Credit Scoring 101 - START HERE!

[smallfry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello All! I want to first start by saying that I love this forum. I am in my early thirties and have just started a business so I have really started learning about personal and business credit. I have perfect credit save for one issue. I had a 60 and 90 day late approx 6yrs 9 mo's ago. It will be off my credit soon enough so I am excited about that. I have a question about closing a revolving account. First of all here are my scores:

I have had TrueCredit for the last two years. It has my scores as follows:

3/23/08

EQ: 780

EX: 709

TU: 702

Here are my FICO Scores:

3/23/08

EQ: 721

EX: 688 (EX Reports my HELOC as a CC and it is bringing my score down!!!)

TU: 731

These scores do not account for the fact that I have completely paid off a quad (GEMB) for $7,000 (9k limit) and paid off $2,500 of CC debt. This now leaves me w/ $200.00 of total debt other than my mortgage and HELOC. The cards will update soon so I am not too worried about that. What I am worried about is what TrueCredit said. Under the factors affecting my score they said I have too much available credit (22K) and I should consider closing an account, and that I did not have a lengthy credit file (Average age is 4yrs 9mos). After reading that I paid off the GEMB Honda Card and asked that the account be closed. This was five days ago that I did this. My reasoning for closing it was based on TC's advice and the fact that it was my newest account (opened in March 2006) and I figured it would make my average account age go up. After reading the posts on the forum it appears that I may not have wanted to close the account. I am confuesd about what I should do. Should I leave the account as closed (I will never use this account again) or should I call GEMB and tell them to open the account back up? I would appreciate any help on this topic. Thanks!

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Forget everything Truecredit says.

[Anonymous]

need discount coupon

[haulingthescoreup]

myFICO has a current one on the home page (www.myfico.com.) You can get it there.

We don't publish any non-myFICO discount codes on the forums as a courtesy to our host. Just Google fico discount coupon or fico discount code and you'll find a bunch.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 05-22-2008 01:37 PM

[dp246]

In a situation where the only form of debt that a person currently has is on a few credit cards, after paying off all of the credit card debt (resulting in a  zero balance on all credit cards) will the fico score then begin to drop if the credit cards are no longer used (and the balance remains at zero dollars)?

[marty56]

I have read that you can get a score hit for no cards reporting but I have never done this so I dont know from first hand experience.  You can allow a small balance to report each month on 1 or 2 cards (I do this).  As long is you PIF by the due date you wont pay interest so its interest free money.

Keep your util at 9% or below and if you need to charge more, then try to pay it down before the card reports.  All part of playing the FICO score game.

[dp246]

Thanks for your response, Marty56.

Message Edited by dp246 on 06-25-2008 01:34 AM

[Anonymous]

hey all i had a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Dismissed back in 11-02 i went to the first court date but did not go to the second one so no debt was affected i still owed every thing i started with. just out the 1300

i paid the lawyer but it still shows on my report?

HELP !!!!!!!! is there anything i can do now i know it will come off soon but you know

my fico score is now 657 looking for a bit more

thanks joe