will closing account help?

[Anonymous]

Hello All!

Great forum!

I have 9 credit cards and other non-revolving debt.  Average CL is around $5000 on credit cards.  Average age of card is four years.  I opened an Orchard Bank cc six months ago.  CL is $300.  If I close this account, will it increase my score?

Thanks much, Hanniss

[Anonymous]

Nope-unless it will affect your UTL balances/CL's
Good news is won't decrease it either.

Welcome to my 9 credit cards/ 4 year avg TL group.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All!

Great forum!

I have 9 credit cards and other non-revolving debt. Average CL is around $5000 on credit cards. Average age of card is four years. I opened an Orchard Bank cc six months ago. CL is $300. If I close this account, will it increase my score?

Thanks much, Hanniss

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[Anonymous]

Thanks Timothy!

I just can't seem to improve my score.  I am just below 680, even though I am authorized user on two cards that have 15+ year history, all paid off.  I opened my own cc 10 years ago and also have two mortgages and two HELOCs.  Never a late payment or collections. 

Credit utilization is under 15%.

[Anonymous]

What does FICO list as your positive and negative factors?

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks Timothy!

I just can't seem to improve my score. I am just below 680, even though I am authorized user on two cards that have 15+ year history, all paid off. I opened my own cc 10 years ago and also have two mortgages and two HELOCs. Never a late payment or collections.

Credit utilization is under 15%.

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[Anonymous]

Timothy,

Very positive: no lates

Positive: length of credit history

Negative: amount of debt

Negative: Credit utilisation (even though credit utilisation is only 15%)

Negative: amount of new credit: cc account opened 3 months ago

I was recently added as an authorized cardholder.  This card just showed up yesterday and it made Experian go down by 8 points but Transunion stayed the same and Equifax went up by 3.  Beats me.

The new card has $2000 limit and balance of $220.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are doing the right things-
Get the Utilization under 10%

You have to remember this is a RISK score-
Having 2 Mortgages and 2 HELOC's could be flagging the "amount of debt"=Higher Risk

keep and eye on the number of accounts with balances as well-

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@Anonymous wrote:

Timothy,

Very positive: no lates

Positive: length of credit history

Negative: amount of debt

Negative: Credit utilization (even though credit utilization is only 15%)

Negative: amount of new credit: cc account opened 3 months ago

I was recently added as an authorized cardholder. This card just showed up yesterday and it made Experian go down by 8 points but Transunion stayed the same and Equifax went up by 3. Beats me.

The new card has $2000 limit and balance of $220.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks much. 

4 accounts show $0, three accounts show $50 or less, the other two are a little higher.  The three accts with less than $50 on it each, if I pay off small balances like that, will my score increase?

[haulingthescoreup]

I have read that if you have more than four or five cards, FICO likes to see half or fewer reporting balances. You can change around which ones report from month to month, to keep the CCC's happy also.

And just as a general fyi, FICO looks at the util on each revolving account, AND at overall util. I would try letting only 4 --maybe 3-- cards report, and each of them under 10% (i.e., 1-9%.)

As for your Orchard, you can use it every couple of months to buy a Happy Meal and pay it off to keep it alive. If there aren't fees, you can do this indefinitely, until you drive them crazy. If there are fees, it doesn't sound like a card worth hanging on to, if you have a high enough overall credit limit.

Do you have balances on the HELOC's? Unfortunately, they are often treated as revolving credit, even though your lender might report them as mortgages or other installment. If you have used them and they're pretty well maxed out, you might wind up having to switch one or both to a home equity loan. So many people have used HELOC's to pay off CC debt that you just can't get a CRA to treat them properly any more.

[haulingthescoreup]

hanniss, I just looked again at your list of positives and negatives, and I don't recognize the phrase "very positive" from any FICO scores I have ever gotten (maybe I don't have anything on my FICO scores that's very positive! ) Are these from an actual FICO report, or are they from a credit bureau or credit monitoring service? In which case, both the advice and score are suspect.

If it's from a FICO score from EQ or TU (EX doesn't fully participate), check screen two--what percentage of util is it showing? If it's counting your HELOC balances, it might well be more than 15%.

[fused]

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hanniss wrote:

Thanks Timothy!

I just can't seem to improve my score.  I am just below 680, even though I am authorized user on two cards that have 15+ year history, all paid off.  I opened my own cc 10 years ago and also have two mortgages and two HELOCs.  Never a late payment or collections. 

Credit utilization is under 15%.

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These two HELOC, are they reporting as installments or revolving lines. If reporting as revolving, what are the CLs and what are the balances?