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My Transunion score is 740, and I am trying to get it above 760. One of my problems is, according to Transunion, I have too many credit accounts. I am trying to figure out what I should do about this? It says I have 50 accounts! Here are some facts:
1) 8 of the accounts are student loans
2) 5 of the accounts are regularly used credit cards, which offer me about $40,000 in credit.
3) 1 account is for my vehicle
4) My credit limit is: $56,624, and I pay off 4 of the 5 credit cards each month. The 1 that doesn't get paid off is because I let my aunt use it, and it usually has a $500-$1000 balance on it. My debt ratio is currently 4%.
I do plan on applying for a mortgage in the next 1-2 years (although due to a December 2007 60 day late payment, I am wondering if I should wait until early 2015 when this comes off and my score rises, but I'm not sure if it will rise enough to consider waiting), and I have heard it isn't a good idea to close accounts prior to applying for loans. I also realize it isn't in your best interest to close old accounts, because it will affect my debt ratio. So my question is.....would it be a good idea to close some of the newer accounts that I no longer use, in order to lower the total number of accounts, and possibly increase my score? The average age of my accounts is 6 years, so I was thinking it may be best to close any that I am not using and are not older than 6 years, since that will also increase the average age. Should I close them all within a certain time frame? Or space them out?
Sorry if I made this too complicated. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I appreciate you reading, and any assistance!
@pugsly8422 wrote:My Transunion score is 740, and I am trying to get it above 760. One of my problems is, according to Transunion, I have too many credit accounts. I am trying to figure out what I should do about this? It says I have 50 accounts! Here are some facts:
1) 8 of the accounts are student loans
2) 5 of the accounts are regularly used credit cards, which offer me about $40,000 in credit.
3) 1 account is for my vehicle
4) My credit limit is: $56,624, and I pay off 4 of the 5 credit cards each month. The 1 that doesn't get paid off is because I let my aunt use it, and it usually has a $500-$1000 balance on it. My debt ratio is currently 4%.
I do plan on applying for a mortgage in the next 1-2 years (although due to a December 2007 60 day late payment, I am wondering if I should wait until early 2015 when this comes off and my score rises, but I'm not sure if it will rise enough to consider waiting), and I have heard it isn't a good idea to close accounts prior to applying for loans. I also realize it isn't in your best interest to close old accounts, because it will affect my debt ratio. So my question is.....would it be a good idea to close some of the newer accounts that I no longer use, in order to lower the total number of accounts, and possibly increase my score? The average age of my accounts is 6 years, so I was thinking it may be best to close any that I am not using and are not older than 6 years, since that will also increase the average age. Should I close them all within a certain time frame? Or space them out?
Sorry if I made this too complicated. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I appreciate you reading, and any assistance!
Welcome to the forums ! Can I ask if you pulled this score directly from TU ? Or from MyFICO ?
TU does not sell a FICO credit score. They sell their own FAKO score, and if you are going to apply for a mortgage then you really need to pull a FICO score.
Also, the "advice" on most FAKO websites generally won't help your FICO score, and in some cases it can actually lower your FICO score.
Thank you for the kind welcome!
I pulled it directly from MyFICO. As far as those FAKO websites, I have been a member of freecreditscore.com for a while. I figure for only $7/month, getting an Equifax report, and having it track everything is probably worth it. Am I most likely wasting my time on there? According to that site, my score just went down 9 points to 722 due to a hard hit a few days ago. What I want to do is, before I apply for any mortgage loans, is to move from the "very good" to "great" status, for obvious reasons.
@pugsly8422 wrote:Thank you for the kind welcome!
I pulled it directly from MyFICO. As far as those FAKO websites, I have been a member of freecreditscore.com for a while. I figure for only $7/month, getting an Equifax report, and having it track everything is probably worth it. Am I most likely wasting my time on there? According to that site, my score just went down 9 points to 722 due to a hard hit a few days ago. What I want to do is, before I apply for any mortgage loans, is to move from the "very good" to "great" status, for obvious reasons.
