Lots of little questions - too many accounts?, how long closed accounts?

[Anonymous]

The biggest neg right now is a single missed payment on my wife's CC (long story about assuming it was being taken care of automatically, etc. It has been fixed now. Lesson learned.) I protested toTransUnion and they agreed to remove it from my report (will see tomorrow) as it was not a joint card and only in her name.  

But in looking at my credit report I have several questions and wonder how each is affecting my score. 

1) Too many accounts. I have 36 total accounts.

1a) 11 are student loan accounts with only one being active.  5 loans were closed in 1999 when they were transferred from the holding company to the servicing company.  These 5 were closed in 2004 when I consilidated (the 1 active account).  So I have 10 accounts which are closed, 5 have been closed for 10 YEARS.  When will these closed accounts drop off of my report?

1b) I have 7 small store accounts (Home Depot, Eddie Bauer, etc.) - Last fall I sent letters to 5 of them asking they be closed - 3 are still showing as open.  How should I proceed?

1c) There is another account being listed (maybe a duplicate?) with no information.  All it shows was that it was opened in Apr 2006 and  last status is from May 2006.  The name is the same as an active account - any ideas on how to deal with this?

2) High utilization. 

2a) one of my CC companies is not reporting a credit line (its $19,000 and I am using ~$2000).  Is there a "best" way to ask that they report the credit line? Will this help?

2b) I had moved balances to one card (with the lowest rate) but used most of the line on that card.  I am now thinking that was a bad move since I am reading that they also look at util on each card as well as overall util.

2c)  Since my FICO has dropped (see above) Amex decided to cut my CL to nearly my current balance (util went from 35% to 95% in one move). Makes my util go up even more and now its a cycle - Ughhh...

Thanks,

Mike

[Countrygirl7676]

I too am showing alot of accounts most of them are closed. This is coming up with a red flag on my credit score. I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix that. Some of these closed abouts go back as far as the early 90's being closed.  As of right now this is the only thing hurting my score so I'd like to try and fix it.

[Anonymous]

I have the same albatross:  too many closed accounts; accounts closed by the creditors even though I paid them off.  I have another problem:  I have 4 checking accounts and want to close them so that I can go to a smaller bank.  I don't like big banks any more.  I can leave them open, but nevertheless, I will either have 4 open checking accounts or 4 closed checking accounts.  I really dislike Wells Fargo. 

Message Edited by rick94110 on 12-22-2009 07:45 AM

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I have the same albatross:  too many closed accounts; accounts closed by the creditors even though I paid them off.  I have another problem:  I have 4 checking accounts and want to close them so that I can go to a smaller bank.  I don't like big banks any more.  I can leave them open, but nevertheless, I will either have 4 open checking accounts or 4 closed checking accounts.  I really dislike Wells Fargo. 

Message Edited by rick94110 on 12-22-2009 07:45 AM

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Welcome to the forums.

Were these closed accounts revolving or installment loans? Installment loans are automatically closed when paid off. Closed accounts in good standing continue to help your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) for up to 10 years after closing.

Your checking accounts do not show on your reports so close away if you wish.

From a BK years ago to:
7/09 TU-742 EQ- 779
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802

You can do the same thing with hard work.

[Anonymous]

So how much does the "too many accounts" hurt the score?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So how much does the "too many accounts" hurt the score?

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It would be nice to hear from some folks who've gotten that same ding, maybe adding what their current score is.....

From several recent posts, "too many accounts" doesn't just affect FICO scores - it also is a trigger for account closure, which would bug me more than the FICO score ding.

[Anonymous]

bump ? - anyone?

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, the problem is, we've never had a post from someone who tracked their scores and kept notes of them, and then added the account that made the "too many accounts" ding appear. So there hasn't been a report saying, "I lost seven points when I added account #30," or whatever. And since closing an account doesn't make it go away --you have to wait for them to age off --it's hard to experiment and see what, if any score rise would occur if you went back under that magic number, whatever it might be.

The reason that we generally say that the ding is pretty minor is because when you compare similar credit reports of those with "too many" and those without, there doesn't seem to be any real difference. In other words, if you match them up with age, presence/ absence of lates, and so forth, it's hard to see any real pattern of noticeably lower scores.

In addition, when someone has this listed as their first or second negative, there typically isn't anything else very awful on there (short history, lates, high util, and so forth.) We've seen that when scores hit the high 700's and 800's, the negatives start getting pretty persnickety, and it's this score range that generally gets this ding. Not always, of course, but generally.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So how much does the "too many accounts" hurt the score?

---

It would be nice to hear from some folks who've gotten that same ding, maybe adding what their current score is.....

From several recent posts, "too many accounts" doesn't just affect FICO scores - it also is a trigger for account closure, which would bug me more than the FICO score ding.

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I recently reported in another thread that "Too many accounts" had become my only negative reason on the TU FICO report on a score uptick. The score went from 754 to 755. In my case "too many accounts" = 10.

[Anonymous]

thanks everyone for the answers.

2) one of my CC companies is not reporting a credit line (its $19,000 and I am using ~$2000).  Is there a "best" way to ask that they report the credit line? Will this help my % util?