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All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...

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Anonymous
Not applicable

All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...

My thread title may be a bit deceiving in that "all" for me is 2 cards.  I have one credit card (Capital One) and one retail card (Care Credit, Synchrony).  Every month I report a zero balance on the Capital One card as I PIF several times per month.  The Care Credit account last week was at 6% usage but after the monthly payment was received and reported dropped to 4%. 

 

Somehow, this month my Capital One card reported a balance of $220 due to an automatic insurance payment sneaking on there that I forgot about so instead of 0% utilization on the Capital One card I showed 6%. 

 

OVERALL utilization last week and this week is still 5% as the $210 paid on Care Credit essentially slid over to Capital One (off by an insignificant 10 bucks).

 

My variance in 3 FICO 08's are as follows:  EX: +0, TU +8, EQ +4

 

It's surprising to me that I gained a few points with both (100%) of my cards reporting a balance over 1 (50%) of them reporting.  I find it hard to believe that dropping from 6% utilization to 4% utilization on the one card resulted in a greater boost than what you think would have been lost from the second going from 0% to 6%.

 

Any thoughts on this here?  I guess the next data point would be next month making sure Cap One reports 0% again, but then my Care Credit will drop from 4% to 2% when the monthly payment is made so again there will be 2 variables.

 

 

Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
RonM21
Valued Contributor

Re: All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...

Interesting data, but I think only having the 2 cards plays a part in it. I've seen many say that it is better to have 3 cards instead of 2 for different reasons. If 2 is good for you stick with 2. I'm only mentioning that from a data point of view.


Total CL: $321.7kUTL: 2%AAoA: 7.0yrsBaddies: 0Other: Lease, Loan, *No Mortgage, All Inq's from Jun '20 Car Shopping

BoA-55k | NFCU-45k | AMEX-42k | DISC-40.6k | PENFED-38.4k | LOWES-35k | ALLIANT-25k | CITI-15.7k | BARCLAYS-15k | CHASE-10k

Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...

I have no intentions of sticking with 2, just thought I'd provide that data point and see what people thought of it.  I applied for 4 new cards today, got instantly approved for 3 and the 4th will require a phone call during business hours tomorrow.

 

It just seemed odd to me that having both cards report yielded a greater score than only 1 card reporting.  I've been pretty solid on only letting 1 report for months and never even considered letting the other report as I thought it woudl result in a score drop... but by accident the 2nd reported as well and somehow I saw better scores.  Fine by me, as I said above I apped today 4 times.

Message 3 of 5
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...


@Anonymous wrote:

I have no intentions of sticking with 2, just thought I'd provide that data point and see what people thought of it.  I applied for 4 new cards today, got instantly approved for 3 and the 4th will require a phone call during business hours tomorrow.

 

It just seemed odd to me that having both cards report yielded a greater score than only 1 card reporting.  I've been pretty solid on only letting 1 report for months and never even considered letting the other report as I thought it woudl result in a score drop... but by accident the 2nd reported as well and somehow I saw better scores.  Fine by me, as I said above I apped today 4 times.


Think there's a loss of resolution with small numbers (read as anything less than 3 revolvers); and for full FICO optimization as I understand it under FICO 8, I'd rather have 5 revolvers. 

 

It's an interesting point, but I don't know anyone who's really been tracking scores with limited numbers of CC's so iI'm certainly curious as to how your file reacts.  Also how new is your file?  I got plenty of wierd raises in my initial year of credit building, things got a lot more steady state in years 2->4.5 and I've been basically stuck where I'm at since the 3 year mark in this journey.




        
Message 4 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: All cards reporting = better score than 1? data points...

My file is 18-19 years old, 19 total accounts on it and an AAoA of 7.8 (7) years currently.  Took it from 2 revolvers (which is all I've had for 15 years) to 5 this week with a 6th pending approval still.  My plan is to stick with those 6 basically forever.  I figure I went 15 years with 2 revolvers, 6 should be all I need.  I will be interested to see how playing with 6 revolvers will be different and/or impact my scores differently than having just 2.

Message 5 of 5
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