topic Re: Too few Credit cards? in Credit Cards

Too few Credit cards?

grc123 — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:16:04 GMT

I was finally (after years and years of poor credit), able to push my FICO scores over 800. While reviewing my reports a "Negative Factor" stated that I only have 2 accounts from personal finance companies. Should I open an additional account to maintain or improve my FICO score? I thought additional cards would lower my score.

Re: Too few Credit cards?

Awesomely — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:28:40 GMT

Yes try to apply for another card, credit card issuers like to see at least 3 revolving accounts.

Re: Too few Credit cards?

MarineVietVet — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:49:26 GMT

@grc123 wrote:
I was finally (after years and years of poor credit), able to push my FICO scores over 800. While reviewing my reports a "Negative Factor" stated that I only have 2 accounts from personal finance companies. Should I open an additional account to maintain or improve my FICO score? I thought additional cards would lower my score.

Hi there. This doesn't sound lke the kind of comment found on a report/score bought for example here at myFICO but I'm not saying it's not accurate. May I ask where you got your reports and scores?

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: Too few Credit cards?

grc123 — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:05:57 GMT

www.MyCreditkeeper.com

Re: Too few Credit cards?

grc123 — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:10:03 GMT

Hello: My Scores are as follows:

Experian: 810

Equifax: 806

Transunion: 782

Thank you

Re: Too few Credit cards?

MarineVietVet — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:23:53 GMT

@grc123 wrote:
Hello: My Scores are as follows:

Experian: 810
Equifax: 806
Transunion: 782

www.MyCreditkeeper.com

Thank you

Unfortunately those are not FICO scores. At this time there is no 3 in 1 monitoring service that sells FICO's. The scores from CreditKeeper are what we call around here "FAKO" or non-FICO scores. They do not use the same scoring formulas as FICO's and cannot be compared to FICO scores in any way. FAKO scores can be higher, lower, or fairly close to your FICO's but they are not reliable. Plus the advice given by these FAKO reports is often opposite of what you need to do to improve and maintain good credit.

No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money.

At one time you could also purchase your Transunion score at transunioncs.com but that site seems to have stopped doing that. Equifax will still sell you a FICO score but you have to look very hard to find it. You can get to it here: www.equifax.com/myfico-products.

I suggest you pull at least one score from here to see where you actually stand.

Re: Too few Credit cards?

grc123 — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:56:29 GMT

Thanks for your help. I'll take your advice.

Re: Too few Credit cards?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:30:19 GMT

@grc123 wrote:
I was finally (after years and years of poor credit), able to push my FICO scores over 800. While reviewing my reports a "Negative Factor" stated that I only have 2 accounts from personal finance companies. Should I open an additional account to maintain or improve my FICO score? I thought additional cards would lower my score.

+100 to MVV.

grc123 - Welcome to the forums!

I think you'll find much more accurate information as you pull your FICO scores and your reports from here.

A negative factor for FICO would be having ANY personal finance accounts (FICO Reason Code #6 - "Too many consumer finance accounts" is the text used for EQuifax and TU and "Number of finance company accounts" is the text used for EXperian). One is too many, not too few.

Consumer Finance Accounts are always a negative. This is what can be seen on a FICO report:

____

You have a consumer finance account on your credit report.

Consumer finance companies typically grant loans to people with poor credit histories. Their customers often cannot get

loans from traditional lending companies such as banks or credit unions. These are often high-interest loans because the

consumer finance company is assuming more risk by lending to people with less than perfect credit.

The fact that you have a consumer finance company loan on your credit report means that you represent a higher risk to

lenders than someone with no consumer finance loans. Even if this consumer finance account is closed, it will still lower

your FICO score. However, its impact on your score will lessen as time passes.

____

Unfortunately the FAKO scores along with the FAKO advice that you receive on CreditKeeper (they only provide FAKO CreditXpert scores) will not help you build your FICO score - and remember that FICO scores are the ones your lenders see, so they're the ones that count! Following FAKO advice can, and will, lower your FICO scores.

Hope that helps!

Re: Too few Credit cards?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:02:13 GMT

FICO likes 3 cards at a minimum for best score.

It is also good to have extra major credit cards for backup. A credit card may not be currently usable for many reasons, loss or theft, lower Cl, invalid charges or whatever.

Re: Too few Credit cards?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00:41 GMT

FICO does like to see at least one bank card. (FICO Reason Code #3 for EQ and EX). But one is enough to satisfy that code.

Some folks believe in three cards so that less than half can report a balance. IMO, this may be something of an urban legend, or at least it may be yet another YMMV issue. (Sorry ) **ducks and hides** DH and I have both reached our highest FICO scores with only one bank card, and with it reporting a small balance. We've also played with less than half of our accounts reporting a balance, and have yet to better our FICO scores with additional accounts.

FICO does have Reason Code #5 (Too Many Accounts with Balances) that seems to be triggered by either number of accounts or percentage of accounts reporting a balance. But, of course, YMMV. And you won't see this reason code in either case unless it's a primary factor for you.

Of course, lots of other folks may have different experiences. It's just good to know that FICO can be happy with one CC (DH's FICO was over 800 with only one open CC); and they can be happier with fewer CC's than more - it just depends on your CR.

How's that for muddying up the waters???