Gardening -- how many points can a realistically expect to get

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My current scores are EX 711, EQ 749, TU 722

I  have three secured credit cards, First Premier, Discover and Trans Union.

My average age of accounts is 5.7

My youngest account (two of them) are 3 months.

I know there are many of you who understand this system inside/out.

What type of point increase can I expect if I garden.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

My current scores are EX 711, EQ 749, TU 722

I  have three secured credit cards, First Premier, Discover and Trans Union.

My average age of accounts is 5.7

My youngest account (two of them) are 3 months.

I know there are many of you who understand this system inside/out.

What type of point increase can I expect if I garden.

Thanks. 

---

Hello and congrats on the rebuild, your increases will mostly come from crossing utility thresholds, credit mix, removing negatives, aging your accounts and lowering personal loan balances to around 8%. Also, I believe the points come slower as the score gets higher. So I would ask you to share your usage on each card, as well as your loan balances, and any negatives on your CR

Gardening would help you age those 3m/o accounts to 12m/o accounts or older. I can't give you an estimate on the points gained from that activity.

[Anonymous]

Are you certain that TransUnion is the name of one of your credit cards?  If so, can you give us a link to that issuer?  TU is certainly a credit bureau, but I have never heard of a CC issuer called TransUnion.  Happy to learn something new.

You don't mention how many inquiries you have.  If you have 15 recent inquiries at Equifax (say) then gardening will help your EQ score a lot more than if you had 1 inquiry.

What is the age of your oldest account?  (Closed or open)  I am guessing it must be quite high.  What tool are you using to calculate your AAoA?

I assume that you have no derogs -- is that right?

[Anonymous]

CreditGuyInDixie

OOPS!!!!

That should be Cap One, not Trans Union.

As for your other questions -- here you go. Appreciate your guidance.

Inquiries -- EX 3 TU 2 EQ 4

Oldest account -- 14.7

AAoA -- 5.7 years (I am using Credit Check Total)

Accounts Ever Late (30 days late in Mar. 2014, 60 day June 2013)

EX 2

TU 2

EQ 1

Accounts In Collections ($228 -- Nov. 1, 2012)

EX 1

TU 1

EQ 0

Time Since Negative

EX 5.5 year(s)

TU 5.5 year(s)

EQ 4.8 year(s)

Thanks

[Revelate]

In approximately a year and a half you'll be north of 800 probably by quite a bit.

That's more a function of your negatives aging out rather than anything else though.  Until that happens you're going to be capped on scores, an old 60 day late and collection probably caps out around 750 or so.

Ultimately gardening isn't really about waiting a period of time, it's about not making silly (or debatably, stupid) applications.  Always have a plan when it comes to managing credit: in your case, it's just a matter of time before you can acquire far superior tradelines as compared to what you have now, so I'd just wait.  The rush of store card approvals or whatever, really should be avoided as should any other tradeline you don't really have a use for.

My opinion on the subject anyway.

[Anonymous]

Right.  As Revelate says, gardening by definition amounts (a) an extended period of time in which (b) you make no applications for credit.

The time alone will help you with your derogs in a huge way.  13 months of gardening (my recomendation) will cause your collections to fall of your reports entirely, giving you a big boost.  It will also cause your lates to age into well into the past.  (The Day 60s may be a bit more stubborn and you could benefit a lot of from initiating a GW campaign during 2019, once you have your CC utilization very low.)

The time without applications will cause all your accounts and your inquiries to age  to over 12 months, which will give you a separate boost.

What is your CC utilization now -- and can you bring it to a very low number?  Like 1-5%

[909]

My Fico 8 scores dropped 16 - 21 points (from 820s to the 800s) when my AoYA dropped from 31 months to zero months, i.e. gardening gives you notable points for aging your youngest account(s). I don't care about the points because the HELOC I got provides value where the points are just there to help me get credit when needed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your comments -- great advice.

CreditGuyInDixie, my CC utilization is VERY, VERY low, like 1-2 per cent. I make one purchase 

As far as a GW campaign, my 60 day late (and also the 30) are with First Premier. 

Not sure what my prosepcts would be with them.

Thanks again.

I actually find all this fascinating.. I didn't know A THING about this until September (never heard of utilization rates, NFCU, shared secure loans, needing three credit cards) and have been lucky enough to get my totals from the lower-mid 600's to all over 700 now.

I have learned a lot.

[spiritcraft1]

With your scores and few INQ's, I think a couple of unsecured cards are in order.  Maybe a CU or two? 

[Anonymous]

Thanks spiritcraft1,

Appreciate your suggestion. My only goal right now is to raise my FICO score. 

Would there be any benefit to get a unsecured card or two.

I am totally comfortable with the secured cards IF that will be give me the best way to increase the FICO scores.

Thanks again.