@Anonymous wrote:
Just logged into CK again and my TU is up to date. I guess you were right. I looked it up 2 years ago and haven't touched it since. I think just about all of my questions are answered. Last one I have is how does what I was able to look up today differ from what I would recieve from annualcreditreport.com? Finally, I haven't really thought about how to mange my new cards for optimal scoring. To be honest I got them for two reasons.
I just answered this question in a different thread, so I will just paste here what I wrote there.
There are three reasons to get a full-blown report (like the kind that one gets from annualCreditReport.com, for example):
(1) Because you have a huge interest in seeing who is doing soft inquries on you
(2) Because you have a big interest in seeing the trended data that your issuers may be reporting.
(3) Because something really disturbing is coming up on the reports you are getting from Credit Karma or Credit Check Total or WalletHub or whatever, and you need to make sure that the reports you get directly from the CRA say the same thing.
To give you an idea of how often one of these events happens, I have not pulled any of my full reports from ACR in the last three years. None of those three things have happened to me in the last few years. And I live in a state (Georgia) that permits THREE free pulls annually. I just use the free tools that are out there to pull my reports whenever I want to see them (Karma, etc.).
Decent article about soft vs. hard inquiries:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-report-soft-hard-pull-difference/
Several articles about trended data:
https://www.google.com/search?q=trended+data&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
First, to add some more accounts to my credit history. As mentioned I only had that one prior credit card and a new car loan. I wanted to make sure that if in the future I wanted to apply for a large loan, I would have a lot of lines of credit with positive history. I don't plan on applying for any in the near future so I thought this was also a good opportunity for the credit accounts to gain in AAoA. Also included here is the increased credit limits which would lower my utilization. I had a line of 4500 on my first card and regularly had a statement balance of around 500-1000. I know that's not bad, but I was hoping to get it down. I thought these two new cards would lower my utilization, especially in a few months or a year when I can get some limit increases.
Great idea to have multiple tradelines with good history in preparation for a more serious need for credit down the road.
Having an increased total credit limit is an added convenience, but it is totally not necessary if you want to keep your CC utilization ultralow. I'll explain more about that below.
Second, I just wanted some more rewards. My first card got me 1.25% cash back on all puchases. I got these two cards because one offers 3% on gas and 2% on groceries (which is probably 75% of what I spend money on) and the other offers 2% on restaurants which is my third biggerst spending category.
Smart thinking.
I'd appreciate any advice on how to best use these cards to help me get the best possible scores.
Your FICO score is affected by many things. One of the bigger collection of factors deals with the reported values of your CC balances. The three factors are:
(1) Total utilization (all cards combined)
(2) Individual utilization (each card considered separately)
(3) Number of cards reporting a positive balance
Scoring penalties for #1 begin when you cross over 8.99%.
Scoring penalties for #2 begin when a card crosses over 28.99%.
#3 is less clear, because not everyone agrees whether open installment accounts also count (since they are indeed accounts showing a balance). What is certain is that the safest result is for all cards to be $0 except one (all zero except one = AZEO).
When a person is gearing up for an important credit pull (like just before he applies for a new card or a car or a home loan) then he should do AZEO and make sure his remaining card reports something small, like $10-20 (say).
When you are not getting ready to apply for credit, then you don't need your scores to be at their peak. So most months IMO it just makes sense to use your cards, let them report balances, and pay the balances in full after the statements print. Also keep your total utilization at under 29%, though frankly if it goes up to 45% (say) once in a great while it wouldn't matter. Paying in full is the key.
How do you control the amount that the CC issuer reports to the bureaus? You first need to find out when a card's statement typically prints. To make it report $0, pay it to $0 a few days before that statement prints. To make it report $20, pay it to $20 a few days before that statement prints. Etc. This is why you could have only one card with a $500 credit limit, and still spend $1500 a month on it, and still have a reported utilization of 2-4% every month. You'd just pay it down every week, and also just before the statement printed.
