topic Yeah, don't expect anything significant to happen until 2... in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Consumer Finance

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:14:35 GMT

I recently obtained my FICO score from Experian. Negatives are a bankruptcy in 2001, no major credit card account and consumer finance co. loan. We recently refinanced our high int. cf loan with another cf, at a lower int. rate. I did not realize a cf loan would hurt us. All payments since bankruptcy (and most before) have been paid on time. Would it help me to refinance our car with a bank? Also, the fact that everything has been paid on time seems to have no positive effect. I suppose my score won't improve much until the bankruptcy falls off.

Too many CF loans will hurt your score as they are looked...

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:12:01 GMT

Too many CF loans will hurt your score as they are looked at as giving credit to anyone with a pulse. Try opening some revolving acounts and if you can refi through a bank it will help in the long run.

Yeah, don't expect anything significant to happen until 2...

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:26:40 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I recently obtained my FICO score from Experian. Negatives are a bankruptcy in 2001, no major credit card account and consumer finance co. loan. We recently refinanced our high int. cf loan with another cf, at a lower int. rate. I did not realize a cf loan would hurt us. All payments since bankruptcy (and most before) have been paid on time. Would it help me to refinance our car with a bank? Also, the fact that everything has been paid on time seems to have no positive effect. I suppose my score won't improve much until the bankruptcy falls off.

Yeah, don't expect anything significant to happen until 2011.

But for now, you could always apply for a low-end CC or two, just as a trial balloon. But if your FICO is under 600 or so, don't bother--you're wasting your time and the inquiries will ding your score a little more.