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

[Anonymous]

If you do what you've done, you'll get what you got! You listened to the fox who is in charge of the hen house and your score went down. Go back to using common sense. You'll be glad you did.

[Anonymous]

Just go by this simple axiom. Lenders love to loan money to those who don't need it. The trick is to look like you don't need it even if you do.

[Anonymous]

Fluctuations tells a lender someone's been making waves in the pool. He peed in his pool it made waves and his score suffered. It's beyond my why someone with a score that high wouldn't leave well enough alone. Lucky for him the drop is probably not going to translate into a higher mortgage rate. The mortgage model should easily compensate for the bad credit card advice he followed.

[Anonymous]

Time is what got him those increses and those sores. Bow to Father Time!

[Anonymous]

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?

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Wow, I'd like to know how your mother was able to get a score of 800 with no apparent credit history also!  Has she been an AU on anyone else's accounts?

[laryn41]

so it's not good to have 0 balances?

[Anonymous]

Balance greater than 0 but less than 10% of CL is best. Balance of zero is good as long as there's enough activity so the card reports as active. Balance 10% to 30% is good. 30% to 50% is acceptable, though you should work on reducing it. 50% to 80% or so is bad, and should be reduced sooner rather than later. Over 80% is very bad, probably costing you anywhere from 5 to 20 FICO points, and reducing it should be your top FICO improvement priority.

[MidnightVoice]

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AspirantX wrote:

My mother has about 8 cards. Has had zero balances since she got them,

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Do you mean that she has had 8 cards for years and never used them, or that she PIF every month?  If it is the latter, then she has had balances reporting to the CRAs

[Tuscani]

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TheNewWorldMan wrote:
Balance greater than 0 but less than 10% of CL is best. Balance of zero is good as long as there's enough activity so the card reports as active. Balance 10% to 30% is good. 30% to 50% is acceptable, though you should work on reducing it. 50% to 80% or so is bad, and should be reduced sooner rather than later. Over 80% is very bad, probably costing you anywhere from 5 to 20 FICO points, and reducing it should be your top FICO improvement priority.

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And over 100% is even worse!

[laryn41]

i don't have any over 10% 1 is at 40% though with a limit a 1500.  how long can they be at 0$ without it looking bad.  i have 3 at totally 0.  should i cancel? they are stre cards.