topic Re: Should I open more revolving credit. in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 14:47:23 GMT

I have been working on my credit for about a year and a half. I was able to pull my bad scores up from the low 500's, to the low to mid 600's. The past 3 months there has been next to no. Activity on any of my scores. I have four cards, two store charge cards (Pep boys/ Kohls). And I have to credit cards (Costco Citi/ Credit one). I use all four. But I never carry a balance on the Kohl's/Credit One/ or Pep Boys. And I have a $3500 limit on my Citi. And I keep a balance of around a $100-$200 on it month to month. I'm beginning to get furstated. I'm not sure if I should opened up more cards. Or is this as high as my credit is going to be for right now?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:05:20 GMT

If you don't already have an installment reporting you may want to try getting a shared/secured loan for a good boost of your CS. Have you requested CLI on your cards?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

SouthJamaica — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:16:39 GMT

@DR527 wrote:
I have been working on my credit for about a year and a half. I was able to pull my bad scores up from the low 500's, to the low to mid 600's. The past 3 months there has been next to no. Activity on any of my scores. I have four cards, two store charge cards (Pep boys/ Kohls). And I have to credit cards (Costco Citi/ Credit one). I use all four. But I never carry a balance on the Kohl's/Credit One/ or Pep Boys. And I have a $3500 limit on my Citi. And I keep a balance of around a $100-$200 on it month to month. I'm beginning to get furstated. I'm not sure if I should opened up more cards. Or is this as high as my credit is going to be for right now?

I think you just have to be patient. There are no doubt some negatives in your file which will age off in time, and over time the age of accounts, lack of inquiries, etc will also pull your scores up. If you want to speed up the process you could send some verification letters to the bureaus.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:41:17 GMT

All four are reporting. I just don't receive a score increase. And if I do. It's normally pretty small. 4-8 points.

@Anonymous wrote:
If you don't already have an installment reporting you may want to try getting a shared/secured loan for a good boost of your CS. Have you requested CLI on your cards?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 15:44:09 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@DR527 wrote:
I have been working on my credit for about a year and a half. I was able to pull my bad scores up from the low 500's, to the low to mid 600's. The past 3 months there has been next to no. Activity on any of my scores. I have four cards, two store charge cards (Pep boys/ Kohls). And I have to credit cards (Costco Citi/ Credit one). I use all four. But I never carry a balance on the Kohl's/Credit One/ or Pep Boys. And I have a $3500 limit on my Citi. And I keep a balance of around a $100-$200 on it month to month. I'm beginning to get furstated. I'm not sure if I should opened up more cards. Or is this as high as my credit is going to be for right now?
I think you just have to be patient. There are no doubt some negatives in your file which will age off in time, and over time the age of accounts, lack of inquiries, etc will also pull your scores up. If you want to speed up the process you could send some verification letters to the bureaus.

I thought that the first month. And the second month. But the end of this month would be about 90 days of slow to no movement. Is that normal? Have I grown my score as much as I can with the way I have been trying? Is it time to shake things up and try something different?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

grillandwinemaster — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:10:42 GMT

DO NOT OPEN MORE CC ACCOUNTS!

If you already have 4 open and active credit card accounts, you are primed for some excellent growth.

GARDEN, GARDEN, and then GARDEN some more. At this point, you should hit the garden for the next 6 to 12 months and your Scores will rise incrementally.

If your Scores were initially down in the 500's level and then you open a few cc accounts, it's common to see a good score jump. You already experienced this initial jump.

Now, it's up to your payment pattern, and how you handle the accounts that you do have to continue to see your score rise OVER TIME.

To continue to open more and more accounts on the hopes of seeing your score improve is a fallacy. If opening accounts was all that was necessary, one could simply open up 30, 40, or 50 accounts in hopes of getting into the 800's territory.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy, and Fico scores don't work that way. It's often been said that credit is a marathon, not a Sprint.

BTW, if your in with lenders like Citi and such, that's evidence that your headed in the right direction. All that's left is the passage of time and proper management of your account portfolio, and in 6 to 12 months, you will be golden!

