Confused by Transunion/Equifax & MyFico Recommendations

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I just joined and viewed my "3-way" credit score.

I'm 755 with Experian, but only 676 and 703 with Transunion/Equifax.

According the "Improve my Score" wizard, it says my revolving credit is too high, which is crazy!

• I only have one credit card, an Amex Green with no credit limit - and I pay it off every month. 
• I use it for everything, and average about $3k/mo in charges... but according the the report, I suppose charging $3k and paying it off every month is too much?  I travel for work and this is pretty unavoidable.
• I have no other debt! I own my home & car outright.

I have a couple other items that could be impacting things - one collection from 2003 that is disputed,and one 30 day late payment in 2003 that is also disputed. 

Any thoughts as to how to get the 2 scores up?

Thanks,
DC

[Anonymous]

Welcome DC!

1.  Read the Credit Scoring 101 thread at: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654.

2.  Ask AmEx if they will convert your Green to a Blue card.  Make sure you will keep your payment history ("Member since _______") and that you get a high credit limit.  Ask for more than they initially offer. The Blue card has no annual fee plus you can get points or cash for your purchases.

3.  Ask AmEx when they report to the CRAs each month (the "reporting date").  Is it the statement date, the due date, the last Friday of the month, etc? You may need to talk to a supervisor because frequently the CSR who answers the phone knows less about credit than you do.

4.  Make sure your utilization on the reporting date is 1% - 9% -- that is, you owe no more than 9% of your credit limit.  There is no need to carry a balance because you don't need to do this every month.  You only need to show that level of utilization when your score is being calculated for the purposes of a credit application.

Good luck!

[Dawn]

The following information may help you sort this out.

Why do I care if my credit limit is reported? 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2167

Is this AMEX card one of those that you are required to PIF each month and not revolve anything at all?  If so, I thought they were supposed to be coded/reported in such a way that they would not be factored into revolving utilization.  I would be interested in knowing how the Account type, Credit Type and Terms fields are reported.

I have a flexible spending (no pre-set spending limit) card that does not report a CL.  It should, but in it's absence FICO (at least on my TU report)  uses the High Balance in the revolving credit utilization, causing it to be higher than it really is.

It reports as:

Account type: Credit Card

Credit Type: Open

Terms: Min

Message Edited by denbar2003 on 11-28-2007 03:23 PM