I'm still mixed up about some of this myfico scoring stuff, like the red flags and "what's hurting", "what's helping".
DH and I both got new cards in April and/or are AUs on each others new cards, so we each have 8 new accounts. Actually, 2 of DH's werent apped until May and July, BUT, even though he has the little red flag on his EQ and TU by number of new accounts, his new credit is shown as "not good", but mine is still showing "bad'!
Neither of us has a red flag by inqs...I have 3 TU, 4 EQ, he has 2 TU and 3 EQ
I'm wondering if I'm still considered bad because my average age of accounts is 5 years compared to his 2 years? Or even w/o the red flag, am I bad since I have more inqs??
And how much does this 'bad' designation really hurt my score, and when, oh, when will I get to be not good??!!
I realize reports can have a lot of variables, but ours are very similar with me 13+ yrs history, he has 11, both have PR from 2004, he has 2 med collections from 2003 and I have 2 paid COs from 2003 and 2004. Both of us have car loan accts back to 1997 with perfect history; these baddies are all there is.
Other diff is front page. He's Very Good, Good, Very Good, Not Good, and I'm Good, Very Good, Very Good, Bad
The only other diff I can see is the average age of accts....even utilization is the same at 25%..I know, I know, we're working on that....should be back down in about 4 months...
I posted about this a couple of months ago and general concensus is 3-6 months to go to not good, so I'm disappointed to see I'm still bad.
Thanks so much, New World!
What an encouraging response!!
Guess I'm worrying too much about these fico explanations, flags etc.
I'm just so anxious to be a full fledged member of the 700 club.... EQ has never made it, hence my siggy quote.
And I really, really want to get over the 720 hump since my understanding is that's the new 680, and then after that (give or take 12-24 months!) I want to be over 760 so I can finally feel like I have some breathing room, and can quit obessing about fico scores and just concentrate on being fiscally sound and responsible!!
Thanks again for the uplifting reply!!!!!
Bingo, I think it's the average age thing.
rom828 wrote:
I'm still mixed up about some of this myfico scoring stuff, like the red flags and "what's hurting", "what's helping".
DH and I both got new cards in April and/or are AUs on each others new cards, so we each have 8 new accounts. Actually, 2 of DH's werent apped until May and July, BUT, even though he has the little red flag on his EQ and TU by number of new accounts, his new credit is shown as "not good", but mine is still showing "bad'!
Neither of us has a red flag by inqs...I have 3 TU, 4 EQ, he has 2 TU and 3 EQ
I'm wondering if I'm still considered bad because my average age of accounts is 5 years compared to his 2 years? Or even w/o the red flag, am I bad since I have more inqs??
When your credit is very young, as is his, you can actually gain points immediately with new accounts, because the formula "wants" you to have 3-4 CC's. Once you're a bit more seasoned, as are you, getting a bunch of new accounts in a limited time looks more alarming.
rom828 wrote:
Uhoh.....I've just reread your post and this brings up another question. We actually are going to be 'seriously in the market for new credit" as our 95 Aerostar (obviously our egos aren't tied to the kind od car we drive!) is on its last cylinder so we have got to get a "new" used car.
Given our scores and taking into account these other factors in our reports, would it be better for DH to get the loan just in his name since his seems better able to take the impact?? Or would his score be hurt a lot more than mine since mine are a little higher??
One option is for you to come off of one or two of the AU cards temporarily. Look for card(s) with lower limits than the others, among the most recently opened. That might lower the newness sting you're currently experiencing.
I'd go visit a credit union and ask their advice about whose name should be on the loan. I'm normally not a fan of joint accounts, other than on mortgages, but if you have no installment accounts on your reports, it would help to have it.
I hope I wasn't one of those who forecast a 30-point drop for a car loan. If I did, I apologize. I don't think it would be that bad. I did have a ding when my new car loan posted at 100%, but as best as I can tell, it went away the next month. (That was back when I took a chainsaw to my credit, so it's hard to untangle scoring cause and effect.) If you have FICO scores from within the last 30 days, what do the EQ and TU sims say if you click the "get an auto loan" scenario?
Another thing to remember is that the "not good" and "bad" and whatnot are appearing only on your myFICO report, as a form of consumer education, I suppose. While lenders certainly do look at scores first, they then go on and look at the underlying report. If your score is lowered because of the presence of new accounts, but you don't have new baddies, that's a lot better than a report with no new accounts and one or two nice, fresh late payments. My guess (only a guess) is that auto dealers aren't as bothered by "seeking new credit" as are CC companies. It's not as if you went out and snapped up 8 new-to-you vehicles and are now checking out #9.