Best credit wishes to you!

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:49:50 GMT

Garden? Is that the same as wait?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

SouthJamaica — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 16:59:05 GMT

@DR527 wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@DR527 wrote:
I have been working on my credit for about a year and a half. I was able to pull my bad scores up from the low 500's, to the low to mid 600's. The past 3 months there has been next to no. Activity on any of my scores. I have four cards, two store charge cards (Pep boys/ Kohls). And I have to credit cards (Costco Citi/ Credit one). I use all four. But I never carry a balance on the Kohl's/Credit One/ or Pep Boys. And I have a $3500 limit on my Citi. And I keep a balance of around a $100-$200 on it month to month. I'm beginning to get furstated. I'm not sure if I should opened up more cards. Or is this as high as my credit is going to be for right now?
I think you just have to be patient. There are no doubt some negatives in your file which will age off in time, and over time the age of accounts, lack of inquiries, etc will also pull your scores up. If you want to speed up the process you could send some verification letters to the bureaus.

I thought that the first month. And the second month. But the end of this month would be about 90 days of slow to no movement. Is that normal? Have I grown my score as much as I can with the way I have been trying? Is it time to shake things up and try something different?

If you apply now, you're going to hurt your score with inquiries and if you're lucky -- and get the card -- you'll (a) hurt your score with a new account abd (b) get a low starting limit. But if you're bound and determined to try, I would suggest going to the Capital One site and see if you're prequalified, or applying with a credit union that's not too hard on rebuilders, like, e.g., Navy Federal.

If you have no installment loans, you could pick up some points by adding a share secured loan with Alliant Credit Union, as Vizion suggested: Join Alliant Credit Union, take out a $500+ savings account, take out a $500 share secured loan secured by the savings account with a 48 or 60 month term, decline or cancel autopay, transfer $455 from the savings account towards the loan balance bringing the balance down to $45. Pay that off slowly over the balance of the term. Once the $45 balance reports the positive effects will be felt. On the downside, you will be getting a new account, which has a slightly negative effect on your scores.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

SouthJamaica — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:00:47 GMT

@DR527 wrote:
Garden? Is that the same as wait?

Yes around here we use 'gardening' to describe not making any applications that would result in a hard pull or new account. It's ok, while gardening, to make soft pull CLI requests.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Revelate — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 03:41:07 GMT

Start working the negatives if you can as 4 revolving tradelines (credit cards count as such) is enough for scoring purposes; do tack on the SSL if you don't have installment history, easy FICO win that doesn't even tie up money for more than a month really.

Method:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/m-p/4506756#U4506756

Beyond that, well, scores flatline after a while unless something substantial happens. I've been stuck at 693/700 for EQ FICO 5 for example for going on 3 years now: 693 with 3+ inquiries, 700 with 2 inquiries. By the time the big wins come for me with a Cali tax lien poofing and my 2010 deliquencies expiring, I'll have been at this for 6 years. If you can't get the negatives off, it's a long and tedious road. "Supposed" to suck I guess for things like tax liens and BK's but meh.

9 more months for me.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

austinguy907 — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 05:03:10 GMT

Hey, don't despare on the points. There's more to life than a credit score. We're a bit of a junky around here counting points and trying to hit that 850 no matter what. It's just not in the cards all of the time and no matter what you do you can't squeak out those extra points. Once you admit this to yourself it gets easier. You stop focusing on the little things and look at the bigger picture. Once you just let things roll with your CC's and setup autopay and quit paying so close attention to them things come together. There are certiain points of building your scores where things will go stagnant and it seems like you're at a grinding halt. Don't worry though the monkeys behind the curtain are still working on your scores behind the scenes. Once you hit a milestone and get rebucketed into the next classification your scores will start to jump more. Keeping a balance on 1 card each month is ideal which is what you're doing already. Keeping other accounts active with something each month is something you're already doing as well. There may be some things on your reports that still need to be worked on to bring them up further than they are currently.

Here's what I see on my TU score for the past 8 months.... virtually no movement in either direction.

