Installment tradeline utilization thread

[jamie123]

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@Revelate wrote:

Youngest account = 1 year, no change in my data.

Which bureaus were the inquiries on?

You get wider swings with minor changes when you're clean vs. dirty, but I think your data is actually more conclusive that 30% isn't a breakpoint: you don't have to look much further than my own score changes where I absolutely have a tax lien, a collection, and payment history deliquencies and I got movement.  Is everything reporting the way you expect it if you look at CK or whatever?

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I had 2 inquiries on each report. One for my newest Cap1 QS CC and one for a BoA CLI.

Yes, everything looks correct on all reports.

I will pay my 2 share secured loans to less than 20% this month and we will see what happens next month.

[Gardenhand]

Question- I have two secured installment loans (sdfcu and aliant). Will paying the installment loans down shorten the length of the loan? I'm under the impression that I can't make early payments and if I pay extra it will go towards the principal.

[Revelate]

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@Gardenhand wrote:

Question- I have two secured installment loans (sdfcu and aliant). Will paying the installment loans down shorten the length of the loan? I'm under the impression that I can't make early payments and if I pay extra it will go towards the principal.

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Alliant has been extensively tested and I Jamie has done it with SDFCU as well: just make a regular payment and it will push the due date way out into the future.  There's usually a seperate option for principal only payment, and under every lender I've seen that with it never resets the due date... and that's not what we want in this instance when we're talking FICO strategizing.

[Revelate]

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@jamie123 wrote:

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@Revelate wrote:

Youngest account = 1 year, no change in my data.

Which bureaus were the inquiries on?

You get wider swings with minor changes when you're clean vs. dirty, but I think your data is actually more conclusive that 30% isn't a breakpoint: you don't have to look much further than my own score changes where I absolutely have a tax lien, a collection, and payment history deliquencies and I got movement.  Is everything reporting the way you expect it if you look at CK or whatever?

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I had 2 inquiries on each report. One for my newest Cap1 QS CC and one for a BoA CLI.

Yes, everything looks correct on all reports.

I will pay my 2 share secured loans to less than 20% this month and we will see what happens next month.

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I'm not 100% convinced that there's a difference between 0 and 2 inquiries on FICO 8 at least on EQ at least on my dirty file.  I'm hopefully going to get a chance to track that in a year when my mortgage and app spree inquiries start falling off, but I noticed some unexpected results where I wasn't dropping points on inquiries on breakpoints I really expected (like going 0 -> 1).  

I think we need more testing on figuring out the inquiry penalty to be able to state things conclusively other than pretty much anyone who's looked into it has come to the conclusion it's a step function and fewer are of course better, but I wouldn't read too much into your score not changing on that front.

[Revelate]

Further random yet expected datapoint:

Mortgage just got reported on TU, -19 points FICO 8.  Again incredibly similar point value change as previously during my ups and downs of installment utilization ergo further confirmation of how the mortgage is affecting things, namely as a generic installment account.

Still no update from EX on MF.

[Anonymous]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Revelate wrote:

Are you sure re: Alliant?

I apparently was an idiot before and utterly missed this or maybe it took some time to refresh but my Scheduled Transfers has the following which looks just ducky:

10/21/2018

Savings Account - S01

Share Secured Loan - L01

Monthly

$9.16

Edit  |  Delete

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Hey Revelate. Quick question.

Were you able to cancel your autopay on the Alliant SSL? Or was it okay to leave it and it won't make the next autopay payment until the date listed as 10/21/2018?

Mine won't allow me to cancel autopay online, it wants me to call. I would rather not call. I won't bother if the date listed is the actual date they will autopay. I don't want it to pay itself off in 4 months. My next scheduled transfer date lists 2/15/19 it was originally 10/15/2015 before paying it down to under 10%.

Thanks, great info, great thread. I will add my data to it after my loan reports.

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As I understand it you have to cancel it or it makes the autopay anyway; someone else tested that one.  I cancelled mine ASAP after that hah.  Their autopay system isn't very well setup TBH. 

That's wierd was no issue for me, maybe because mine was older than 6 months at that point?  You probably will get that because they'll want to modify the loan rate (which you don't care about on such a small balance, think stated don't sign up for it since playing reindeer games and it just complicates things but meh, we beat it into people's heads that APR matters and such it's hard to get across haha).

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Thank you Revelate.

Just a data point for someone else that may have had this issue.

Not sure what changed, but I would log in everyday and attempt to cancel it again, because the error message would say to try again or call Customer Service.

Today, 3 days before it might have done the scheduled transfer on  the 15th, even tho the due date was 2/15/2019, I successfully cancelled the scheduled transfer.

Big relief knowing I can now ride this thing out with no effort other than setting up a small payment every 6 months to keep the savings account active.

Can't wait till the beginning of next month to see what paying it down to 9% did for the score. Reporting the new loan at 22% utilization beginning of this month I got  +8 on EX to 700, +9 on EQ to 710, and +10 on TU to 772. EX and EQ both have a 6 year 10 month old PR that they refuse to exclude early. I will try again November 1st to see if they will. If not oh well the light is bright at the end of this tunnel. No other baddies on EX or EQ. TU is clean.

[SouthJamaica]

Took out a new $500 secured savings loan with Alliant Credit Union, paid off $400.

When it reported, it reported a new account with a $100 balance but did not report that it had been a $500 loan.

[JLK93]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Took out a new $500 secured savings loan with Alliant Credit Union, paid off $400.

When it reported, it reported a new account with a $100 balance but did not report that it had been a $500 loan.

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What does your credit report show as the original amount of the loan?

[SouthJamaica]

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@oilcan12 wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Took out a new $500 secured savings loan with Alliant Credit Union, paid off $400.

When it reported, it reported a new account with a $100 balance but did not report that it had been a $500 loan.

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What does your credit report show as the original amount of the loan?

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$500

But it shows credit limit and high balance as blank

[manyquestions]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@oilcan12 wrote:

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

Took out a new $500 secured savings loan with Alliant Credit Union, paid off $400.

When it reported, it reported a new account with a $100 balance but did not report that it had been a $500 loan.

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What does your credit report show as the original amount of the loan?

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$500

But it shows credit limit and high balance as blank

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That's how it should look. Loans have an "original amount" and a balance.