How annoying is this? Bad advice from Banks

babymixer · ‎12-01-2011

Okay, so credit and the whole process of it is fairly new to me. (Thank goodness I found this forum!)

When I opened my checking/ savings account with BofA I proceeded to open a credit card with them also but it was secured and I was fine with that seeing as I have a very limited credit history. (i'm new to this country)

Prior to BofA, I had a checking/savings with HSBC and a secured card with them also. A very good relationship, paid cc in full every month but didn't like all the extra charges that they had on everything. When I met up with a BofA financial advisor, I was advised to close the account asap including my secured cc and once I move to them, I'd be well taken care of. Well, she followed through on the taking care part since I now have a wonderful personal relationship with my bank.

If only I found this forum before, I would have known that I was ill advised and that today I would have had 2 cc from prime lending institutions instead of just one. My AAoA was affected too. aye...

You guys have any similar stories?

llecs · ‎12-01-2011

The AAoA wouldn't be impacted for many years, at least as long as it reports, since closed accounts still factor into AAoA (per FICO scoring). And the prime doesn't matter, though many would argue that HSBC is subprime. I had them and I thought they were great. I think the sales person directed you to close HSBC to direct more spending on BofA. IMO, you would have been better off not closing it, but you'll have more opportunities going forward to replace that.

@babymixer wrote:
You guys have any similar stories?

There was a poster on here who got upset because his EQ FICO on here didn't match the EQ FICO pulled by his lender (PNC Mortgage) on the same day. 99% of the time it'll match, and I found others on here who said their PNC lender pulled the same EQ FICO as on here. So out of curiosity I went to my local PNC branch to inquire about FICO scoring.

A branch manager sat down with me and proceeded to claim that when you apply for a mortgage, they will pull all 3 FICO scores. Good so far. He then said they will take all 3 scores and average them (wrong, they use the median). He continued that because TU FICO isn't an accurate score (in his mind), they will subtract 20 points from that score after the pull it before figuring out the average (what?!). He proceeded to talk about the virtues of good credit and said that collections help your history (ummmmm) and that inquiries costs 10 points each (yea...in FAKOland). He talked about other items but I tuned out by then and thanked him for his time. I never did find out which version of EQ FICO they pull.

hoping2rebuild · ‎12-01-2011

A few years ago we went to a major brand auto dealer

he ran our credit and his advice was:

Let it ride until all the collections come off

do not get any new credit

pay everything in cash

Starting Score: 377EQ/350EX/400TU As of 11/2011
Current Score: 620EQ/614EX/612TU As of 01/2013
Goal Score: 700+ across the boards

p- · ‎12-01-2011

What I've found is spending a couple days reading here puts one far beyond the average CSR at a bank or CC company. It's unfortunate how much bad advice uninformed people put out..

Anonymous · ‎12-01-2011

@hoping2rebuild wrote:
A few years ago we went to a major brand auto dealer

he ran our credit and his advice was:

Let it ride until all the collections come off
do not get any new credit
pay everything in cash

We've been told by the car dealers how WONDERFUL it is that we've been "cash only" for the last 20 years until they pull our credit report and find out there's nothing current on them and we have NO FICO score. Then, they're like: "You really have been cash only, wow! we're not going to be able to do business with you at all."

iwannapool · ‎12-01-2011

We were recently trying to get a mortgage with a broker. Instead of telling us to try and negotiate for a PFD on the TWO outstanding things that didn't amount to a couple hundred dollars, he said to get them paid....then in the end said we would have to wait until the paid accounts were 12 months old.

I am begging for goodwill to no avail so far...and both accounts were so old I know they would have gone the PFD route if I had only known....

*twiddles thumbs waiting for time to pass before getting my tornado displaced family in our own home again*

babymixer · ‎12-02-2011

Once again, thank you myFICO for opening my eyes!