Credit Card Purchases that Help vs. Credit Card Purchase that Hurt

[Anonymous]

I've been reading that some credit card companies track customers' purchases and make decisions on their credit worthiness based off of the type of purchases or place of purchases. Apparently purchases such as massages, marriage counseling, retread tires and purchase made at discount stores or thrift stores can impact your scores negatively. Does anyone know what types or place of purchases impact positively?

[Anonymous]

I'd really like to know this too. My hand trembles everytime I hand over my card at McDonalds. I'm throwing all my expenses into the cards I just got to maximize utility while paying in full later to work on getting some CLI's but I worry about some of the things I buy. God forbid I order some Papa John's pizza. Some aspects of this credit game really suck.

[GregB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've been reading that some credit card companies track customers' purchases and make decisions on their credit worthiness based off of the type of purchases or place of purchases. Apparently purchases such as massages, marriage counseling, retread tires and purchase made at discount stores or thrift stores can impact your scores negatively. Does anyone know what types or place of purchases impact positively?

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There is no impact to your scores! The info to generate a score comes from your credit reports. There has been some info published where it seems that some CC Companies look at your purchase history for their own ratings. This should be only used for internal purposes and wouldn't affect your score or any other CC that you have. I believe only Amex was named for doing this additional scrutiny but there might be others. And of course the trend might be for increasing scrutiny from all lenders.

[haulingthescoreup]

CCC's do track where cards are used, but after AmEx was publicly embarassed last year, I don't know that they do much with the info.

I've used all my cards everywhere --a Chase card at the Chick-Fil-A drivethrough, AmEx at Walmart, a Borders Visa at Barnes and Noble, and a Barnes and Noble MC at Borders. I've never seen even a hint of repercussions.

If they're using this info against me, they're awfully subtle about it!

eta: whoops, GregB beat me to it.

I would add that there is a lot of incompetent journalism, both in print and online, about credit. I don't know if journalists are lazy and printing any old thing, or if they're just recycling the same stuff, not knowing that it's incorrect. You can still find any number of websites that swear that AU's are excluded in FICO 08. Somehow, they never bother to pick up on the corrections.

[vanillabean]

Where can one read about AmEx being publicly embarassed last year?

[haulingthescoreup]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TheLaw/gma-answers-credit-card-companies-financially-profiling-customers/s...

As I recall, AmEx afterwards huffed and puffed that they didn't profile by where a card was used, and that they wouldn't do it any more.

[Iincognito]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TheLaw/gma-answers-credit-card-companies-financially-profiling-customers/s...

As I recall, AmEx afterwards huffed and puffed that they didn't profile by where a card was used, and that they wouldn't do it any more.

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WOW... good article.

[Anonymous]

Good to know! Thanks for the response!

[haulingthescoreup]

Just to emphasize, this was January 2009, more than a year and a half ago, and CCC's seem to have backed down on this a bit.

It was during the height of the off-with-their-heads bank frenzy, slashing credit limits here and closing cards there. With the exception of US Bank and credit unions, it often felt as though the banks had gotten hold of equal amounts of automatic weapons and cheap booze, and that they were using them simultaneously in their attempt to convince themselves that they were pulling back overextensions of consumer credit. The name of the game was keep your head down, and let someone else catch their attention.

I still do that to some extent --I don't ask for CLI's and so forth --but I use my CC's when and where I want, and again, I've never had a problem.

[MarineVietVet]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

CCC's do track where cards are used, but after AmEx was publicly embarassed last year, I don't know that they do much with the info.

I've used all my cards everywhere --a Chase card at the Chick-Fil-A drivethrough, AmEx at Walmart, a Borders Visa at Barnes and Noble, and a Barnes and Noble MC at Borders. I've never seen even a hint of repercussions.

If they're using this info against me, they're awfully subtle about it!

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 The same for me. If I'm being watched I don't know it. 

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802
EQ - 7/06-663, 3/10-800
TU - 8/10-772
You can do the same thing with hard work