Hit on AAoA vs. Boosting Total Credit

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's alot to keep track of.....  

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Wow, that's alot to keep track of.....  

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I happen to enjoy it. I wouldn't recommend it to folks who would find it burdensome.

[Anonymous]

SouthJ does a great job at distinguishing the stuff he does for fun vs. the basic stuff that benefits pretty much any person.

I have never heard him tell people that they need to have 20 credit cards, or that everybody needs to make sure that they pay almost all their cards to zero each month.  That's a good quality that SJ has -- knowing what he does for fun vs. what will benefit pretty much anyone.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

SouthJ does a great job at distinguishing the stuff he does for fun vs. the basic stuff that benefits pretty much any person.

I have never heard him tell people that they need to have 20 credit cards, or that everybody needs to make sure that they pay almost all their cards to zero each month.  That's a good quality that SJ has -- knowing what he does for fun vs. what will benefit pretty much anyone.

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Wow thank you CGID. I am not worthy

Who ever would have thought that I would have fun doing this stuff. Maybe the breakthrough moment was Revelate explaining the "reindeer games" to me

[Sandman771]

I'm in for an explanation of the "reindeer games". lol 

[Anonymous]

"Reindeer games" is a phrase you may remember from "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer."  RGs are specifically games that are known/played only by members of a small elite group.

The phrase is sometimes used here for any highly arcane credit scoring tricks that only insiders here in a site like myFICO would know, methods of "gaming" the FICO scoring models known ony to the few.

Examples are playing reindeer games with your credit cards (All zero except one) or with your installment loans.  The Share Secure Loan trick is a particularly famous instance of such an RG, and that is likely what SJ is alluding to.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Reindeer games" is a phrase you may remember from "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer."  RGs are specifically games that are known/played only by members of a small elite group.

The phrase is sometimes used here for any highly arcane credit scoring tricks that only insiders here in a site like myFICO would know, methods of "gaming" the FICO scoring models known ony to the few.

Examples are playing reindeer games with your credit cards (All zero except one) or with your installment loans.  The Share Secure Loan trick is a particularly famous instance of such an RG, and that is likely what SJ is alluding to.

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Those of us who had no installment loans reporting were like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, who was excluded by the other reindeer from playing in reindeer games, since we were excluded from the boost to "credit mix" which an installment loan would provide.

Revelate found a way for those of us who had no installment loans to have one, without really getting into debt over it

[Anonymous]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Reindeer games" is a phrase you may remember from "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer."  RGs are specifically games that are known/played only by members of a small elite group.

The phrase is sometimes used here for any highly arcane credit scoring tricks that only insiders here in a site like myFICO would know, methods of "gaming" the FICO scoring models known ony to the few.

Examples are playing reindeer games with your credit cards (All zero except one) or with your installment loans.  The Share Secure Loan trick is a particularly famous instance of such an RG, and that is likely what SJ is alluding to.

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Those of us who had no installment loans reporting were like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, who was excluded by the other reindeer from playing in reindeer games, since we were excluded from the boost to "credit mix" which an installment loan would provide.

Revelate found a way for those of us who had no installment loans to have one, without really getting into debt over it

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Gonna have to forum search to see Revelates way. I have no installment loan only things I have are cards. Till now did not realize there needed to be a mix. 

[Anonymous]

My comment: you should have done it sooner, and better late than never. Though I'd also have skipped the store cards unless they are from stores you shop in a lot. For example I also have the Amazon card because I like getting the 5% back on my Amazon purchases.

You also picked up some great cards. CITI DC is a great general card and Amex BCE is great for groceries. They make a good pair.

I did a huge app spree early in my credit history intentionally. I applied as much as I could in my first year, as soon as I had a score over 700.

Why?

Because while your AAoA takes a big hit now it's not THAT big, since you had no real AAoA to speak of. You knocked months, not years, off it.

And you added a lot of "ballast". As your accounts start aging off one more card in future will move the average by very little because the denominator is the number of accounts you have.

If anything I'd say complete your spree and get any card you think you will EVER get now while you have no AAoA to damage.

But then stop.

I applied for a ton of cards in my first year but then stopped. It's been over a year since I applied for anything and I have no plans to apply for anything. I believe I have a good card for any purchase and I'm just letting my AAoA grow now.

When I do finally apply for another card it won't impact my AAoA much because I've got a big denominator.

But still that's not a reason to app crap. I would have skipped the store cards and tried to get another good bank card.

One last advice:

Know what each card is for. I have Costco card for gas , travel, and restaurants, BCE for groceries, BoA travel card for foreign transaction (no fee), Amazon card for shopping on Amazon, Discover for trips to China (Union Pay), and CITI DC for everything else.

I regret applying for the Firstech card I have since it serves no purpose. Similarly I'll never apply for a cap1 QS since my existing cards beat it's 1.5% everywhere. I looked at Chase Amazon Visa but I already get 5% there with the store card, and no foreign fee from BoA so it would serve no purpose.

I might be tempted to get a category rotator like Chase freedom but I'm not crazy about having to keep subscribing categories, but it WOULD have a purpose.

Anyway my advice is get everything you want quickly and then sit tight with that forever.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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Gonna have to forum search to see Revelates way. I have no installment loan only things I have are cards. Till now did not realize there needed to be a mix. 

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This will explain everything you need to know about the SS loan trick.  You just need to read the first 2-3 posts:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secure-technique/m-p/4506756

Incidentally, Revelate did not discover that you need a mix of credit.  That's very well know.  You can see it discussed in the Learn About Scores section at the top of this page.  What he found (as SouthJ points out) was a clever method of quickly adding an installment loan and getting the maximum benefit from two different scoring categories for it, and yet it costing you almost nothing in terms of interest or hard pulls.