I wouldn't pay attention to the scores and advice you get there ~ they are FAKO scores. You can use it for monitoring your credit reports, that's probably about all I would advise.
The Equifax FICO score sold here at MyFICO ( and also from Equifax.com http://www.equifax.com/credit-report-history/ ) is the same score that mortgage lenders use.
The TU score sold here at MyFICO is TU98 which is an older score model and although it is a FICO score, it isn't the same score that mortgage lenders use ~ they will pull the TU04 FICO score.
@pizzadude wrote:
@pugsly8422 wrote:Thank you for the kind welcome!
I pulled it directly from MyFICO. As far as those FAKO websites, I have been a member of freecreditscore.com for a while. I figure for only $7/month, getting an Equifax report, and having it track everything is probably worth it. Am I most likely wasting my time on there? According to that site, my score just went down 9 points to 722 due to a hard hit a few days ago. What I want to do is, before I apply for any mortgage loans, is to move from the "very good" to "great" status, for obvious reasons.
I wouldn't pay attention to the scores and advice you get there ~ they are FAKO scores. You can use it for monitoring your credit reports, that's probably about all I would advise.
The Equifax FICO score sold here at MyFICO ( and also from Equifax.com http://www.equifax.com/credit-report-history/ ) is the same score that mortgage lenders use.
The TU score sold here at MyFICO is TU98 which is an older score model and although it is a FICO score, it isn't the same score that mortgage lenders use ~ they will pull the TU04 FICO score.
Thanks again, now that I am aware, I think I will stick with scores that are FICO related. Now that I know that, I guess my next step is figuring out the best way to raise my score and what my reasonable goal should be, in order to get the best rate on a loan.
After doing some more research, it looks like there isn't much I can do. Just wait until the 10 years after closing date has hit, and they drop off.
Could anyone tell me if:
1) I should wait until 2015 to apply for a mortgage payment (after my 60 day late payment drops off)? From what I've read, it seems like this may not be affecting me at all because it is so old (4.5 years). I did write a letter and sent it off today, so maybe I'll get lucky with that.
2) Since my AAoA is 6 years, should I close accounts that I no longer use, and are less than 6 years old?
3) Do my student loans affect my credit score at all? I thought I read that they didn't, but I don't see how that is even remotely possible.
Thanks!
Closing the newer accounts wont improve your AAoA, as all OC accounts, open and closed, are included in your AAoA calculation. I wouldn't recommend closing anything.
To obtain AAoA improvement, the creditor would have to report deletion of the entire account. Your AAoA is now solid, but not at the level associated with highest scores, so only time will reap you improvement in the 15%-weighted length of credit scoring category.
You dont seem to have spurious, "sock-drawer" accounts, so I agree with other posters. Ignore the comment that you have "too many accounts."
I would attempt to GW the old 60 late to garner a few points, but that is not a biggie. At five years, its impact is now low.
My advice... just keep doin what you are doin. Let auntie know a month or so before you app to keep her util at a min to garnish the few additional indiv acct and overall % util pts.
That's great, thank you Robert! I do have one last question.
If "too many accounts" and my 60 day late payment are the only things pushing my score downward, what more can I do to push it upwards? My utilization is at 4%, so I'm not sure how I can improve on that very much. According to my TU Report, I only have 1 inquiry. I pay my cards off in full each month, except for the one. I suppose I could try and pay off my student loans, but I'm not sure how much that would really help me. If I just continue to do what I'm doing, how will my score rise, except for the increase in AAoA?
I concur with Robert's advice - I wouldn't close accounts right now. And don't worry about the too many accounts reason.
You don't need to wait for the late payment to drop to go ahead and app for a mortgage, but keep up with the GW requests.
Student loans are installment loans, and they are scored by FICO like other installment loans. Installment utilization is a much smaller component of FICO scoring than revolving utilization however, so you won't be dinged for carrying balances like you would if they were credit card accounts.
Sounds great. Thanks Pizzadude and Robert, I really appreciate your input! I feel like this definitely puts me on the right track. Hopefully one day I'll be a Hich Achiever!
Thanks again!