Why so many CCs?

[Anonymous]

pizza, you trying to talk me into apping again. cause it's working, stop that!

[Anonymous]

I just realized if person A had added 15 new accounts they would have exceeded 29 accounts. lol That would drop their score. This is why I said not to be taken literally.

The score difference between Person A and Person B was probably just a few points.

[Anonymous]

I say don't apply for credit that will drop you back to the next year of age.
I came really close to dropping my Avg age to 4 years.

My DW actually has a avg age over 8 years. She was not on the last car loan, last mortgage, or my student loans.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I just realized if person A had added 15 new accounts they would have exceeded 29 accounts. lol That would drop their score. This is why I said not to be taken literally.

The score difference between Person A and Person B was probably just a few points.

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I say don't apply for credit that will drop you back to the next year of age.
I came really close to dropping my Avg age to 4 years.

My DW actually has a avg age over 8 years. She was not on the last car loan, last mortgage, or my student loans.

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This was really only to explain why some people were applying for many cards after 10 years of bk, brand new to credit, empty credit reports. They are basically starting with 0 for average age. While a person who already has a few years for average age applying for more cards will indeed lower avg quite a bit. I agree. If you have some sort of an avg age, yea, don't try this. Try to never drop below 6 years.

[Anonymous]

Your goal is to reach 10+ years for average age if you can.

[haulingthescoreup]

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Timothy wrote: One of those 4 is her current allowance card- (can't come up with a better word) that gets PIF every month.

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Ummm, maybe call it a household expenses card? "Allowance" has sort of a do-your-chores, finish-your-homework sound to it... Don't know (or need to know) your situation, though.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
The score difference between Person A and Person B was probably just a few points.

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Is there a way of coming up with a good guesstimate as to what happens to scores if an old account does stop reporting? I got on as AU on an 18-year-old card to get some instant history, and it did give me a 17-point jump. I was going to convert to joint because of the soon-to-come change in reporting AU's, but after reading some really good points on other threads, we might keep our cards separate after all.

That 18 year AU history (opened 1995), a re-fi'd and closed joint mortgage (6/1995 - 12/2002), a closed store card (11/2000 - 7/2001), and a paid off car lease (6/2001 - 3/2003) are the only tradelines I have older than the current open mortgage (11/2002 - ). After that comes one account opened in 2003 (now closed) and two opened in 2004, and then the rest opened in 2006 plus a HELOC this year.

What kind of hit will my scores take when the semi-older accounts start falling off in July 2011, especially if the AU card opened in 1995 is no longer reporting? Other than the AU time machine effect, I don't have any way of suddenly gaining history. Guess we won't be in a hurry to pay off the mortgage though, at least for now! thanks

[smallfry]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

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ilovepizza wrote: The score difference between Person A and Person B was probably just a few points.

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Is there a way of coming up with a good guesstimate as to what happens to scores if an old account does stop reporting? I got on as AU on an 18-year-old card to get some instant history, and it did give me a 17-point jump. I was going to convert to joint because of the soon-to-come change in reporting AU's, but after reading some really good points on other threads, we might keep our cards separate after all. That 18 year AU history (opened 1995), a re-fi'd and closed joint mortgage (6/1995 - 12/2002), a closed store card (11/2000 - 7/2001), and a paid off car lease (6/2001 - 3/2003) are the only tradelines I have older than the current open mortgage (11/2002 - ). After that comes one account opened in 2003 (now closed) and two opened in 2004, and then the rest opened in 2006 plus a HELOC this year. What kind of hit will my scores take when the semi-older accounts start falling off in July 2011, especially if the AU card opened in 1995 is no longer reporting? Other than the AU time machine effect, I don't have any way of suddenly gaining history. Guess we won't be in a hurry to pay off the mortgage though, at least for now! thanks

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I really don't think you take too much of a hit on average age. Some but not a lot. You can score over 760 if you keep the Payment History and Utilization factors (which represent 65% of your score)in the excellent reading.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@smallfry wrote:
I really don't think you take too much of a hit on average age. Some but not a lot. You can score over 760 if you keep the Payment History and Utilization factors (which represent 65% of your score)in the excellent reading.

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That's right--I had blurred payment history and length of credit history! Good old pie chart--it's only 15% there, so it shouldn't be that bad.

thanks, I'll cross that off the list of things to fret about

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone;

Ok, I've been reading these threads, and trying to make sense out of it ... and sorry, still not getting it.

I'm one of those that's been through credit hell and trying to get out from under.  Tried the secured cards, and high fee ones ... been turned down jerked around and been very discouraged.  Timothy wrote the following;

Some are OCD on getting more cards - (don't know what OCD means)
Some are diluting bad credit with good - (how do you dilute bad credit with good)
Some are killing off sub-prime cards with fees - (don't get this either)

It seems a lot of folks in this thread are issuing several applications all at once to several credit card issuers and hoping some will be accepted.  Is this the recommended way of trying to get credit and improving your score?  What happens with all the inquiries on your credit from all these sources?  Doesn't that lower your score, and hence get you deeper into the hole? 

My Equifax is at 623 with a couple of very small medical collections which I'm disputing (due to insurance Co. mess-up). I'd like to understand how to effectively go about this to get credit (now I operate strickly on cash), and improve my scores. 

Thanks