topic Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted! in Credit Cards

Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:56:19 GMT

Hi everyone.

I have slowly and steadily ben improving my credit scores.

I joined Equifax Score Watch.

My current scores as of today are:

EQ: 716

EX: 724

TU: 720

My reports say that I have excellent payment history. Length of credit history is 15 years, 8 months. My debt to credit ratio is currently 7%.

My reports state that the total limit of my revolving accounts is TOO LOW, and is negatively impacting my score.

I had trouble getting credit in the past when my scores were much lower, but I have been successful getting credit more recently.

I had only been carrying around one credit card: BESTBUY mastercard. It had a $750 credit limit. I guess that is the problem.

HOWEVER, I recently was approved for the following:

AMEX gold

Chase FREEDOM $3000.00 credit limit

AMEX blue everyday $credit limit unknown (did not arrive in the mail yet)

I have store cards with the following limits:

HSN $3000

JTV $5000

Nieman Marcus $8000

These are not even listed in my revolving account total dollar amount. I do not have any balances on them except NM with $600.00 bal.

Do I apply for another credit card to raise the TOTAL $ LIMIT on my revolving accounts?

If so, what card do you recommend to add to the mix? I heard citibank gives good starting credit lines.

Thank you so much!!!!

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Walt_K — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:42:18 GMT

You can ignore that reason code.

For FICO scores, the total CL doesn't matter. Did you get some sort of Equifax 3-in-1 service? Equifax Scorewatch I thought only gave you your EQ FICO score, not your other two scores. I'm not familiar with it but it I imagine EQ has some sort of combined product with Scorewatch and something else to get all three reports and scores. The other two scores likely are not FICO scores.

FICO cares about the utlization %. Balance divided by CL. It sounds like you have a clean history and you have a good EQ FICO score if that is your EQ FICO. It is probably a little depressed because of the recent inquiries and new accounts. It will recover in the next 6 months or so. You don't need to apply for any more accounts just to try to raise your score.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Creditaddict — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:50:19 GMT

If you really just want another high limit card I would look at Citi Forward or something from Citi but really you are looking pretty good if you ask me.

and WOW 8k at NM! to bad that doesn't report CL.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:56:28 GMT

Yes...I am not sure why it is showing three scores either.

This is what the site says:

Hurting your score		Experian	TransUnion
You have a low credit line on credit card accounts.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:00:21 GMT

PS...

The low credit line is only showing the $750 CL I have on my bestbuy card. AMEX and Chase have not hit my credit report yet.

I wish the NM CL showed up too!!! LOL

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

MarineVietVet — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:02:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yes...I am not sure why it is showing three scores either.
This is what the site says:

Hurting your score Experian TransUnion
You have a low credit line on credit card accounts.

It sounds like you bought the Equifax "Complete Advantage" product. If so then none of those scores is a FICO score. The Complete Advantage package has what is called a proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" and is based on different scoring formulas than FICO. In fact this is what EQ says about it:

The Equifax Credit Score is a proprietary credit model designed by Equifax. It may be calculated using the information contained in your Equifax, Experian and Transunion Credit Files. The score is intended solely for your educational use. There are numerous credit scores and models available in the marketplace and lenders are likely to use a different score when evaluating your creditworthiness.

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/web-myfico-products/

Also the EQ Score Watch product only offers you EQ scores and not TU or EX.

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: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:44:53 GMT

MarineVietVet:

You are right!!! DARN IT! It is the Equifax complete Advantage product. What a waste!!!!

Fortunately, it allowed me a free credit report and FICO score (I think). It says my score is 716. Normal charge would have been $15.95 for report and one score.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:53:30 GMT

I just pulled a report from annualcreditreport.com

It is also reporting 716 for Equifax.

I ended up applying for a CC through Citibank. I got a $7000.00 CL. I am DONE now. NO more inquiries. Now I sit and wait.

It said that my score was 750. Is this s FICO score? Or some other formula Citi uses. They pulled Experian.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:57:30 GMT

The reports are accurate. If you got a score with it, it's a FAKO.

Realistically speaking, you have to get your FICO's from here at myFICO. It's possible to dig your EQ FICO up from their site, but it's really hard to find. And I * think * that you can't get your TU FICO from them any more, although I might well be wrong. You can get your EX FICO if you're a member of PSECU (very very hard to do any more), and sometimes if you apply for a card/ loan and are rejected, you can find out the FICO score that they used when you get your letter, if they used a FICO score.

'Grats on the new Citi card! $7L is a very nice starting CL.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:55:47 GMT

Yea you can probably just ignore that bit about not having high enough CLs. Your cards combined have a 2-3x higher limit than mine combined and I've never seen anything like that on my report or denial/rejection reasons.

Re: Another card to improve score? Help wanted!

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:41:12 GMT

btw, you can check your Equifax FICO for free on this site - through the 10 day free trial for Scorewatch. It might be a great time to see what your real FICO score is.