topic Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization? in Credit Cards

Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

joebryantnyc — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 21:07:29 GMT

I keep searching on the message boards regarding store cards helping my over all credit Utilation. I havent found a straight forward answer so here I am asking everyone.

I have store cards with Macys, Bloomingdales, Amazon, Paypal Connect and Walmart but I'm curious if those credit limits are factored in by creditors when reviewing my overall utiliazation along with my non-store general credit cards.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

DeeBee78 — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 21:13:28 GMT

It depends on the FICO scoring model. Some models split Bankcard and Retail into separate groups, and calculate your utilization sepately.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

joebryantnyc — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 21:15:02 GMT

Understood! Thank you for clairifying DeeBee78!

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Thomas_Thumb — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 21:38:23 GMT

My Best Buy store card is included in the overall credit limit calculation and therefore the utilization calculation as well.

My understand is all the current Fico scoring models include store card CLs in the total CL number. Get a copy of your credit report to check this. The scoring models pull data directly from the CRA reports. You can get EQ and TU credit report summaries free through CK. The summaries are good even if though the scoring model they apply to the data is VantageScore.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

CreditCuriosity — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 22:23:52 GMT

They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 23:02:11 GMT

In checking my balances as a percentage of my total credit lines, including store cards, I find that they are included.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 02:05:11 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

CreditCuriosity — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 02:15:19 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders
Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.

Just an extreme example

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:22:11 GMT

I know Penfed nextgen factors store card.
I got hit with no store card, so I got one and sd it. The next one from nextgen said, not enough usage. Talk about reaching.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Kirmie2010 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:27:01 GMT

My Fico and all (credit.com wisepiggy, lending club, credit sesame, credit karma and so on) also factor in my store cards in overall util.

(so every scoring system ive used/seen for my own account does factor in store cards)

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

taxi818 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 12:51:42 GMT

@joebryantnyc wrote:
I keep searching on the message boards regarding store cards helping my over all credit Utilation. I havent found a straight forward answer so here I am asking everyone.

I have store cards with Macys, Bloomingdales, Amazon, Paypal Connect and Walmart but I'm curious if those credit limits are factored in by creditors when reviewing my overall utiliazation along with my non-store general credit cards.

Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS. It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

elim — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 13:01:13 GMT

Both store card limits and store card balances are factored into utilization.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

takeshi74 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 14:00:36 GMT

@joebryantnyc wrote:
Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Picking nits but it's not a matter of the type of card but its utilization. I.e. the question should be "Are store cards factored into revolving utilization?"".

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

vayub4 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 20:28:21 GMT

@CreditCuriousity wrote:
They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders

+1 I was denied for this reason

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:46:26 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders
Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.

Why would maxing a store card be hard? lol

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:49:52 GMT

@taxi818 wrote:
@joebryantnyc wrote:
I keep searching on the message boards regarding store cards helping my over all credit Utilation. I havent found a straight forward answer so here I am asking everyone.

I have store cards with Macys, Bloomingdales, Amazon, Paypal Connect and Walmart but I'm curious if those credit limits are factored in by creditors when reviewing my overall utiliazation along with my non-store general credit cards.

Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS. It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at.

+1000% correct!

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

DeeBee78 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:50:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@CreditCuriousity wrote:
They do.. Keep in mind though you still can have an overall 1% utilization and have one card maxed at 90%+ and be declined for this reason alone.. So overall utilization is important one high utilized card will still kill you with some lenders
Agree ...although that would be tough to achieve unless your store card has a very low limit relative to your aggregate credit limit and you don't report a balance on your high limit cards.
Why would maxing a store card be hard? lol

This would be incredibly easy for me to do. I have $65k of credit overall, and I have an American Eagle card that has been stuck at $175 for four years. Two shirts and two pairs of pants would probably be enough to send me to 90%+ utilization, killing my score if I let it report.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

kdm31091 — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 21:52:30 GMT

Maxing out a store card could be pretty easy given that most give low limits. I agree with taxi though. We have our cards so that we can use them. If you use a card and it reports a high balance, yes, your score will temporarily ding, but as soon as you pay it and it reports again, you'll be fine. It's not worth worrying about unless you have an app planned this month/cycle because utilization has no memory, nor does it impact anything long-term.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 22:42:23 GMT

I would certainly hope so. Especially the folks that got a Bon-Ton/Carson's/Bergner's/ElderB/Younkers card and were able to get CLIs to 10-15-20-30 grand from the phone line loophole.

Re: Do Store Cards help your Credit Utilization?

CreditDunce — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 05:30:23 GMT

@taxi818 wrote:
@joebryantnyc wrote:
I keep searching on the message boards regarding store cards helping my over all credit Utilation. I havent found a straight forward answer so here I am asking everyone.

I have store cards with Macys, Bloomingdales, Amazon, Paypal Connect and Walmart but I'm curious if those credit limits are factored in by creditors when reviewing my overall utiliazation along with my non-store general credit cards.

Ok. I will clarify it for you. YES. In the eyes of fico. No difference between store or any other card. If someone tells you different. It's BS. It's all revolving credit. So say you had 1k on a MasterCard and 20k in store cards. But used 6k combine. Your usage is still 20%. So to simplify. Of course it does. This should have been straight forward answer Separate or not. It's all combined and based on overall usage. Of course a single card over 60% will hurt your score. But not your overall usage. Best to keep all accounts under 60%. Total usage under30%. And for best results. All usage under 10% if possible. If not. It's not the end of the world. That is what credit is for. To be used. Not looked at.

I agree totally with this. The one exception is the old FICO NextGen score. NextGen broke up store card utilization and bank/card utilization as separate categories. Similar to modern FICO breaking up Installment and Revolving as separate categories. The confusion comes from all of the old information FICO posted about the NextGen score. NextGen is a FICO score, but it is an odd ball score.