@Anonymous wrote:I only plan to have 2 mortgages for a limited amount of time... likely however long it takes to sell the first house and pay off that mortgage. The plan isn't to have 2 mortgages forever, that's for sure.
Curious why you'd suggest 2 cards instead of 4? I would think in a year or more of time that the number wouldn't matter much as the inquiries would be gone and they wouldn't be new accounts at that point? The only difference that I see in opening 2 accounts verses 4 would be my AAoA would still be 7 years instead of 6... but even with 4 accounts opened I'd be back at 7 in about 8-9 months.
1. I don't think you should leap from 1 to 5 unless you're absolutely sure you'd enjoy having 5 cards.
2. 4 cards of 1 year duration will drop your AAoA much more than 2 cards of 1 year duration.
3. 4 new cards will hurt your scores a lot now.
4. Some mortgage loan officers look askance at a lot of credit cards.
5. Right now your AAofA and lack of inquiries put you in the running to become a FICO "high achiever" in the relatively near future; doing a 4-card spree will move you back about 5 years, I would estimate.
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I only plan to have 2 mortgages for a limited amount of time... likely however long it takes to sell the first house and pay off that mortgage. The plan isn't to have 2 mortgages forever, that's for sure.
Curious why you'd suggest 2 cards instead of 4? I would think in a year or more of time that the number wouldn't matter much as the inquiries would be gone and they wouldn't be new accounts at that point? The only difference that I see in opening 2 accounts verses 4 would be my AAoA would still be 7 years instead of 6... but even with 4 accounts opened I'd be back at 7 in about 8-9 months.
1. I don't think you should leap from 1 to 5 unless you're absolutely sure you'd enjoy having 5 cards.
2. 4 cards of 1 year duration will drop your AAoA much more than 2 cards of 1 year duration.
3. 4 new cards will hurt your scores a lot now.
4. Some mortgage loan officers look askance at a lot of credit cards.
5. Right now your AAofA and lack of inquiries put you in the running to become a FICO "high achiever" in the relatively near future; doing a 4-card spree will move you back about 5 years, I would estimate.
Up above he's already done the AAOA math SJ, his new AAOA with 4 apps will be higher than his old AAOA currently when we're talking a year from now - only a 9 month reduction which is solved in 9 months.
Also 5 cards is like average honestly and not an outlier... nobody blinked at my 14 cards for example and I talked to a number of different LO's. inquiries likewise don't matter a year+ out.
I don't know how much this will help but I did an app spree in Dec 2015 and added a loan in Jan 2016.
I had a thin file. I had one CC and one loan. I added three cards and one loan. My AAoA went down to 2 months. I added 2 inquiries. Two card were gotten with the shopping card trick. My scores dropped from about 660 to 645. I had 1 Public Record on each report.
I got the Public Record off my TU and EX reports. I paid the loan down under 9%. My AAoA is now 7 months. My latest FICO 8 scores are TU 759, EX 766, EQ 712.
With your AAoA I think you will do fine in recovering any points. I noticed you said you want to pay down your utilization. That could be a big help. I don't know how high your scores will rise but they should go above mine. Keep working on that GW letter. You never know when they will agree and that could be a nice jump.
I looked at cards that would help with purchases after I buy a house. I hoping to get one late next year. I have one more card to get and then it is into the garden. My recovery has been fast and I think yours will be also.
@Revelate wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I only plan to have 2 mortgages for a limited amount of time... likely however long it takes to sell the first house and pay off that mortgage. The plan isn't to have 2 mortgages forever, that's for sure.
Curious why you'd suggest 2 cards instead of 4? I would think in a year or more of time that the number wouldn't matter much as the inquiries would be gone and they wouldn't be new accounts at that point? The only difference that I see in opening 2 accounts verses 4 would be my AAoA would still be 7 years instead of 6... but even with 4 accounts opened I'd be back at 7 in about 8-9 months.
1. I don't think you should leap from 1 to 5 unless you're absolutely sure you'd enjoy having 5 cards.
2. 4 cards of 1 year duration will drop your AAoA much more than 2 cards of 1 year duration.
3. 4 new cards will hurt your scores a lot now.
4. Some mortgage loan officers look askance at a lot of credit cards.
5. Right now your AAofA and lack of inquiries put you in the running to become a FICO "high achiever" in the relatively near future; doing a 4-card spree will move you back about 5 years, I would estimate.
Up above he's already done the AAOA math SJ, his new AAOA with 4 apps will be higher than his old AAOA currently when we're talking a year from now - only a 9 month reduction which is solved in 9 months.
Also 5 cards is like average honestly and not an outlier... nobody blinked at my 14 cards for example and I talked to a number of different LO's. inquiries likewise don't matter a year+ out.
