Veni, Vidi, Vinci, Visa or How to Master Your MasterCard

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone, excuse me if i sound stupid. i'm a newbie and know very little when it comes to credit, sorry! anyways, i have a boa secured to establish my credit and i was wondering how i can found out when boa reports my monthly balances to the bureaus. does anyone know, or is it a random thing? thanks in advance to any help.

[Anonymous]

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Gawtti wrote:

Hi Everyone, excuse me if i sound stupid. i'm a newbie and know very little when it comes to credit, sorry! anyways, i have a boa secured to establish my credit and i was wondering how i can found out when boa reports my monthly balances to the bureaus. does anyone know, or is it a random thing? thanks in advance to any help.

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It's going to vary by lender. Generally speaking, the statement cycle closing date is the balance they report. Might be a day later, that day, or a week later. On your CRs, it should show a last reported date. If all else fails, call the CCC and ask.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone...just found this site and it's excellant.

I could use some direction. Two years ago this past May I filed BQ (discharged that August). Currently my Experian score is 716, my Equifax is 704 and my TransUnion is 701. I just paid off one car loan. I have another (a year and a half old) that's "as agreed". I have a mortgage that's about six years old "as agreed". A Penny's charge that ten years old "as agreed" and I recently (4 months ago) got a unsecured ($25.00 annual fee) credit card from Capital One. Original CL of $1,000.00. They recently raised it to $1,500.00.

I just paid off the Penny's balance & I religiously pay off the balance of the Capital One Card every month before I even get the statement.

Here's my question. What can I do to improve my current scores from here? It's like my scores are frozen!

Thanks in advance for you help!

[Anonymous]

Concerning this subject, is it good to keep a balance on the card or should I charge things to it and pay it in full every month? Seemed like some of the comments pointed towards leave a small balance on the card from month to month but I work hard for my money and don't want to give it to the CCC in the form of interest. Clarification on this would be great. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

From everything I've observed, it's best to leave a small balance. Now, when I say "small," I mean you can get away with a single-digit balance. But the FICO scoring formula "wants" to see you manage credit, not keep it sockdrawered (and if every month a zero balance is reported, in FICO's eyes, the card is sockdrawered).

[jaramill]

Just started reading the forums and I finally got all three scores into the 700s

TU (TransUnion) = 720

EQ (Equifax) = 717

EX (Experian) = 712

So I now applied for the Chase Perfect Card and got it (though with only $400 limit and a whopping 23.8% APR).  Is this standard or is it based on your scores?  I think that limit is low and APR high.

Though I did have a BofA card that was closed (paid it off) and to re-open I couldn't because it expired (had a CL of $13.2k).  So they said I had to apply anew (i.e. hard inquiry into my CR) and got rejected.  Funny how that works.  Anyway screw BofA.  I'll stick with my WF and Chase.

Now this is a great thread and all the things I've heard I follow (keep balances low).  What most of you SHOULD do is call your CCC and ask them on "WHAT date do you report my balance to the credit bureaus?"  Whatever that date is, pay your CC 1-2 days before and leave a small balance.  That will definitely boost your scores.

And whenever you deal with any type of lender/creditor, if they have to look at your CR ask them if it will be a "hard or soft" inquiry.  Soft doesn't show up, hard does.

Gio

[Anonymous]

The Chase Perfectcard has three tiers of initial pricing based on credit score - Elite = 14.24%, Premium = 18.24%, Standard = 23.24%. Initial pricing is simply starting information for those browsing their online list of offered cards. That being said, I am surprised that you got 23.8% with your current FICO average of 716-717. I've been with Chase myself since 2003 and have never gotten that rate on any card with the same scores you just said.

It sounds to me like there may be other application information at work here - perhaps income verification didn't go through correctly, or else they are drawing from your credit report some kind of adverse information about an account with a Chase affiliate. However, if you had public records or multiple late payments, chances are your FICOs would be in the low 600s at best. A recent hard inquiry almost never drops a FICO by more than 5 points (which is generally recovered in 3 months), especially if they are clustered together within 30 days of each other for the purposes of comparison shopping for a mortgage, home equity loan/HELOC, or auto loan. I do not know offhand if multiple credit card applications within the same time frame would affect a FICO score more strongly than that or as for a single credit card application.

I recommend looking into why you were given the 23.8% APR and see if they didn't foul something up, then investigate your options for getting the rate lowered to something more commensurate with your FICO score. In my experience, that would be anywhere from 8-17%, but generally the lower, fixed rates are offered to existing cardholders with some tenure already (I presently have a Freedom World Mastercard at a fixed 10% APR and Flexible Rewards Visa at a fixed 8%). Chase is certainly under no obligation to change cardmember interest rates, but like all banks, they leave open the clause of being able to change any rate at any time to anything for any reason (aka no rate guarantee whatsoever). That's part and parcel with carrying an unsecured line of credit, in my opinion. The same holds true even if one supposedly has a 0% fixed APR from application to the issuing bank going out of business.

Anyway, hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

>6) Ask for a CLI/graduation every six months. If you are denied, call into Customer Care, escalate >to supervisors, and demand a review. Sometimes a manual review will get you what you want.

I've found the above to be not good advice. Every time you ask for an increase they do a hard inquiry. Sure it's worth asking if you make it clear to them not to inquire. I take it that's what you meant. Also I've found you will get more credit by applying for a new card than asking for an increase.

BTW, I notice that somecompanies are doing hard inquiries when you try to use an access check as well.

[Anonymous]

4) Here's how to manage CCs: Keep your balance above zero, but less than 10% of your credit limit. There. That's all there is to it. There's no insider's magic formula. No secret handshake. FICO likes to see you living well within your means, but managing and not sockdrawering your credit. Having a credit card in your sockdrawer zeroed out for a year doesn't show you can manage credit

My mother has about 8 cards. Has had zero balances since she got them, no loans ever, not even a mortgage or a car and her score is over 800. Please explain why?

[Anonymous]

A little common sense here... Most of FICO's income is paid by lenders. For now anyway, that's who they work for. So of course they're going to tell you to use their credit cards! How long would lenders be using a reporting agency that tells the public to ONLY use credit for major purchase like a car or a mortgage, and only use use it when the interest rate is lower than your investments are returning?

While it's true that the logarithims are set up to reward credit card use, it won't do so to the detriment of the mortgage companies or auto loans. Auto loans and mortgage lenders have their own optimized scoring systems to correct for the credit card marketing hype as well but that can only get them so far.

From a real lender's point of view (meaning a mortgage lender)...

1) Too much revolving credit gives the borrower too much leash to hang himself with. Common sense.

2) Balances, any balances, suggest the inability to pay off that debt. Why would you pay high interest if you had cash to pay it off? Because FICO told you not to? Common sense.

Your whole credit life should revolve around preparing for your largest investment. Your home. Or use your credit as leverage to create income through investing. Why else would you EVER need credit?

Don't believe the hype. Don't look at credit card companies as legitimate lenders. They are scammers and opportunists who make CRS's a lot of money. Think big. Use common sense!

Listening to the fox who's in charge of the hen house will cost you dearly.