Do charge cards add to credit mix?

kkapdolee · ‎12-10-2013

I currently have a bunch of cc's, a student loan, and an auto loan.

I just recently added an Amex charge card. Will that count as another category of credit or will it be something I already have? If it is something that I already have, which category will it fall under? A cc or some sort of a loan?

Also, are student loans and auto loans considered different types of credit that add to the credit mix?

[10%+] Internet, Cable, Cell phone
[5%] Gas, Grocery, Amazon, Airline tickets, Drug Stores, Dept. Stores, Target, MyHabit
[3%] Restaurants
[2%] Everything Else

guiness56 · ‎12-10-2013

AMEX is still a CC. It is just reported without a CL. In that case, the High Balance is used to determine utilization. I don't believe it to be a no spending limit card.

SL and autos are both installments. If you have one or the other a new one generally won't help.

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kkapdolee · ‎12-10-2013

@guiness56 wrote:
AMEX is still a CC. It is just reported without a CL. In that case, the High Balance is used to determine utilization. I don't believe it to be a no spending limit card.

SL and autos are both installments. If you have one or the other a new one generally won't help.

Thanks.

I just found this on search.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/How-exactly-do-charge-cards-impact-utiliz...

It says only TU98 will consider charge cards for util calculation and all others will ignore.

So are there only two kinds of credits out there? Revolving and installment?

Does mortgage count as something different?

[10%+] Internet, Cable, Cell phone
[5%] Gas, Grocery, Amazon, Airline tickets, Drug Stores, Dept. Stores, Target, MyHabit
[3%] Restaurants
[2%] Everything Else

guiness56 · ‎12-10-2013

A mortgage is also installment. But, and I could be wrong, it may help differently than SLs and autos.

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guiness56 · ‎12-10-2013

It also depends on how the card reports, revolving vs open.

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cyclesport45 · ‎12-10-2013

Does a store card (charge card) count as different flavor of credit? Will it help credit score?

Chase Freedom(5.3K), Citi Double Cash (8.8K). Citi Thank You Preferred(10.2K) DCU Platinum Rewards(10K), REI Visa(9.6K) Amex Blue Sky(5K), Amex Blue Cash Preferred (20K), Crate & Barrel (3.5K) Discover IT(16.5K) CSP (28K)

guiness56 · ‎12-10-2013

AFAIK, any type of card is going to help in one way or the other.

Store cards generally report as revolving and include a CL. If that is the case, then it will be factored into your utilization.

NPSL cards still help as a positve TL, just are not used in calculating your utilization in most versions of FICO.

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AndySoCal · ‎12-10-2013

If you mean by charge card where the balance is due in full each month then yes it is a different loan type. Uaually an Amex card that is a charge card will report with the account type of open.

FICO Scores XPN v8 802 V2 831 (SDFCU) TUC 803 v8 EFX 807 (10/2023)
Discover 09/90 19,000, JCPenney 10/2008 4,700 US Bank Cash 12,000 Citibank Custom Cash 5/2015 11,100 State Dept. FCU 15,000 06/2023 , 02/2024 Redstone FCU Signature VISA 10,000 Banking: Ally Bank Credit Unions: Lafayette FCU Fortera FCU State Department FCU Pelican CU

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cyclesport45 · ‎12-10-2013

So, I have no charge cards. Would getting a store (charge) card improve my credit mix, therefore raise my score??

Chase Freedom(5.3K), Citi Double Cash (8.8K). Citi Thank You Preferred(10.2K) DCU Platinum Rewards(10K), REI Visa(9.6K) Amex Blue Sky(5K), Amex Blue Cash Preferred (20K), Crate & Barrel (3.5K) Discover IT(16.5K) CSP (28K)

Revelate · ‎12-11-2013

@cyclesport45 wrote:
So, I have no charge cards. Would getting a store (charge) card improve my credit mix, therefore raise my score??

Nope.

Generally speaking there's two different types of credit: revolving, and installment.

National bank cards, store cards, Amex charge cards: revolving.
Student, personal, auto, mortgage loans: installment.

There's a few other things which fall into either one category of the other, and there *might* be some weight to the type of tradeline (national bank card > store card, or more appropriately mortgage > all other installment) but that's unknown and FICO isn't saying.

Regarding NPSL cards or others which do not report a limit: those are indeed counted under all versions of FICO's algorithms to my understanding: the utilization ratio is current balance/highest balance.

As for Amex charge cards, they're excluded because their term is 1-month: they are not considered to be a credit product under FICO '04 or '08 models.