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Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.

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smallfry
Senior Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



@Anonymous wrote:
I am starting to think I might want to pay off my lowest installment loan as fast as I can. Doing the debt snowball thing. I know it's more prudent to pay off the largest with highest interest rate first, but I lose inspiration to do that as time goes by. I see balances going down, but just not fast enough.

My lowest installment student loan is $3500.00. If I pay it off before the end of the year then I will have just 2 installment loans with balances, and I can afford to report 2 credit cards per month with low balances. That should keep me at a steady 4 accounts with balances. I'm thinking this might be the way to go until the end of the year. It will feel good to have another debt paid in full.

People ask "so what have you been up to?"

"Paying bills" I say


Quite a dull bunch eh? At least we stay out of trouble.
Message 41 of 53
MidnightVoice
Super Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



@smallfry wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:
other wise you have to use credit to get credit and if your CCs are always reporting $0 it doesn't appear your using credit even you are, your just paying it off before it gets reported to CRA
I almost always pay off my cc before next statement cycle. Yes, it does report as $0 balance, however they MUST report to CRA because there has been activity on my account that month. Had there been no activity whatsoever and $0 balance then they are not obligated to report, which is why they show date of last activity. My scores average 780 so apparently it hasn't hurt me Smiley Wink



Look at your Experian report. They know you're using the cards. They see more than we see. Believe it.


They show past history of balances and past history of CLs. But of use? That means my CCC must be reporting to the CRA every day.
The slide from grace is really more like gliding
And I've found the trick is not to stop the sliding
But to find a graceful way of staying slid
Message 42 of 53
smallfry
Senior Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.

They see more than we see on our reports. Another interesting tidbit about accounts. It seems I got a red flag on my last EX FICO report for 31 accounts. I didn't see it with 29 on the last FICO pull but it seems over 30 total tradelines open and closed pushed a button.
Message 43 of 53
smallfry
Senior Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.

If you check your Equifax reports from Equifax you will see those green boxes for every month the tradelines report. All my accounts report whether there is activity or no for that particular month.
Message 44 of 53
smallfry
Senior Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



@fused111 wrote:


@Anonymous wrote:

fused111 wrote: It's my understanding that two people can have the same change on their CR and have completely different results. It could be a situation where the two people might be swimming in different "scorecards, pools or buckets." Have you always PIF? It does save money, no question about that!

Yes, mostly PIF.

I wasn't clear to me if you preferred to PIF, now I know. Smiley Happy Some feel PIF is the way to go if you're not planning on a big purchase in the near future...house, car, etc.



If your utilization is under 1% do you really think a mortgage lender cares if you report 6 credit cards with a $10 balance? If you were sitting across from me and you had $100K available credit with $60 on 6 cards I would say fused why you do dat?
Message 45 of 53
VLGaffEsq
Regular Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.

I strongly suggest, Rifleman, that you DO NOT pay off your installment loan early; doing so will not help your FICO score.  If fact it may hurt you because lenders and the FICO scorers like to see different types of credit, including installment loans.  When I recently sold my car and paid off my auto loan early, I thought I would see a jump in my FICO score.  It did nothing.  Use your cash to pay down your credit card balances to lower your utilzation rate.  That is the most efficient way to raise your FICO score!
Message 46 of 53
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



VLGaffEsq wrote:
I strongly suggest, Rifleman, that you DO NOT pay off your installment loan early; doing so will not help your FICO score.  If fact it may hurt you because lenders and the FICO scorers like to see different types of credit, including installment loans.  When I recently sold my car and paid off my auto loan early, I thought I would see a jump in my FICO score.  It did nothing.  Use your cash to pay down your credit card balances to lower your utilzation rate.  That is the most efficient way to raise your FICO score!


Nah, I disagree! Paying off the installment quickly or according to the term doesn't matter. Nothing to gain there. Yes, FICO likes a credit mix but doesn't require the entire mix be only open accounts. Open and closed accounts are weighed and scored equally. Paying down the revolving accounts, by all means a resounding yes.
Message 47 of 53
MidnightVoice
Super Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



fused111 wrote:

Nah, I disagree! Paying off the installment quickly or according to the term doesn't matter. Nothing to gain there. Yes, FICO likes a credit mix but doesn't require the entire mix be only open accounts. Open and closed accounts are weighed and scored equally. Paying down the revolving accounts, by all means a resounding yes.


I agree.  I have no open auto loans, but they are still hanging around from a few years back and look good on the account.  All paid up and no lates
The slide from grace is really more like gliding
And I've found the trick is not to stop the sliding
But to find a graceful way of staying slid
Message 48 of 53
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.

Installment and Revolving are counted for "accounts with balances"

Just click on "credit at a glance" it lists the number of accounts with balances,
and it takes into account ALL of your accounts except mortgages
Message 49 of 53
MidnightVoice
Super Contributor

Re: Too many accounts with balances. New discussion.



rifleman wrote:
Installment and Revolving are counted for "accounts with balances"

Just click on "credit at a glance" it lists the number of accounts with balances,
and it takes into account ALL of your accounts except mortgages

But installments do not count towards utilization
The slide from grace is really more like gliding
And I've found the trick is not to stop the sliding
But to find a graceful way of staying slid
Message 50 of 53
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