ARGHH!!! I'm so frustrated. When I pulled my reports in Jan 2007, at least one of the things hurting my credit report was that I had no installment loans, since both of my car loans have been paid off for over 6 years, as have my college loans. So, when I went to get a new car in Jan 2008, I could have paid it in full, however, I figured that I'd put down $22K and finance $11,400K on a 24-month loan, simply to boost my credit score. What was the effect? EQ and EX are both dinging me for opening up a new account! Experian even says that it will hurt my score until at least 35% of the loan is paid off. I've made 3 payments and my balance is now $9K, however, nowhere in the report does it show the original loan amount. If they don't know what the original loan amount was for, how do they know when I'm 35% done? Are they basing it on a period of 24 months and will I be hurt until I'm 9 payments in? I'm disputing a few items, but my scores have changed as follows: TransUnion - Jan 2007 - 746 May 2008 - 785 (Up 39 points) Equifax - Jan 2007 - 755 May 2008 - 758 (Up 3 points) Experian - Jan 2007 - 759 May 2008 - 747 (Down 12 points)(They were the ones that said last year that "There is a lack of recent installment loan info reported" and that "Establishing a new loan might be a good long-term strategy" My balances to credit limits went from 11% in 2007 to less than 1% in 2008. I really would like to be in the "800 club", or at least to have all of my scores over 760, but I have only been able to get one of my scores to move! This whole thing just sucks!
