Different types of credit, HELOCs, and their effect on FICO score

[gamegrrl]

This is taken from my ScoreWatch report:

Your FICO score evaluates your mix of credit cards, installment loans and mortgages. People who demonstrate responsible use of different types of credit are generally less risky to lenders.

I paid off my mortgage so long ago that it doesn't even show up in my credit files anymore. Will my new HELOC count as a "mortgage type" loan to give me some balance, or will it purely count as an installment loan? It's a $57,600 LOC.

[CreditBob]

A HELOC is considered a revolving trade line. You could apply for a personal or auto loan which would be an installment type of trade line. How old are your accounts? Eventually you could reach a 800 fico score by allowing your credit cards to age. Try this & go ro www.bankrate.com/fico

[MarineVietVet]

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@CreditBob wrote:

A HELOC is considered a revolving trade line. You could apply for a personal or auto loan which would be an installment type of trade line. How old are your accounts? Eventually you could reach a 800 fico score by allowing your credit cards to age. Try this & go ro www.bankrate.com/fico

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Only up to a certain amount. llecs explains this very well in another post from earlier today:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Affect-of-account-payoff-vs-new-home-equi...

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[geronimo2008]

I believe taht marinevietvet is 100% correct in terms of howa HELOC SHOULD be represented.  I no longer havea balance on my HELOC but when I did it seemed to be constantly reclassifiedas either revolving and installment loan at least on TU  and this led to pretty wide swings in my TU FICO score.

I am not saying that thjis is supposed to happen and certainly not saying it will happen to you but it clearly is something that CAN happen and sometimes does.   BTW I trieda to correct i with TU a few times. It would always be reclassified and then some number of months later the situation would recur.     I learned to live with it.hopefully if it does happen to you it will not have an adverse effoect on you.

[Anonymous]

And please note that we've had posters on these forums who have achieved an 800+ FICO with no mortgages reporting.