I think it's very weird, too. I know that FICO had to use historical data to create their scoring model, and so there is some built-in datedness, but it's as if FICO High Achievers were two-thirds of the way through financing their Dodge Darts.
FWIW, installment just doesn't carry that much weight in scoring. It's nice that it's there, and presumably you would lose some points for three $30+K car loans, but there's no way in these days of student loans and expensive cars that these figures would hold.
One guess: maybe they're actually referring to small personal loans?
By the way, Midnight Voice started this list long ago. I wound up having a different set of comments, being far below him in scores and far ahead of him in lates, so I wound up merging my list into his, and then searching the forums for any other comments, and glued it all together. God bless copy/ paste! If you still have that $5000 comment handy, could you please c/p it here? I'd like to add it to the list. thanks!
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007