topic Re: Questions about scoring.... in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Questions about scoring....

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:02:28 GMT

On my credit report, I have many credit cards, mostly with zero balances. Two have balances for a total of 9,000. Total available credit is about 60,000. That is about 15% utilization which isnt bad. We are working in it.

Q - Is it better to have it all on one or two cards or spread it out over cards so no one card is over utilized?

Q - Is there a magic number for total utilization?

The only other thing that is on my credit report is my car loan. It is almost 3 years old. I want to pay it off but that would leave me with nothing but credit cards on the rerpot.

Q - Will my scores get hit for a not having a mix of credit?

One of my credit cards will have a one year birthday?

Q - Can I expect a score improvment when that happens?

I am told that hardpulls stay on for two years but your scores raises after one year anniversary,

Q - Is this true?

I disputed a derog where a CA tried to collect on a tk that scrolled off a year ago. If it is deleted..

Q - What kind of an increase can I expect?

Re: Questions about scoring....

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:13:07 GMT

teacherhere wrote:

On my credit report, I have many credit cards, mostly with zero balances. Two have balances for a total of 9,000. Total available credit is about 60,000. That is about 15% utilization which isnt bad. We are working in it.

Q - Is it better to have it all on one or two cards or spread it out over cards so no one card is over utilized?

It is better to spread it out, all else equal. However, for optimal scoring, make sure that fewer than half of your accounts report a balance at any given time. It's not always easy to keep individual balances low while at the same time controlling the number of accounts with balances, but FICO will ding you on both factors.

Q - Is there a magic number for total utilization?

Yes. Keep your total revolving utilization at 9% or less (some even say 4% or less), but always greater than $0.

The only other thing that is on my credit report is my car loan. It is almost 3 years old. I want to pay it off but that would leave me with nothing but credit cards on the rerpot.

Q - Will my scores get hit for a not having a mix of credit?

Possibly, although not much. Credit mix only accounts for 10% of your score, and there are many other factors involved in that piece of the pie other than the presence of an installment loan.

One of my credit cards will have a one year birthday?

Q - Can I expect a score improvment when that happens?

All else equal, yes, you should see a slight increase when an account reaches its first birthday.

I am told that hardpulls stay on for two years but your scores raises after one year anniversary,

Q - Is this true?

Yes. They remain on your report for two years, but only count against your score for one year.

I disputed a derog where a CA tried to collect on a tk that scrolled off a year ago. If it is deleted..

Q - What kind of an increase can I expect?

That is impossible to say with any degree of certainty. Is it a CA that is reporting, or the OC? How old is the account? Do you have other derogs?

Message Edited by cheddar on 07-25-2008 10:13 AM

Re: Questions about scoring....

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:19:00 GMT

I disputed a derog where a CA tried to collect on a tk that scrolled off a year ago. If it is deleted..

Q - What kind of an increase can I expect?

That is impossible to say with any degree of certainty. Is it a CA that is reporting, or the OC? How old is the account? Do you have other derogs?
A CA is reporting, the OC's last activity is wayyyyyyyyyy older than 7 years. No other derogs. That is the only one.

Re: Questions about scoring....

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:25:58 GMT

teacherhere wrote:

I disputed a derog where a CA tried to collect on a tk that scrolled off a year ago. If it is deleted..

Q - What kind of an increase can I expect?

That is impossible to say with any degree of certainty. Is it a CA that is reporting, or the OC? How old is the account? Do you have other derogs?

A CA is reporting, the OC's last activity is wayyyyyyyyyy older than 7 years. No other derogs. That is the only one.

Is the DOFD more than 7.5 years ago? If so, the CA should no longer be reporting. Have you disputed the CA as obsolete?

What date is the CA account reporting as "Open date" or "Date assigned" or something similar?

Re: Questions about scoring....

smallfry — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:20 GMT

A friend of mine has a bunch of these collections. EX seems to report Date Opened EQ shows Date of First Delinquency while TU kindly reports the drop date.