Too Many Accounts?

[Anonymous]

I think I was hit twice for a total of -36 points because I exceeded too many balances on different account types. I need to do further testing. I have far too many things going on with my CR now to know what is causing what anymore. I guess I will get my answers as I pay off balances. I will post later. Good thread.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering about this myself... but I think I have my answer.

Active Accounts:
4 CCs
1 car note
1 medical
5 Student loan accounts - same lender

My credit score is... really bad right now (TU:636, EQ:597,EX:606). Between unemployment and major medical issues, I ended up at 96% utilization on CCs, and a drop from 700+ each (no delinquents though - used the cards to pay all bills, including each other).

Ignoring the utilization issue (working on it, CCs will be $0 by Dec, medical by Jul 09), it keeps telling me that I have Too Many Accounts.

I have looked into Consolidating my student loans, but my highest rate on them is 5.6%, and the best I found for consolidation is 8.25% - willing to take the ding for 2.65% of $25k



If I am understanding this correctly:
-I would have to consolidate my student loans, and pay off 3 CCs to not get dinged?
-That would give me 3/7 with balances

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I think I was hit twice for a total of -36 points because I exceeded too many balances on different account types. I need to do further testing. I have far too many things going on with my CR now to know what is causing what anymore. I guess I will get my answers as I pay off balances. I will post later. Good thread.

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Back when I had a mortgage, a HELOC, a student loan, and 5 cc's for a whopping total of 8 open TL's, it was an ongoing battle to stay under 50%, since 50% = 4 TL's, and that meant the loans could post, and nothing else. My 5 CC's included an AU card that was really my husband's, who liked to use it 2 days before the statement dropped, and a store card that never, ever updates.

I wanted to get a car loan, and I also wanted to do a BT of some of the money on the HELOC, so I went shopping and got 6 CC's and the car loan. I also paid off the CL.

So now I have a mortgage, a HELOC, a car loan, and a BT card, all of which automatically have balances, out of a total of 14 TL's. Half of 14 is seven, so I can now have 2 CC's with balances in addition to the 3 loans and BT card listed, and still be under 50% of accounts with balances. I can't tell you how nice it is not to be freaking out about TU dropping me 20 points for "too many accounts with balances." This has killed my average age, so I will have to do penance for a year, but that's OK. My overall credit profile is much better, and it will pay off in the long run.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I was wondering about this myself... but I think I have my answer.

Active Accounts:
4 CCs
1 car note
1 medical
5 Student loan accounts - same lender

My credit score is... really bad right now (TU:636, EQ:597,EX:606). Between unemployment and major medical issues, I ended up at 96% utilization on CCs, and a drop from 700+ each (no delinquents though - used the cards to pay all bills, including each other).

Ignoring the utilization issue (working on it, CCs will be $0 by Dec, medical by Jul 09), it keeps telling me that I have Too Many Accounts.

I have looked into Consolidating my student loans, but my highest rate on them is 5.6%, and the best I found for consolidation is 8.25% - willing to take the ding for 2.65% of $25k



If I am understanding this correctly:
-I would have to consolidate my student loans, and pay off 3 CCs to not get dinged?
-That would give me 3/7 with balances

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Hi, meauho, welcome to the forums!

Are your scores and the comments that come with them FICO scores, pulled from this site? FICO shouldn't ding you for plain old "too many accounts" (unless you have over 30 accounts.) FICO will ding you for "too many accounts with balances" (emphasis mine.)

If you got your scores from FreeCreditReports.com, or with your free annual credit reports, or from TrueCredit, these are what we call FAKO scores, and their advice is bogus, too. (But the report service is great.)

But if these are comments from FICO, and they're saying "too many accounts with balances", then yes, consolidating might help. But there's a good chance that it won't change your scores all that much, so I wouldn't do it just in hope of a score boost, unless it makes good financial sense for you, which it sounds like it won't.

Once you have your util back down, you're going to get a huge score boost, and fiddling with the SL's might not be necessary. In fact, others are reporting that they didn't get any change, so some of us are wondering if SL's are "bundled" in some way for scoring purposes. It's quite possible that if you can get only one of your CC's reporting a balance, that will do the trick.

[Anonymous]

My TU hit 31 and EQ 30 Accounts this month-

Change on EQ was Zero points

Change on TU Zero points-

[Anonymous]

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Timothy wrote:

My TU hit 31 and EQ 30 Accounts this month-

Change on EQ was Zero points

Change on TU Zero points-

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Interesting.  Yet another piece of evidence against the conventional wisdom.

[smallfry]

Four of my five credit cards will reach one year old status this May. I am going to pull a FICO in July to see what kind of score pop I will get once I reach the one year anniversary on these cards. TU is currently 717 with 1-2% utilization. It will be interesting.

[Anonymous]

 yes cheddar that made sense thanks.

its going to be a few months until i can get one of the cards (cap one of course) to 0 and keep the boa below 10 percent....blegh..not until about june will it look that good but thats right before im a year with my first card..so im hoping for some nice timing effect type deal. ha

but i have another question. when you guys say to carry over a zerio balance each month..is it okay to use the card at your will..max it out..do whatever..as long as its back to 0 before the statement ends?

or are we supposed to be trying to keep this util below 9 for all eternity?

i think i know the answer..just looking for a better understanding

Message Edited by joffogle on 04-04-2008 09:10 PM

[Anonymous]

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joffogle wrote:

 yes cheddar that made sense thanks.

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Happy to help!

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joffogle wrote:

but i have another question. when you guys say to carry over a zerio balance each month..is it okay to use the card at your will..max it out..do whatever..as long as its back to 0 before the statement ends?

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Yep.  Charge it up over the course of the month if you want to (although actually maxing it out is never a good idea, and don't go over the limit!), just make sure it's paid back down before the balance reports to the CRAs, which is usually on the statement date.

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joffogle wrote:

or are we supposed to be trying to keep this util below 9 for all eternity?

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Well, remember that 1-9% is an ideal.  You don't have to do this for all eternity.  It's most important to have your utilization in this range when you are planning on applying for new credit, but as a general rule, it's also not a good idea to carry too high of a balance for an extended period of time to avoid freaking out your current creditors, too.

None of your creditors are going to freak out if your balance is in the 30-40% range, for example, but you will lose some FICO points for it.

[Anonymous]

thanks again cheddar..

im having so much trouble with my capital one card and all these other credit report fraudulent charges..disputing one and just got smacked with some random 50 dollar charge from some experian joint..gonna call em tomorrow..it sucks tho i changed my card and was still being charged on the new card with a new number..its ridiculous

it was already maxed out..so im 34 dollars over the limit now..have 2 weeks for them to reimburse..man..if i can just make it to the end of april life will live on..lol