Besides, the way that car dealers are getting slaughtered by the Wall Street disaster, I'm sure that they'll be motivated to make the deal go at acceptable terms. Hope so for your sake, anyway.
Fingers crossed that your grocery-grabber can keep running on one long enough!
Thanks for all this good advice, hauling and smallfry! And I'm sorry if I should have made all these loan and scoring questions another thread....I have strayed some from my OP regarding the "bad" situation.
htsu, did as you suggested and wow! If DH does the loan, it does show a potential hit of 30 points on both TU and EQ, ie TU is now 694 (just ran new report) and w/simulated auto loan (did various amt's--didnt have any diff in impact), projected score is 664-694.
So worse case he gets a huge ding, or best case, no ding! Someone said in a post one time to always go by the lower number in the simulator projections as it was most often 'truest', and if that's the case....OUCH!!
Simulator for me on both EQ and TU is 15 point loss or 5 point gain (ie TU now 704, shows a change to 689 to 709), so looks like wouldnt hurt me as bad. But I bet I'll stay "bad" a good while longer if the loan is on me!!
If you newly join a credit union, can you borrow for a car right away? Don't they have some kind of "waiting" period before they would issue a loan? Oh, and htsu, from another thread where this cae up, my daughter checked w/USAA (she and hubby are members) and we're not "immediate family" enough. I've read about Penfed and Navy here on the forum, but not studied any of it in detail. Used to belong to CU years ago though employment, and really appreciated great customer service, etc.but never borrowed from them and didn't keep up affiliation when we moved years ago (small local CU).
smallfry mentioned much lower rates than what bank advised and what is even shown here on fico for our scores. Are those credit union rates specifically? I know dealers are hurting right now and we could probably get good cashback or maybe low interest financing on a new car, but we really don't want to bite off huge chunk of debt right now. We've always paid cars off in 2-3 years if we didn't pay cash, (that's why DH's credit is so young---he's always been more the "cash on the barrel" type!!) and want to do so again if possible, so has to be cheap! And I'm afraid of them putting tons of inqs on my report; even if they count as "one" they're still on there!
And we want to get utilization back down from the 22-25% range where it climbed since we had daughter and granddaughter w/us while son- in- love is deployed. Our helping out, though, did enable them to save some money and they just bought their first house and she's moving in this month and he'll be home in December, so "it's all good"!!
We've got to move on this car thing asap, though, as this poor old van has just had it. It literally is running on 5 cylinders!! We'd really like to do something this weekend but need to get our financial ducks in a row, so we'll just pray it can keep chuggin' along a little longer!!
I think it was pizza who said to always go with the lower number on the range, but he has insanely high scores, so that might be sort of unique to him. I find that my changes are typically right in the middle of the range. So 700 - 720, I expect around 710; 700 - 730, I expect around 715.
Yes, I think the family relationships for USAA go from older to younger, so a mother can sign up her daughter, but not vice versa. Navy seems to cheerfully welcome just about any kin, as long as the actual service member (or other qualifying employment member) has joined. They have great rates, as smallfry posted. With PenFed, you don't have to be military at all or have any connection to the military or to the government. I joined the NMFA (National Military Families Association), and got in that way.
Most of the score info on PenFed that I've seen here has been in relation to their lovely, lovely gas card, but I *think* I've seen a few posts about scores for auto loans. Your EQ score itself looks good, but I'm afraid I can't remember what else you've got going on.
Off the top of my head, I'd say it's easier to get an auto loan with Navy if you qualify, but they're both fantastic organizations.
I'll leave the rest to smallfry, since he had such great service from NFCU while awaiting the tow truck.
Yes, I think the family relationships for USAA go from older to younger, so a mother can sign up her daughter, but not vice versa. Navy seems to cheerfully welcome just about any kin, as long as the actual service member (or other qualifying employment member) has joined. They have great rates, as smallfry posted. With PenFed, you don't have to be military at all or have any connection to the military or to the government. I joined the NMFA (National Military Families Association), and got in that way.
Most of the score info on PenFed that I've seen here has been in relation to their lovely, lovely gas card, but I *think* I've seen a few posts about scores for auto loans. Your EQ score itself looks good, but I'm afraid I can't remember what else you've got going on.
Off the top of my head, I'd say it's easier to get an auto loan with Navy if you qualify, but they're both fantastic organizations.
I'll leave the rest to smallfry, since he had such great service from NFCU while awaiting the tow truck.