New: My Progress Thread

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Things are looking up. I often read how you should have at least one store card in your wallet. I started looking around at store cards with soft pull pre-approvals just to compare options. Lowe's approved me for $3,000. Not too bad. I didn't compete the application. 

I also tried the Apple Card again. They offered $4,000 this time. If I keep declining the offer, maybe they keep upping the offer? Not sure, but since I'm not quite ready for another card right now away I figure I'll try again in a few months. 

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Often read where? I have never heard it was good to have at least 1 store card in your wallet. I do not have a single store card in mine, and would never advise anyone to get one just to have one store card in their wallet. They might be easier to get, and might not cause harm having a small number of store cards in the mix, but there are issues with such cards. They are less useful, since they can only be used at one place. The retailer has incentive to encourage an approval since it will only be used there. Due to that, Synchrony and Commenity are the main issuers with their rather lax approval process. That too is a double edge sword, because in a downturn they are also quick to close cards en mass. I have nothing against store cards, and might would even be useful for the high discounts the often offer. I do think they are less favorable to lenders compared with major credit cards. I do not advise against getting any store credit cards, but often advise to never have too much exposure to any one card issuer like Synchrony and Commenity. That happens a lot, and the stories of what happens when Synchrony decides to lower their exposure are everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info Sarge. Getting a store card definitely isn't on my top priority list, especially if isn't going to be helpful. 

My wallet is coming along well with just the 3 cards and scores are rising. I've been try to to use Azeo but it's hard to nail a zero statement balance every time the statement cuts. It's because I've replace my debit cards with CC's completely. I typical have $20-30 that reports because the transactions haven't cleared yet and I'm unable to make a payment on them. It's not a big deal, but takes some planning to nail $0. 

[Horseshoez]

@Anonymous, don't sweat a small balance being reported per month, it will not make even a single point difference in your credit scores.

[OmarGB9]

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@Horseshoez wrote:

@Anonymous, don't sweat a small balance being reported per month, it will not make even a single point difference in your credit scores.

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That's not true at all. Depending on profile, it can and does make a point difference, ranging from 1 point to up to 10+ points. In my case with a dirty file with  6 paid COs, 1 unpaid CO I'm still working on and 1 collection I'm still paying on, every zero balance I have gives me around 4 points. Whereas even a small balance drops me 5 points or so.

[Horseshoez]

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

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@Horseshoez wrote:

@Anonymous, don't sweat a small balance being reported per month, it will not make even a single point difference in your credit scores.

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That's not true at all. Depending on profile, it can and does make a point difference, ranging from 1 point to up to 10+ points. In my case with a dirty file with  6 paid COs, 1 unpaid CO I'm still working on and 1 collection I'm still paying on, every zero balance I have gives me around 4 points. Whereas even a small balance drops me 5 points or so.

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Ummm, sorry, not convinced.  Other than my Chapter 13 discharge from last year I have a clean file, and whether my statements are $0, $0, and $25, or whether they are $12, $27, and $53, my score remains totally flat.  In your case, given everything else going on in your history, I submit you are unable to discern what is impacting your score on a month to month basis.

[OmarGB9]

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@Horseshoez wrote:

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@OmarGB9 wrote:

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@Horseshoez wrote:

@Anonymous, don't sweat a small balance being reported per month, it will not make even a single point difference in your credit scores.

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That's not true at all. Depending on profile, it can and does make a point difference, ranging from 1 point to up to 10+ points. In my case with a dirty file with  6 paid COs, 1 unpaid CO I'm still working on and 1 collection I'm still paying on, every zero balance I have gives me around 4 points. Whereas even a small balance drops me 5 points or so.

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Ummm, sorry, not convinced.  Other than my Chapter 13 discharge from last year I have a clean file, and whether my statements are $0, $0, and $25, or whether they are $12, $27, and $53, my score remains totally flat.  In your case, given everything else going on in your history, I submit you are unable to discern what is impacting your score on a month to month basis.

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Every profile is different. You can't just make blanket statements about balances not costing points just because *your* individual profile happens to stay flat.

And I know the point loss/gain can only be from balances because my balances have gone up and down since January, and every time I report a zero balance, I get that small 4 point boost I mentioned, and when I report a high balance or any non-zero balance, I lose those points again. Nothing else changed other than an additional month of age on my credit, but I'm not anywhere near crossing any age thresholds.

Finally, I submit you're *also* unable to discern what is impacting your score on a month to month basis because you're showing a BK on your reports, which means your file isn't actually clean.

[Horseshoez]

@OmarGB9, you certainly don't need anybody's permission to adhere to the AZEO concept, but there are a lot of datapoints which strongly suggest AZE2 is exactly as effective.  I admit my experience is only one set of data points, and if I was the only one seeing these results, then they'd be irrelevant.  The good news is, I'm not the only one.  Once again, if AZEO works for you, and you're good with jumping through all of the hoops to achieve that, keep on that course.  In my case, and the case of many others, where there is zero benefit to play that game.

[OmarGB9]

But we're not talking about AZEO...

I'm merely pointing out that balances being reported *can* in fact result in score fluctuations. Whether those fluctuations are big or small (or non-existent in your case) depend a lot on an individual profile. I pointed out zero balances vs high balances as an example, but my point wasn't to tell OP to implement AZEO. My point was that when I report balances and when they change, whether down to zero or simply lower from one month to the next, there CAN be score changes. Period.

[Horseshoez]

We'll have to agree to disagree; my argument is a few low balances, say under 1% of the limit on any give card, will have zero impact on the credit scores.  Keep in mind, nothing in any of what I've written mentions anything regarding high balances, in this case, there is no question higher balances will impact the scores.

[Anonymous]

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@Horseshoez wrote:

We'll have to agree to disagree; my argument is a few low balances, say under 1% of the limit on any give card, will have zero impact on the credit scores.  Keep in mind, nothing in any of what I've written mentions anything regarding high balances, in this case, there is no question higher balances will impact the scores.

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But that's the rub - one known scoring factor on clean reports is the percentage of open accounts showing a balance. A few, say three for example, non-zero accounts for a person with five cards and no derogs means that over 50% of their accounts are not at zero. That's a known point penalty. It's not always the dollar amount. When you look at the percentage of accounts with any balance, it can and will cost points. With a relatively fresh BK on there, that's the 800lb gorilla in your room, and that'll override smaller (but still valid) scoring factors such as what I'm talking about.