topic Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report? in Credit Cards

To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

orestrus — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:19:17 GMT

I have 5 cards in total. Just want to confirm what i heard earlier that out of 5, only 1 should report 2-3% util and the rest 0's. Is this correct? Thank you guys

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:27:10 GMT

1 card reporting at 1-9%

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:28:54 GMT

@MstrPTato wrote:
1 card reporting at 1-9%

+1.. And you must have some loan in there also. Not just cards..

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

orestrus — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:32:00 GMT

Anyway i can get a secured installment loan of some sort?

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

orestrus — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:32:16 GMT

(Pref without HP)

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 14:38:02 GMT

I would inquire at a local CU.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:50:06 GMT

@orestrus wrote:
(Pref without HP)

Alliant CU. I have 2 installment loans with them. If you want you can message me your email and I'll send you the link for $10 to cover the member "share" fee.

I have never been HP'ed by Alliant using their products...although I don't have an Alliant credit card. I only have their Savings and Secured Loan.

Doing a secured loan with them is easy and pretty quick...make sure you have the money your Alliant account before initiating the loan.

On a sidenote, FICO score chasing is sometimes a waste of time. The secured installment loans are a worthwhile bonus boost because it's on autopilot after you get the loan...and it does result in a nice score bonus.

Chasing your balances to have only 1 report below 10% and the rest $0 ... that seems like a whole lotta wasted time for a few points.

I go for the keep overall utilization low and PIF when I can. I use cards and pay cards as it is convenient and beneficial to me.

For example, I'm not going to pay off my 0% Overstock card just so I can 0 it out and gain a couple points on FICO.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

barthooper — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 17:08:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@orestrus wrote:
(Pref without HP)
...

Chasing your balances to have only 1 report below 10% and the rest $0 ... that seems like a whole lotta wasted time for a few points.

...

Seems to be a reasonable amount of effort that is worth it if you want to get your score as high as possible for an upcoming card app, loan, or mortgage, or if you're benchmarking what your current maximum score can reach, but it's not something to worry about every month.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:44:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@orestrus wrote:
(Pref without HP)
Alliant CU. I have 2 installment loans with them. If you want you can message me your email and I'll send you the link for $10 to cover the member "share" fee.

I have never been HP'ed by Alliant using their products...although I don't have an Alliant credit card. I only have their Savings and Secured Loan.

Doing a secured loan with them is easy and pretty quick...make sure you have the money your Alliant account before initiating the loan.

On a sidenote, FICO score chasing is sometimes a waste of time. The secured installment loans are a worthwhile bonus boost because it's on autopilot after you get the loan...and it does result in a nice score bonus.

Chasing your balances to have only 1 report below 10% and the rest $0 ... that seems like a whole lotta wasted time for a few points.

I go for the keep overall utilization low and PIF when I can. I use cards and pay cards as it is convenient and beneficial to me.

For example, I'm not going to pay off my 0% Overstock card just so I can 0 it out and gain a couple points on FICO.

I understand the one time effort, but opening a totally unneeded loan, and paying (presumably) some interest, seems way less efficient than paying off all but one card at the time you need to maximize score (which shouldn't be every month)

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

gdale6 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:20:06 GMT

I would not advise anyone run out and get a secured instalment or any other instalment loan just for Fico purposes, it would result in a Fico ding for the inquiry and new account which would be recovered over time. Its not necessary to build your Fico, paying on time and keeping your util low is the best thing you could do for yourself combined these 2 categories are 65% of the Fico score.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

JSS3 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:31:35 GMT

I've thought about doing the CU installment loan myself. I'm tired of seeing "No open installment loans" listed as a negative factor on my reports. I have my house(bought by ex-hubby) and don't need a car loan atm. They penalize us for only having CCs on file(although I have a closed/paid as agreed student loan scheduled to fall off 2017).

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

gdale6 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:41:36 GMT

@JSS3 wrote:
I've thought about doing the CU installment loan myself. I'm tired of seeing "No open installment loans" listed as a negative factor on my reports. I have my house(bought by ex-hubby) and don't need a car loan atm. They penalize us for only having CCs on file(although I have a closed/paid as agreed student loan scheduled to fall off 2017).

You would switch that message to one that says "your balance is too high on instalment debt" or something like this all the way down to a 0 balance, happens with every instalment loan I have had in the last 5 yrs.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

JSS3 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:45:10 GMT

@gdale6
Ahh, so they get you either way? I guess the tradeoff is the score boost.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

gdale6 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:50:31 GMT

@JSS3 wrote:
@gdale6
Ahh, so they get you either way? I guess the tradeoff is the score boost.

Yup, get ya on both ends and it takes time to overcome the dings at first for the new acct, inq and drop in AAoA, from what I have seen its not a real helper for score until its past the halfway point on the payments and its biggest boost is in last few months prior to final payment being made. For the effort paying attention to your revolvers is always a more profitable situation in the eyes of Fico over time.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

JSS3 — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 00:04:38 GMT

@gdale6
In that case, soooooo NOT worth it. I wanted diversity and score boost' but I'll keep going down the path I'm on. Scores are pretty decent anyways. Citi has me at 696(report needs to update and give score a boost). Barclays/Walmart/Discover has me at 752.

I was mostly sick of the message. Wanted them to only have, "length of time for accounts not long enough". To me, that reason signifies something out of my hands and comes down to time...as opposed to others like---util.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 00:55:07 GMT

@gdale6 wrote:
I would not advise anyone run out and get a secured instalment or any other instalment loan just for Fico purposes, it would result in a Fico ding for the inquiry and new account which would be recovered over time. Its not necessary to build your Fico, paying on time and keeping your util low is the best thing you could do for yourself combined these 2 categories are 65% of the Fico score.

I agree!

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 01:01:51 GMT

@JSS3 wrote:
I've thought about doing the CU installment loan myself. I'm tired of seeing "No open installment loans" listed as a negative factor on my reports. I have my house(bought by ex-hubby) and don't need a car loan atm. They penalize us for only having CCs on file(although I have a closed/paid as agreed student loan scheduled to fall off 2017).

I understand; however, app'ing for a loan just to have one may not be fiscally responsible. My hubby has a mortgage, but I don't. I get dinged for not having a mortgage. I have learned to accept it. Next year, when I pay off my student loans, I will get dinged again. C'est la vie!! I would rather be debt free.

Re: To maximize Fico, only 1 card should report?

JSS3 — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 01:11:05 GMT

@beautifulblaquepearl
Absolutely right. I, too, prefer to be as debt free as possible.