Hi Matt 
In my post, I referred to "major" in reference to Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover. Premium would be based upon issuance from prime lenders/banks/ccc's. Subprime may be "major" but not issued by prime lenders. Those CCC's known to issue to high risk cases tend to be a factor, not so much by FICO, but by LO review and by other proprietary score models such as Vantage and TU, as well as internal models with lenders.
An LO review looking at a low CL First Premiere card would not hold the same clout as one issued by BoA, Chase or other prime lenders.
FICO doesn't seem to really care who issues the "major" card. But I have found that the LO does. And I have noticed that some of the "FAKO" score models seem to bring this up a lot.
Here are examples:
Not enough revolving debt experience. [TransUnion, Experian, Equifax] A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report.
There are not enough premium bankcard accounts on your credit report. [TransUnion] A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report.
There are too many personal finance accounts on your credit report. [TransUnion, Experian, Equifax] Having too much available credit can sometimes harm your credit score. Lenders may feel that you have the ability to spend more than you could potentially pay back. You might want to consider closing a few accounts or asking to have your credit limits reduced. Avoid closing too many accounts - especially the oldest accounts on your credit report - because it could harm your credit score. Closing the oldest accounts can damage your score by making the length of your credit use appear shorter.
Anyway, this is my interpretation of what I have seen, experienced or gathered.
I don't believe that "major" vs "premium" is reported anywhere or affects scoring.
One thing that does affect scoring is that credit union (as well as strictly local/ regional bank) CC's carry a bit less weight than cards from national banks.
I hope that the scoring formula folks will revisit this the next time they look at risk predictors, especially in this day and age. I'm pretty peeved to think that a First Premier card is regarded more highly than my USAA or PenFed cards.
We found this out from a member who had just a few high-CL cards, both from USAA, I think? At any rate, she got a negative comment about not enough bank cards. And it was a FICO statement. (I have issues with this, as you can tell!)
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&message.id=14483#M14483
One thing that does affect scoring is that credit union (as well as strictly local/ regional bank) CC's carry a bit less weight than cards from national banks.
I hope that the scoring formula folks will revisit this the next time they look at risk predictors, especially in this day and age. I'm pretty peeved to think that a First Premier card is regarded more highly than my USAA or PenFed cards.
We found this out from a member who had just a few high-CL cards, both from USAA, I think? At any rate, she got a negative comment about not enough bank cards. And it was a FICO statement.
(I have issues with this, as you can tell!)http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&message.id=14483#M14483
@Anonymous wrote:Hi Matt
In my post, I referred to "major" in reference to Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover. Premium would be based upon issuance from prime lenders/banks/ccc's. Subprime may be "major" but not issued by prime lenders. Those CCC's known to issue to high risk cases tend to be a factor, not so much by FICO, but by LO review and by other proprietary score models such as Vantage and TU, as well as internal models with lenders.
An LO review looking at a low CL First Premiere card would not hold the same clout as one issued by BoA, Chase or other prime lenders.
FICO doesn't seem to really care who issues the "major" card. But I have found that the LO does. And I have noticed that some of the "FAKO" score models seem to bring this up a lot.
Here are examples:
Not enough revolving debt experience. [TransUnion, Experian, Equifax] A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report.
There are not enough premium bankcard accounts on your credit report. [TransUnion] A healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report.
There are too many personal finance accounts on your credit report. [TransUnion, Experian, Equifax] Having too much available credit can sometimes harm your credit score. Lenders may feel that you have the ability to spend more than you could potentially pay back. You might want to consider closing a few accounts or asking to have your credit limits reduced. Avoid closing too many accounts - especially the oldest accounts on your credit report - because it could harm your credit score. Closing the oldest accounts can damage your score by making the length of your credit use appear shorter.
Anyway, this is my interpretation of what I have seen, experienced or gathered.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was aware that "Consumer Finance" accounts were flagged as a minor negative (for example, Citibank has a division called CitiFinancial which is considered subprime). I was wondering more whether for example there exist distinctions among the various cards offered by major lenders. For example Citibank, Chase, and Amex offer a bewildering variety of cards, compared to some years ago when it seemed like the main distinction was whether it was called "Gold" or "Platinum," and what Amex called "Gold" was roughly comparable to what everybody else called "Platinum."
Of course at most retailers nowadays the only hands touching the card and the only eyes seeing the card are mine, so long as the machine makes the happy approved "beep" that's all they care about.
PS about cash register beeps: ever seen the Handmaid's Tale? Pretty good movie, actually. Well, the relevant bit here is they filmed most of it on the Duke University campus and I was a grad student there at the time. In a few scenes women are shopping using plastic cards, and they used actual cash registers from Duke campus stores and eateries. What amused us at Duke when we saw the film was how everybody is buying stuff but since the dummy cards they gave the extras were of course nonworking the registers were actually making their "rejected" beep not their "accepted" beep. I suppose the movie people simply figured nobody else would know the particular beeps made by the registers at Duke...
