds just like a credit card.

^^^^^^^

Personal lines of credit (PLOCs) are treated like revolvers (Credit cards); they help in scoring insofar as your utillization percent is lower due to having more credit available. For example, if you owe $1,000 and you have a $10K line, that utilization is 10% but if you had a $20K line available, 5% is your utilization.

Yes, variety of debt generally means higher FICO, for example, CC, retail store cards, auto loan, personal loan etc; more variety generally means the FICO model has more factors to calc a FICO score for you; and of course it goes without saying pay on time to maintain strong FICOs. But I still caution, if you don't need it, don't borrow it, for example, if you don't need a personal loan and only want it to add variety to your credit profile, don't borrow the personal loan. Your score will be fine like mine with not so much variety...until you need to borrow.

Anonymous · ‎07-01-2015

All great points you made and good information. Everyone on the forum has different goals and a different definition of success. thank you for giving us a brief look into yours.

takeshi74 · ‎07-02-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
But no offense, with a score in the 800's or high 700s I would expect you to have significantly higher limits that what you have.

Keep in mind that FICO NextGen isn't on the same points scale as FICO 8. An 834 NextGen score is still very good but not the same as an 834 FICO 8.

Additionally, it's never just about score. My scores are usually in the low 800's/high 700's. Highest CL is $30K. However, with recent activity my newest cards have all been issued with $5k starting limits. Granted, they have all increased since then but you can't just conflate scores and limits. Scores are just one consideration when a creditor makes its decision.

As another example, back before I had a better understanding of credit I had scores in the 700-740 range which, on the surface appear decent enough. However, I wasn't getting approvals and when I did I would get very low limits and very high APR's. That's because my revolving utilization was over 60% and had been that way for quite some time.

Definitely consider scores, keeping the specific scoring models in mind, but don't rely solely on them.