Two questions

[Anonymous]

Hi there, I am new to forum and have two questions, hope somebody can answer.

1) I have a good Fica score but it went down after two credit card issuers, banks, raised my available credit without my asking. It looks like I requested the increase and I did not.

2)  I am selling one of my homes and can now pay off all my debts.  Included in the debt are 7 credit cards.  I am planning a refi of my remaining home.  I have heard that one shoud keep some accounts open.  Can I keep them open with no balance , or should i pay off all but one card, or keep a small balance on let's say 5 cards?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

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Alaskanwoman wrote:

Hi there, I am new to forum and have two questions, hope somebody can answer.

1) I have a good Fica score but it went down after two credit card issuers, banks, raised my available credit without my asking. It looks like I requested the increase and I did not.

2)  I am selling one of my homes and can now pay off all my debts.  Included in the debt are 7 credit cards.  I am planning a refi of my remaining home.  I have heard that one shoud keep some accounts open.  Can I keep them open with no balance , or should i pay off all but one card, or keep a small balance on let's say 5 cards?

Thanks.

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Welcome to FICO Forums, alaskanwoman!

1)  Receiving a CLI on a CC will never lower your FICO score, in and of itself.  Something else must have changed if your FICO score went down.  Did the CCCs pull one or more hard inquiries on your reports in connection with the CLIs?

2)  Yes, you can leave accounts open with no balance.  In fact, closing a CC will never help your FICO score in the short term, so if you are considering closing any CCs to raise your FICO, don't do it because it won't work.  For maximum FICO points, you should allow a balance of 1% of the CL report on one CC, and $0 balances on all the others.

Hope this answers your questions.

[Anonymous]

Hi Alaskanwoman,

First of all, Happy Memorial Day!

Regarding your 1st question: if your FICO score is still high enough for you to

qualify for the best mortgage refi rate, I wouldn't sweat the increase. Sounds like

the credit card issuers granted you a CLI based on an internal review, which is

actually good in the long run as long as you keep your overall utilization low.

Regarding the 2nd question: I would pay off the balances and keep all of the

accounts open. Open tradelines paid on time with low or no balances is what

makes you so creditworthy. If you cancel some of the accounts, it will also

lower the overall age of your credit that you've worked so hard to establish and maintain.

One last thing: if your mortgage refi bank/mortgage company has already

pulled your credit, they should have given you copies of your reports, all 3

of your FICO scores and all 12 of your negative reason codes (4 per bureau).

In your case, the codes are key: they tell you what's wrong with your credit.

Each code is a 2-digit number followed by a brief written explanation. So by

doing the opposite of what each code says, you will raise your FICO scores.

Example: if one of the codes says you don't have any revolving credit, getting

approved for a credit card will raise your scores.

Getting your codes this way doesn't cost any money, but it did/will cost you

a hard inquiry since you gave them permission to pull your credit. But in the

future, you can go to myfico.com/12 to buy the same information. If you go to

myfico.com, you won't get the codes.

Hope this helps you. Enjoy the holiday today and don't eat

too many burgers!!!

CanDo

"The right attitude is everything"

Message Edited by CanDoAttitude on 05-26-2008 10:20 AM

[Anonymous]

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CanDoAttitude wrote:

If you cancel some of the accounts, it will also

lower the overall age of your credit that you've worked so hard to establish and maintain.

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Sort of, but not quite.  Closing an account does not lower credit age until the closed account falls off, which will generally be around 10 years from the date it was closed.  Until it falls off, a closed account continues to count towards average age.  Closing an account will NOT lower one's average age in the short term.

However, closing an account may hurt in the short term in other ways.  FOr example, the CL on a closed CC is immediately removed from scoring, which could hurt utilization.

[Anonymous]

I stand corrected, cheddar.

It's good to know that closed accts

will not hurt a report's overall age.

Thanks for catching that.

CanDo

"The right attitude is everythingl

[Anonymous]

Each lender has criteria for closing inactive accounts. But don't get too wrapped up in carrying balance out of fear. Just a token use every 3-6 months is sufficient. Think pack of gum/PIF immediately.

In fact with a higher number of cards I read somewhere that you should only use one or two of them and keep utilization low.

I'm sure your cards vary in APR and rewards so do what is logical and carry balance on your largest limit to get utilization lower but also lower APR so you aren't paying high interest.

[jmbfl]

OK - so I bit and went to www.myfico.com/12. Now HOW DO I STOP GOING THERE WHEN I ENTER www.myfico.com????

[Anonymous]

You'll have to delete your browsing history.

It does that on my computer from time to time.

Normally I have no problem going back and forth

between sites.

You can also bookmark both sites if you like.

CanDo

"The right attitude is everything"

Message Edited by CanDoAttitude on 05-26-2008 10:49 AM

Message Edited by CanDoAttitude on 05-26-2008 10:52 AM

[Anonymous]

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@jmbfl wrote:

OK - so I bit and went to www.myfico.com/12. Now HOW DO I STOP GOING THERE WHEN I ENTER www.myfico.com????

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Don't understand your problem I don't click on links in threads or email. So what exactly is your problem. My guess is you are redirected to the url you typed first time because your browser has autofill or something like that.

Clear the saved addresses. Or bookmark the place you want to return to and use bookmark instead of address bar.

[Anonymous]

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jmbfl wrote:

OK - so I bit and went to www.myfico.com/12. Now HOW DO I STOP GOING THERE WHEN I ENTER www.myfico.com????

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Clear your cache and delete your cookies.  That should fix it.