$0 reported debt

[vanillabean]

With a credit card, a mortgage and a HELOC each reporting a balance, my EX 8 was 846. It was 850 with the HELOC reporting no balance. When the mortgage disappeared due to soon to be transferred, the EX dropped to 830. When the credit card reported no balance on top of that, the score was all the way down to 808. That’s how my EX is at $0 reported debt.

My EQ 8 looks brighter. 850 usually, 849 with just one credit card and no installment balances, TBU at no debt.

TU usually at 850, 841 with no credit card reporting a balance and installments do, TBU at no debt.

So I am reminded of two things known to us: 1. FICO universally dislikes no balances on credit cards, 2. FICO 8 dislikes no installment accounts.

[Anonymous]

Nice data points!  Probably one of the reason that so many people who got the secured Alliant SSL hack already had very high FICOs!  Seeing folks with 810 FICO scores getting a secured loan still makes me chuckle.

I have one of my tiny auto-charges fall 4 days before the statement date on the one card I show a small balance on.  I pay it off the day after the statement cuts, pretty smooth sailing except for this past month when I pushed a PIF before statement cut and my FICO dropped 18 points from having no balances.

[Gunnar419]

vanillabean, thank you for the good data points! It's most interesting that you were able to reach 849 with nothing but a cc balance. I didn't think it was possible to go that high without a mortgage, car loan or something other than ccs.

My FICOs are in the 810-820 range with only ccs. I usually keep very small balances on one or two cards with total utilization under 1%, but I've been wondering how much better or worse those scores would be with either an installment loan or zero balances. Though I realize every profile is different, you've given very helpful data.

I dislike keeping balances on my cards just to get score points and have been thinking about paying the cards to zero. I'm also thinking about getting a small car loan this summer, so I've been wondering what either of these changes or a combination the two would do to my scores.

[Anonymous]

I bet a car loan would get you close to 850 especially if you paid down a good portion of that loan quickly.

[Gunnar419]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I bet a car loan would get you close to 850 especially if you paid down a good portion of that loan quickly.

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I was afraid a car loan might initially push me back down into the 700s. FICO is so weird about installment loans. They're good! They're bad! Pay them down quickly but never, ever pay them off or you'll be completely screwed!

Since I don't plan any other credit apps, it's not that important what happens to my score and I realize being in the high 700s does no practical harm at all. It's only that I've gotten into the MyFICO habit of liking to keep a high score. My credit has gone from good to to excellent thanks to the advice I found here.

Even getting somewhere near 850 would be a dream come true.

[Anonymous]

Why not just do the Alliant SSL then?  Takes a week or so.  No hard inquiry.  Costs you $44 in tied up money and a few bucks in interest over 5 years.

If your FICO jumps closer to 850, you know what you need to do in terms of having a real installment loan!

[Revelate]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

vanillabean, thank you for the good data points! It's most interesting that you were able to reach 849 with nothing but a cc balance. I didn't think it was possible to go that high without a mortgage, car loan or something other than ccs.

My FICOs are in the 810-820 range with only ccs. I usually keep very small balances on one or two cards with total utilization under 1%, but I've been wondering how much better or worse those scores would be with either an installment loan or zero balances. Though I realize every profile is different, you've given very helpful data.

I dislike keeping balances on my cards just to get score points and have been thinking about paying the cards to zero. I'm also thinking about getting a small car loan this summer, so I've been wondering what either of these changes or a combination the two would do to my scores.

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Hey you, any reason you haven't done the SSL?  Curious as you've been around here for a while and once we found that 2 years ago it caught on right quick.

[vanillabean]

The credit card has now been reported by EQ as zeroed. The score dropped a whopping 29 points to 820.

[Anonymous]

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@vanillabean wrote:

The credit card has now been reported by EQ as zeroed. The score dropped a whopping 29 points to 820.

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Careful there, Credit One might AA you, lol.

[Gunnar419]

ABCD and Revelate -- Until now I haven't thought about the Alliant loan, partly because although I cherish a high score I don't like the idea of playing FICO games for the sake of FICO games. Also, I haven't been planning to app for anything. Now that I may have an auto loan in my future, you remind me that the Alliant program might be both a good trial run and a good thing to have on my records to boost my auto FICOs. (I don't know what my auto FICOs are, but I'm sure they must be lower than my FICO8s.)

Thank you. Thank you, also, to whoever discovered the Alliant trick.