It's not just good or bad credit sometimes. FICO sometimes stalls on the side of the road for no reason and then AAA comes to pick it up. Just keep up the positive credit habits and eventually it will pay off. Don't app for anything if you don't need it and only go for CLI's for the time being. Of course the store cards might not do much but, Citi might every 3-6 months. Credit One if it has an AF might need to get axed. Kohl's will do a CLI every 6 months as well. Maybe do the pre-qual for Cap1 to replace Cr1 for the time being but, I wouldn't recommend making any other major changes while things age.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

grillandwinemaster — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 06:11:50 GMT

@austinguy907 wrote:

Credit One if it has an AF might need to get axed. Maybe do the pre-qual for Cap1 to replace Cr1 for the time being but, I wouldn't recommend making any other major changes while things age.

This is an important point. Kill the credit1, line Austin said, and possibly replace it with a Cap 1.

Otherwise, No more changes.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 04:18:07 GMT

I got a CLI today out of the blue. Should I go for it. Or is that going to hurt my score some how?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

SouthJamaica — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 04:25:11 GMT

@DR527 wrote:
I got a CLI today out of the blue. Should I go for it. Or is that going to hurt my score some how?

That wouldn't hurt your score at all.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 07:42:03 GMT

OP, do not open more revolving credit lines if your goal is to grow your score. This practice will actually lower your score in most cases.

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 02:20:27 GMT

I was in the exact same boat as you 7 months ago same scores / cards/ scenario etc. I joined NFCU online & opened a checking account only! I did NOT apply for NFCU Credit Card YET.. Next Joined Alliant Credit Union & did the $520 60 month share secured loan secured by the savings account. There's a whole thread on this process( & NO hard inquiry) follow it to the Letter!! Then I waited 4 months and then applied NFCU credit card & immediately approved for 17K .. two months later they raised it to 24K . I started with or around 640 and now I have 752. I would think about getting rid of the credit one card it holds your score down. Good Luck!

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 16:03:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was in the exact same boat as you 7 months ago same scores / cards/ scenario etc. I joined NFCU online & opened a checking account only! I did NOT apply for NFCU Credit Card YET.. Next Joined Alliant Credit Union & did the $520 60 month share secured loan secured by the savings account. There's a whole thread on this process( & NO hard inquiry) follow it to the Letter!! Then I waited 4 months and then applied NFCU credit card & immediately approved for 17K .. two months later they raised it to 24K . I started with or around 640 and now I have 752. I would think about getting rid of the credit one card it holds your score down. Good Luck!

Thank you, is there a way you can link the thread?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 19:17:19 GMT

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/m-p/4506756/highlight/true#M106741
Also if you have trouble joining navy federal there's also a thread on how to join by donating to a chapter in San Diego . If you have any relatives active in the military you can. If you don't here's an alternative way http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankruptcy/How-to-join-NCFU-and-rebuild-as-a-civilian-the-right-way/td-p/4642280

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

DR527 — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 20:41:45 GMT

Ok, so I may have spoken too soon? Citi Bank has not reported to my credit bureaus for the last two months. I called this morning to see why. And I was told that with my wife(being the primary) she was they only person who they had to report. Every month since we had the card, Citi has reported to both of our credit reports. Should I open up my own Citi card? And today my wife mentioned maybe opening a Target credit card? Is waiting still a good option if the number one card I use, isn't reporting to my credit? Can I drive my score like this? Or is this a bad situation and I should open up another card?

Re: Should I open more revolving credit.

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:28:20 GMT

Hi DR527. You may want to recap your situation since a lot of time and posts have gone by. Particularly:

What are your credit cards, on which are you an AU and which are in your name, of your AU cards which are the creditors no longer reporting, etc. Also, can you confirm that by "no longer reporting" you mean, "not updating my balance each month"? If so, can you confirm that the accounts still do appear on your report?

Also would be helpful to hear what your balance and CL are on each one.

It sounds like people on this thread are consistently urging you not to apply for more cards for a long time, and to work on your negatives. It sounds like that message may not be coming through since in your last post you mention wanting to open up a new Citi card and a new Target card.