topic Re: At what point do you have a thick file in General Credit Topics

At what point do you have a thick file

red259 — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:17:06 GMT

People often talk about having a thin or thick file. Obviously someone with 15 cards and 20 years AAoA has a thick file and someone with one month AAoA and two cards has a thin file. At what point does everything think your credit report crosses over from having a thin file to having a thick file?

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:21:22 GMT

I read 6 years AAoA is showing a good credit history. Why six? IDK... Actually it said 5.9 years and I just rounded it up

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:53:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I read 6 years AAoA is showing a good credit history. Why six? IDK... Actually it said 5.9 years and I just rounded it up

I think it also depends on what you are "using" it for. So an app spree of say 6 cards might not cause too much damage on a "thick" file with 20 accounts and 6 year AAoA, but a 20 card app spree would. There you need a thicker file, such as 50 accounts and 10 years AAoA (all numbers made up). In other words, thick and thin aren't absolutes.

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:58:08 GMT

I believe the criteria is that if someone like CreditAddict takes a look at your file and says something like, "Wow, I'm impressed!"... then you officially have a thick file.

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

pizzadude — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:07:11 GMT

Moving to General Credit forum

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

takeshi74 — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:51:18 GMT

@red259 wrote:
At what point does everything think your credit report crosses over from having a thin file to having a thick file?

It's relative as longtime points out and there isn't a fixed line that everyone crosses. In other words there's a spectrum of thickness rather than just the binary of thin or thick. It's also not just cards and AAoA but other factors such as payment history, mix of credit, etc.

I'd say that one indicator is when creditors stop using "excessive/too many inquiries" as a denial reason when you have just a few inquiries but that's just my opinion and not based on hard numbers -- just from browsing the threads on various discussion sites (which is generally not a reliable method of analysis).

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

jamie123 — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 21:55:52 GMT

@red259 wrote:
People often talk about having a thin or thick file. Obviously someone with 15 cards and 20 years AAoA has a thick file and someone with one month AAoA and two cards has a thin file. At what point does everything think your credit report crosses over from having a thin file to having a thick file?

IMHO this is what I would consider the absolute minimum of accounts to be considered a thick file:

5 open credit cards with at least 3 of them being bank cards

2 year AAoA minimum

1 open installment loan

No more than 1 inquiry on each report

I think that if you had all those items on your credit reports you would be at the cusp of having a thick file. I can't see a lender using the "Denied for lack of ANYTHING" history at this point. Any credit added to these items over time would thicken your file of course.

Re: At what point do you have a thick file

jamesdwi — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 06:59:26 GMT

I have 32+ cards and have never been told that I have a thin file, even when my AAoA was under a year and only had 15 cards, its now over 2 years :-) time cures all things credit.

I thinks it more related to TL's at least once you get 6 months of history. You need at least 3 TL's to establish a strong history.