I stand corrected
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback so far everyone.
I understand that my scores will take a temporary hit. I'm not really worried about that as I will not be applying for any more credit for at least a year, or whenever the time comes for that mortgage. This will likely be my only CC app spree ever and it will be gardening from here on out. I've only apped for 2 CC's my entire life this far, 15 years apart from one another so I'm not prone to apping and think the 4 cards will satisfy everything I need.
I don't understand the FICO high achiever comment above and how I would be setting myself back 5 years with 4 CC applications if you'd like to elaborate on that.
From reading some of what you have said above, it appears that most if not everyone after their sprees came out ahead of where they started (FICO score wise) within a year and in some cases less than a year which makes me feel better about my plan. It would seem that the biggest factor a year from now holding back my scores will be the 90 day late on my reports, not the planned spree that would be a year old.
My view was that you're on the way to a super average age of accounts, and you'll be damaging that by adding 4 new accounts, but Revelate, who knows more about this than I do, disagreed. So I deferred to him on that.
@Anonymous wrote:Gotcha. I understand that I'll be dropping my AAoA from 7 years to 6 years by opening 4 new accounts. While there may not be any solid data points out there on the difference between 6 and 7 years of AAoA I know that with diminishing returns it's certainly less impactful than going from 3-2 or 2-1, etc. I may lose some temporary points, but they'll be acquired back a few months (at least) before I apply for the mortgage as I'll be back at 7 years AAoA. Without adding the new accounts I'd be at an 8 year AAoA at that time, so the question really is if there's a significant difference between 7 and 8 years in this category. Again, with diminishing returns I'd think this difference is minor.
I don't know what constitutes a "thick" or "thin" file around here, but I've got 19 accounts on mine which I think is enough to absorb a one-time mini spree of 4 accounts. I have 5 accounts on my report of 15-16 years each which helps my AAoA quite a bit.
I'm really hoping I can make some progress as far as getting this stupid 90 day late removed. Not to get off topic here, but it's a really ridiculous one that I started a thread on a month or so back. I had an account through Wells Fargo for some furniture I bought and I had 18 months or something to pay it off. I paid it off (or at least I thought) in about 9 months. Somehow, a complete mistake on my part, I short paid my final payment by $2.93. The minimum payment was $54 and I paid $230-something, thinking I was paying off the account. Months later I got a letter saying I owed $2.93. No problem, I paid it right away. Months after that I see the 90 day late on my report for $2.93. Sucks. The information they reported was accurate; I can't dispute the reporting because I did screw up the payment... but it's pretty ridiculous that $2.93 is killing my credit scores now and will continue to for the next 5.5 years. I'm 24 GW letters in and 20+ emails in to WF and nothing but denials thus far... but the machine churns forward.
Bummer
@Anonymous wrote:Gotcha. I understand that I'll be dropping my AAoA from 7 years to 6 years by opening 4 new accounts. While there may not be any solid data points out there on the difference between 6 and 7 years of AAoA I know that with diminishing returns it's certainly less impactful than going from 3-2 or 2-1, etc. I may lose some temporary points, but they'll be acquired back a few months (at least) before I apply for the mortgage as I'll be back at 7 years AAoA. Without adding the new accounts I'd be at an 8 year AAoA at that time, so the question really is if there's a significant difference between 7 and 8 years in this category. Again, with diminishing returns I'd think this difference is minor.
I don't know what constitutes a "thick" or "thin" file around here, but I've got 19 accounts on mine which I think is enough to absorb a one-time mini spree of 4 accounts. I have 5 accounts on my report of 15-16 years each which helps my AAoA quite a bit.
I'm really hoping I can make some progress as far as getting this stupid 90 day late removed. Not to get off topic here, but it's a really ridiculous one that I started a thread on a month or so back. I had an account through Wells Fargo for some furniture I bought and I had 18 months or something to pay it off. I paid it off (or at least I thought) in about 9 months. Somehow, a complete mistake on my part, I short paid my final payment by $2.93. The minimum payment was $54 and I paid $230-something, thinking I was paying off the account. Months later I got a letter saying I owed $2.93. No problem, I paid it right away. Months after that I see the 90 day late on my report for $2.93. Sucks. The information they reported was accurate; I can't dispute the reporting because I did screw up the payment... but it's pretty ridiculous that $2.93 is killing my credit scores now and will continue to for the next 5.5 years. I'm 24 GW letters in and 20+ emails in to WF and nothing but denials thus far... but the machine churns forward.
Well 2->3 was zero points gained on any model I track so don't be so sure on 3->2 being more than that haha 
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