Mix of accounts. How much does it really help??

[Hcontreras]

I just got approved for a car that will be the only "installment loan" showing in my credit report.....I have a total of 9 credit card accounts (5 bank cards and 4 store cards).

my question is, will the installment loan significantly help my score over time with the so called "mix of accounts"? Or does it have a small impact on my score? I have really raised my credit score over 100 points in 10 months, between PIF baddies and establishing credit through managing credit cards (my score are on my siggy).

also, will this auto loan hurt my score initially?

[user5387]

"Mix of credit types" is a FICO scoring category with a 10% weight.

By contrast, payment history and utilization combined have a weight of around 6-7 times as much.

So I wouldn't expect any breakthroughs, and lots of people have scores above 800 with only revolving accounts.

A new installment loan is likely to hurt your scores initially, because of the hard pull, new tradeline, and reduced AAoA.

[Revelate]

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@user5387 wrote:

"Mix of credit types" is a FICO scoring category with a 10% weight.

By contrast, payment history and utilization combined have a weight of around 6-7 times as much.

So I wouldn't expect any breakthroughs, and lots of people have scores above 800 with only revolving accounts.

A new installment loan is likely to hurt your scores initially, because of the hard pull, new tradeline, and reduced AAoA.

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Depends on the file, my own adding a car loan was a straight positive but my AAoA was only 1 year anyway before that so it was irrelevant on that side.  Incidently so was my second installment loan for my report; YMMV with a much thicker report as I only had 1 open and 1 closed revolving for the auto loan, and 3 revolving 1 installment for the second installment loan.

[takeshi74]

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@user5387 wrote:

"Mix of credit types" is a FICO scoring category with a 10% weight.

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See also:

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/whatsinyourscore.aspx