Too many credit cards?

[haulingthescoreup]

---

plasticman wrote:

It just seems to me with scores approaching 800 and no store cards if I applied for one the score hit would far outweigh the benefit and I would not see a rebound from the new inquiry and new account for months. At that time the increase in score could just as well be because of the increase of the average age of all trade lines.

---

I agree completely with that. As others said, any point tweaking that might exist would help those working their way up.

I find the whole idea illogical. To me, I would think that one would get a score boost if one only had store cards and finally added a bank card. That would make sense, in that you're graduating to a card that can get you into a bunch more trouble, as you can use it everywhere, not just one store, so that if you handle it well, you've shown you're a better risk.

I just toss those two things out --used to be on the ed page, and some people have posted immediate score increases on getting their first card --because to me, it's unproven either way. I just want people to know what little we know, lol, so that they can make their own decisions.

[plasticman]

txjohn and HTSU both of your posts are very interesting and informative. Thank you again for sharing your wealth of experience!!

[Anonymous]

Store cards like Macy's are good if you frequent that retailer, because you often get discounts and coupons the general public doesn't have access to.  Likewise for gas cards that give you rebates you might not get on a regular credit card.

[Anonymous]

I gained 20 points when I added my first card (HSBC), lost 5 when I added my second card (Macy's). 

Edited to remove the following:

It's interesting that my mortgage pull shows this code:

EQ Beacon 5.0:  #6--Too many consumer finance company accounts

TU Classic:  #6--Too many consumer finance company accounts

I thought I was pretty aware of what a consumer finance company was, and was surprised to see this code (also on my DH's EQ & TU).    According to our mortgage guy, who teaches classes on improving your FICO (not FAKO) scores, my store cards put me in this category.  Edited to add:  I was also surprised that the codes pulled have not shown up on myFico EQ or TU reports - I thought they would be the same?? 

My mortgage guy did tell me to concentrate on getting a bank or national credit card - but that comment was not associated with the consumer finance company accounts.  M'ybad assumption - this post does not apply to this thread.  Sorry.

Message Edited by beamMEup on 08-01-2009 10:46 PM

Message Edited by beamMEup on 08-04-2009 04:11 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

Your myFICO reports don't always show all codes. It goes by scores. 800+ = no comments. 760 - 799 = just one comment. And so on further down. The codes are still there on the real thing. My TU likes to flicker back and forth between 761 and 759. One comment with the higher score; two with the lower.

Interesting what he said about store cards. My guess is that it's not referring to classic store cards, but to financing deals for carpeting, furniture, and so forth. These have started displaying as revolving though, so I don't know why they'd be triggering the code. Do you have any of those?

[Anonymous]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Interesting what he said about store cards. My guess is that it's not referring to classic store cards, but to financing deals for carpeting, furniture, and so forth. These have started displaying as revolving though, so I don't know why they'd be triggering the code. Do you have any of those?

---

Edited to cross out:  It is interesting - a true conundrum (mmm - a good word - can't really go around saying "A true conundrum!" but it just seems to fit).  We don't have any of the financing deals cards - and know to stay away from them because we understood those were included in the consumer financing category.   

I have HSBC, Macy's, JCPenney's, Dillard's, Walmart.  That's it. 

We've had a second mortgage through Citi"financial" for a few years and worried that it would trigger the consumer "finance" comment - but it never has.  Edited to add:  Citifinancial didn't pull up the "Too many consumer finance company accounts" because it wasn't on the top 4.  It shows up now as #2 on my EQ mortgage pull, and #3 on TU.  It doesn't show up on myfico's reports - partially adding to my confusion.  And of course my student loans have never triggered it.  We've never seen it on DH's before, either.  But it's there now smileysurprised

Message Edited by beamMEup on 08-04-2009 04:16 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

It looks like the only candidate would be the Citifinancial 2nd mortgage.

I'm a little skeptical of what the mortgage guy said, I guess. We've got an awful lot of members who seem to be trying to collect every store card ever made, and I would have thought that we'd be hearing their howls if they were registering as "consumer finance"!

A conundrum, indeed!

[Anonymous]

Edited to correct my misinformation:  The citifinancial hasn't pulled that code and we've had it for several years.  The first time we've seen the code is on our current mortgage pull.  Our mortgage guy addressed code 6 (an affectionate term, because I'm feeling like we're spending a lot of time together) by telling us we need to focus on national bank cards, rather than our store cards.  Our mortgage guy noted that we need to focus on national bank cards, rather than store cards - but this was separate from "Code 6:"  "Too many consumer finance co. accounts."  Evidently we haven't seen this code before because it wasn't in the TOP 4 negative list of things affecting our score.  Hopefully I didn't confuse anybody other than myself. . 

If the comment doesn't show up on myfico, then I don't think you'd be hearing too many howls.  It's only showing up on a mortgage pull - and then you only see it if you look for the codes on the report.  I'm not sure the howling measure is a good barometer.  If it is, then please register my howl.    And of course, I hope you understand I wouldn't call it a howl on my end. 

Message Edited by beamMEup on 08-04-2009 09:10 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

That makes sense --the lower on the list of codes, the tinier the ding.

[Anonymous]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
That makes sense --the lower on the list of codes, the tinier the ding.

---

Oh, yes.  Now I see.  I seem to say that a lot on these boards.

My mortgage guy was NOT telling me my store cards were pulling up the "Too many consumer finance company accts."  He was just telling me we need to concentrate on having an additional bank or national credit card company card - a separate issue altogether - and one not associated with any of my codes showing up.  (I had assumed it was a code based comment - it was not.)

Hauling's post got me straightened out.  We have had Citifinancial for several years and it has never pulled up this code before - because (evidently) it was not in the top 4 things hurting me or DH.

(Interesting:  It is now #2 on my EQ mortgage pull yet doesn't show up on my myfico EQ list of 3 things hurting my score......pulled same day & same score). 

Sorry for my misunderstanding and thanks for clearing that up.  And as Hauling astutely commented, the Citifinancial must be the reason for "Too many consumer finance company accts."  That's supported by the fact that EX doesn't list Citifinancial (never has) and doesn't list "Too many consumer finance..."  The other two do, both for me and DH.

Thanks for helping clear my brain cells.  I didn't mean to change the nature of this thread, but thought I'd better not leave my misinformation posted here. 

Thanks again Hauling - I'm so glad to be learning so many things here.