I'm A Credit Virgin And I Want It To Be Special

[pdxuser]

Gas cards are just rewards cards that give extra on gas, right? Those don't have any particular scoring significance, do they?

[tonsers]

Gas cards are cards issued by the gas companies (for example - Chevron/Texaco).  For scoring purposes, they are like a store card.  Supposedly having a gas or store card rounds out the credit file and adds some extra points for "mix of credit".

[MattH]

---

@tonsers wrote:
Gas cards are cards issued by the gas companies (for example - Chevron/Texaco).  For scoring purposes, they are like a store card.  Supposedly having a gas or store card rounds out the credit file and adds some extra points for "mix of credit".

---

I believe the key point for both store cards and gas cards is they can only be used at the issuing company and sometimes a specific list of affiliated companies, whereas a card issued by a retail store that also bears a Visa or Mastercard logo is not considered a store card since it can be used anywhere Visa or Mastercard can be used.

[haulingthescoreup]

Either gas card (without MC/Visa/etc logo) OR store/retail card (without MC/Visa/etc logo).

To my understanding, there is no benefit in having one of each, although trying to keep up with the debate on this is wearing me out.

My "threesome" (I'm watching you, marty! ) would be two bank cards and a retail or gas card.

pdxuser, in the unlikely event that you haven't read it already, check out the FICO High Achievers' thread in my siggy. There are some "old school" people in there who have very few credit accounts, and they're doing just fine. At any rate, some good role models there.

[marty56]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
My "threesome" (I'm watching you, marty! ) would be two bank cards and a retail or gas card.

---

I couldnt help it.  You know how guys are when this subject comes up.

If I could pick my first cards again they would be:

@Anonymous Buiy card with 25k limit @ 0% no pyaments no interest for 100 years.

Gas card that allows me to buy ga at $1.00 a gallon for life.

Visa card with 90% cash back.

Dream,on  dream on till your dreams come true!

[Junejer]

Yep, that's one of those fantasies that you can live out in your private thoughts...and in the FICO forums apparently.

---

marty56 wrote:

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
My "threesome" (I'm watching you, marty! ) would be two bank cards and a retail or gas card.

---

I couldnt help it.  You know how guys are when this subject comes up.

If I could pick my first cards again they would be:

@Anonymous Buiy card with 25k limit @ 0% no pyaments no interest for 100 years.

Gas card that allows me to buy ga at $1.00 a gallon for life.

Visa card with 90% cash back.

Dream,on  dream on till your dreams come true!

---

[mazinaige]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
For scoring purposes, you should have as many CC's as you have open installment and mortgage loans, PLUS some. I would say plus 2 or 3, since you're going to be one of those restrained credit users (good for you.) This is because of the way that the scoring formula treats the number of accounts with balances. You want it to be fewer than half, and you want to have some wiggle room. So if you're going to have a mortgage + a loan, that would mean two cards to cancel those out, plus 2 or 3 --probably two in your case.

---

Hauling,

For scoring purposes, do you think it would be wise to have one CC for each student loan TL "plus some...say 2 or 3"?

Mazina'ige

[haulingthescoreup]

---

mazinaige wrote:

Hauling,

For scoring purposes, do you think it would be wise to have one CC for each student loan TL "plus some...say 2 or 3"?

Mazina'ige

---

Sorry for the delay, I've been doing some checking, and not getting terribly far, lol.

Are you currently getting a message of "too many accounts with balances" on your FICO score reports? (not on TrueCredit and other FAKO reports.) I'm asking because I have this vague memory that SL's might be handled differently.

For those who don't have SL's, they often show as a new account each semester. This can obviously be pretty brutal until you consolidate them. But several of us have a little twitch in our memories that SL's are maybe treated differently and somehow clumped together.

So that's why I asked if you get the too many accounts with balances bit. If not, it looks like you might not need to cover each loan with a card, which would get crazy over time. In the meantime, I'll try to figure out where that semi-memory comes from up.

[mazinaige]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:

---

@mazinaige wrote:

Hauling,

For scoring purposes, do you think it would be wise to have one CC for each student loan TL "plus some...say 2 or 3"?

Mazina'ige

---

Are you currently getting a message of "too many accounts with balances" on your FICO score reports?

For those who don't have SL's, they often show as a new account each semester. This can obviously be pretty brutal until you consolidate them. But several of us have a little twitch in our memories that SL's are maybe treated differently and somehow clumped together.

So that's why I asked if you get the too many accounts with balances bit. If not, it looks like you might not need to cover each loan with a card, which would get crazy over time.

---

Hauling,

I've been in graduate school in Canada for eight years and will graduate June 2009 with a PhD. I've taken out a Stafford subsidized and unsubsidized loan each year and they are listed as 16 TL. That is why I asked if I needed a CC to cover each of these TL. I do not even have one CC so while the idea makes sense in theory, in my case it could get crazy, but it it works to keep my scores up I'll do it.

I am planning to consolidate my variable Stafford loans from 2001-2006 in Sept 2009. Will those TL merge into one? Or will I get another TL? (Should this question be posted over in Student Loans?)

TU says:

1. There is no recent activity on your revolving accounts.

2. You have too many credit accounts.

EX says:

1. The balances on your non-mortgage credit accounts are too high.

2. There is no recent activity on your credit cards.

EQ says:

1. There is no recent activity on your revolving accounts.

[haulingthescoreup]

As I recall, when my daughter consolidated her loans, the old ones were no longer listed, and only the two consolidated loans showed up. But I have read differently.

The fact that you only have one or two negative comments per report (not the usual 3 or more), and they aren't saying too many accounts with balances, makes me suspect that the formula isn't counting 16 different lines, but only one or two. If you have a million significant negatives, like a collection, and new late, and high util, I can see them not griping about too many accounts with balances. But since your negatives are relatively sparse, I think that in fact, this isn't a negative.

Good idea to go post on Student Loans, asking if people can tell whether their loans seem to be counted individually, or in a lump.

I'm thinking that with clean but sparse credit, you're in a great position to create a beautiful profile from scratch. I would suggest (eventually) 2 or 3 bank cards, i.e., Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AmEx, with maybe one from a credit union if you like, and one card that is purely store or gas card; i.e., no Visa, MC, etc logo. Be picky and don't fool with rebuilders, so that you won't have to shed crappy cards in the future.

You might want to look at the FICO High Achievers thread in my siggy. We've been collecting positive and negative feedback from FICO reports and comparing them with the reports of a lot of our 760+ members.


eta: oh, and congrats on your upcoming PhD! My older daughter is in med school, also wanting an MPh, so she's looking at 5 years, and she's seeing (via Skype, poor things) a guy in a 5-year PhD program 6 states away. It ain't easy doing graduate and professional school, that's for sure.

Message Edited by haulingthescoreup on 11-07-2008 07:58 PM