Payment history question

[Ecevan]

I have a quick question i was hoping someone could help me with. In regards to the payment history portion of my score, is it the number of on time payments one has in total among all credit files or is it based on the length of ontime payments for each credit file?

[MarineVietVet]

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@Ecevan wrote:
I have a quick question i was hoping someone could help me with. In regards to the payment history portion of my score, is it the number of on time payments one has in total among all credit files or is it based on the length of ontime payments for each credit file?

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Hello and welcome.

From What's In My Credit Score? you'll find this about payment history and all aspects of scoring:

Payment History

• Account payment information on specific types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
• Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgements, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past due items)
• Severity of delinquency (how long past due)
• Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
• Time since (recency of) past due items (delinquency), adverse public records (if any), or collection items (if any)
• Number of past due items on file
• Number of accounts paid as agreed

[Ecevan]

So if i have never had a late payment of any sort or collection or adverse public record the percentage of my score derived from my payment history is based on the number of accounts paid as agreed?

I ask because, like i said i have never had a late payment or collection, i have 2 credit cards of my own with an average age of about 2 years and im an authorized user on a 13 year old card. No car loans or mortgages. And my credit score is still under 700?
I need a new car soon and have the cash for it but if i need more accounts paid as agreed i thought i might take out a secured loan for the car and just eat the interest charges in the interest of my credit score. I know its not generally a good idea to take out new debt to raise your credit score but i dont know what else to do.

[llecs]

Where are you getting your score from?

If you have a 13-yr TL reporting, do you have several brand new credit accounts to account for that 2-yr AAoA?

[Ecevan]

I get my scores from freescore.com, i dont know what my real fico scores are but these scores are 669 for experian and equifax and 679 for trans union. I have a 5 yearold credit card in my name and a new one 4 months old. Im am authorized user on the 13 year old one. 2 inquiries, one almost 2 years old and one 4 months old.

[Ecevan]

The authorized user account is only reported to trans union which i believe is the reason for the higher score there. Also i have 0% utilization, i use the cards but pay in full almost every month.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Ecevan wrote:
I get my scores from freescore.com, i dont know what my real fico scores are but these scores are 669 for experian and equifax and 679 for trans union. I have a 5 yearold credit card in my name and a new one 4 months old. Im am authorized user on the 13 year old one. 2 inquiries, one almost 2 years old and one 4 months old.

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All those scores are called "PLUS" scores and are not used by any lenders. So your true FICO scores could be higher or lower than those.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO.

At one time you could also purchase your Transunion score at transunioncs.com but no more. Wal Mart now offers a TU08 score to those who have their store card and the Discover version.

Equifax recently stopped selling the 4 FICO reports/yr product but it's still available as an affiliate link:
https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/otc/landing.ehtml?^start=&companyName=mtbk_esn3r

[Ecevan]

Yeah i realize that. So would it be a terrible idea to take out a loan for my car in an attempt to "thicken" my credit report? Im ok with an initial hit to my scores if it means a better chance of my scores climbing higher in the future. Since payment history is roughly a 3rd of my score and a credit type mix is 10%, that should make up for the 10% inquiry hit. Then all i need to worry about is account age.

Opinions? Good or bad idea?

[MarineVietVet]

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@Ecevan wrote:
Yeah i realize that. So would it be a terrible idea to take out a loan for my car in an attempt to "thicken" my credit report? Im ok with an initial hit to my scores if it means a better chance of my scores climbing higher in the future. Since payment history is roughly a 3rd of my score and a credit type mix is 10%, that should make up for the 10% inquiry hit. Then all i need to worry about is account age.

Opinions? Good or bad idea?

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I personally wouldn't do it. Only apply for credit you really need and in my opinion this is not one of those times.

But that's just me. Others may well advise you to do something else. Only you can make that final decision.

[Ecevan]

Ok. Well i appreciate the advice. I guess ill just wait it out and keep up my payments on what i have, maybe ask for a limit increase to possibly boost my scores up to the 700 mark.