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granny031350
Established Contributor

mix of credit

I know that it is good to have a "mix" of credit.  I have no mortgage or car payment right now but i have cc accounts   Does FICO care if I have more store cards than mc or visa? 
Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
GFer
Valued Contributor

Re: mix of credit

I have read that store cards give you less points, but I think that just the fact that you have both is a positive. Not having a mortgage and an installment loan will keep you from getting 'some' points.
 
But I'm sure the more experienced here will give you a better answer.


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Message 2 of 5
CreditBob
Established Contributor

Re: mix of credit

Credit cards & department store cards both fall under "revolving accounts". What you can do in addition is get personal loan or what is referred as a installment account. If you have both an active installment account with at least one open revolving accounts then it is healthier for your fico score. I can not tell you how much higher that you will get on your fico score. But I can tell you this, anytime that you open a new account you will lower the overall account average.
Message 3 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: mix of credit



granny031350 wrote:
I know that it is good to have a "mix" of credit.  I have no mortgage or car payment right now but i have cc accounts   Does FICO care if I have more store cards than mc or visa? 



Granny,
 
The consensus seems to be you get no additional benefit in the "credit mix" category after you have one account in a category. That said, there does seem to be a benefit for the first few bank cards you open. I don't think it matters that you have more store cards than Visa or MC, as long as you have 2-3 of Visa, MC, Discover etc.
 
The order of importance for first accounts in the mix category is:
 
1) First Bank Card
2) First Installment Loan
3) First Store Card
 
You may be missing 15-20 points by not having an installment loan, but you aren't being penalized for having multiple store cards. I am not advocating you go get an installment loan just to raise your FICO,  just pointing out it is an important component of mix.
Message 4 of 5
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: mix of credit

I agree with DebtisGood.  Established revolving credit, be it bank or store, should be mixed with installment, be it mortgage, auto or personal. 
It does not appear, from the hundreds of anecdotal posts on this site, that mix purely of revolving debt between bank/store cards, is as important in credit mix as also having also at least one installment loan account.
All anecdotal, to be sure, but not being privy to the FICO scoring algorithm, this is the best advice that can be offered.  Most see that in their scores. 
Message 5 of 5
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