Do CLIs count as New Credit?

[Anonymous]

There's an ideal way to do the secured loan method of improving your score.  It was discovered by Revelate and one or two other veterans a couple years ago.  That's to take out a personal loan with a long term (like 5 years) and then pay off most of it early on but continue to keep it open for the full term.

This thread will explain all the details.  All you need to do is read the first couple posts.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...

Because your existing loan will be paid off in May, you may want to get started in a few weeks on the step by step process you'll see described in that thread so that your Alliant loan will be in place by the end of April.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice, but I'll be in the US for a couple of years only. I feel like I have been jumping through way more hoops than I wanted to already to achieve a halfway decent credit score. Feeling in good shape now and take it from there!

[Anonymous]

OK.  Expect that your FICO score will get better as you approach May.   That's because your loan will become mostly paid off -- you'll only owe 1/12 of the original amount.  But around June, when the loan reports as paid off, your score will drop by 25 points or more, since you will no longer have an open installment loan.

If you decide you want to prevent that, the SSL technique will be the thing you'll want to use.