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Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop

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HeraC312
Established Member

Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop

Hello all,

 

First post, but I've been lurking for a while and hope to not make any egregious post offenses.

 

Having once worked for two of the three CRAs (although there were five at that time, which is a clue to my maturity) for several years I've got a handle on how things work repository-wise; scores not so much as they were just coming into vogue (TU Delphi anyone?) when I left the industry.

 

So...shame on me for letting things get sordid five years ago with two federal education Parent Plus loans. I knew better but I'll just leave it at bad decisions make good stories. While nearly as severe as can be, those seven lates in 2015 are the only blemishes on an otherwise pristine albeit thin file. (The other post-divorce stupid-bad decision was to purge all cards [even the individual accounts] and get just one new Visa. Gah.)

 

From what I gather, I'm probably at the max FICO 8 I can attain on a dirty card - I've hung tight at EX 759 during many months of gardening and testing various balance maneuvers. Nothing I do seems to budge it.

 

I'm not looking at a new mortgage, and my scores are good enough for anything I've needed (co-signing auto loans for my creditless kids) since my 2015 Nelnet debacle so I'm not hyper-focused on checking all the various scores across the CRAs. The EX FICO 8 is the only one I know at this point (other than Karma FAKOs) but an upside of a thin file is TU and EQ are nearly identical to EX so I'm cool with using it as my baseline. Also, I'm too cheap to pay for scores.

 

Looking ahead to early 2022 when the two baddies will drop off and I am rebucketed. From what I've read I think my score will drop fairly hard on one of the clean cards because my file's thin, credit's young and mortgage is high vs. original. I think I need to bulk up and am hoping to get some pointers on a roadmap for the next 12-18 months so that I can land on the most advantageous of the clean cards. Am I on the right track with that thinking?

 

The Nelnet particulars—although I doubt it matters, they just gotta age away: both have max delinquency 120+ as of June 2015. One loan was PIF in 1/2020 and the other will be PIF in 1/2021. I'm actually feeling pretty good about these because I'll have paid off $57K in less than three years.

 

I have a mortgage ($179K against $218K,) Chase Visa, Chase Prime, Kohl's, and a $20K HELOC. I keep a balance of ~$100 on the HELOC to keep it open. For the cards, I alternate AZEO (not sure that's even helpful on a dirty card but it can't hurt?) against available CL of $25,200.

 

For installments: One PIF Chase auto, and one open Chase auto that's got a $4,700 balance. I dropped 30 painful points the day my son paid off his loan early and have slowly regained them; my other son's looking at paying off his early so I'm cringing. I've suggested that at this stage the extra year of payment history will benefit him more than the few dollars in interest so we'll see. 

 

I have one hard pull in 3/2019 for a Chase card. 

 

Again, zero lates but for Nelnet. 

 

Looking ahead to 2022: My hope is to get and stay in the neighborhood of 825 or so and then just relax with the AZEO stuff - is that a decent goal for someone nearing retirement? 

 

Strategically so far, I picked up the Chase Prime Visa in 3/2019; in early 2020 I joined Navy Fed and parked a good chunk of savings there in prep for the SSL trick. I'm thinking of taking that out next week. Any suggestions for the amount and term, vis à vis FICO?


I'm also eyeing a Navy Fed card - Amex, maybe?

 

I have some stuff to buy at Home Depot so could grab their card and get the 10% discount. (Had one and closed it in 2010; it just aged away...) Good idea?

 

I'm presuming approval, of course, but NFCU and HD are pitching me so I'm theorizing their promo pulls wouldn't put me at risk for a wasted hard pull.


My thought is to get the hard pulls and new accounts on the books in the next couple months, take the score hit and then just garden until the magic happens. Or should I stagger? I don't need the HD or Amex, would only be only getting them for the ultimate score bump down the road - are there better (and more) accounts I should go after given my situation?

 

Current score reasons
- serious delinquency
- few accounts paid on time
+ low revolving credit usage
+ bills paid on time recently
+ long credit history* 

*My oldest account (22 years) is long closed and will drop off any day now, which will ding my AoOA since everything else was opened post-divorce in 2010 or later.

 

Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks much!

4 REPLIES 4
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop


@HeraC312 wrote:

Hello all,

 

First post, but I've been lurking for a while and hope to not make any egregious post offenses.

 

Having once worked for two of the three CRAs (although there were five at that time, which is a clue to my maturity) for several years I've got a handle on how things work repository-wise; scores not so much as they were just coming into vogue (TU Delphi anyone?) when I left the industry.

 

So...shame on me for letting things get sordid five years ago with two federal education Parent Plus loans. I knew better but I'll just leave it at bad decisions make good stories. While nearly as severe as can be, those seven lates in 2015 are the only blemishes on an otherwise pristine albeit thin file. (The other post-divorce stupid-bad decision was to purge all cards [even the individual accounts] and get just one new Visa. Gah.)

 

From what I gather, I'm probably at the max FICO 8 I can attain on a dirty card - I've hung tight at EX 759 during many months of gardening and testing various balance maneuvers. Nothing I do seems to budge it.

 

I'm not looking at a new mortgage, and my scores are good enough for anything I've needed (co-signing auto loans for my creditless kids) since my 2015 Nelnet debacle so I'm not hyper-focused on checking all the various scores across the CRAs. The EX FICO 8 is the only one I know at this point (other than Karma FAKOs) but an upside of a thin file is TU and EQ are nearly identical to EX so I'm cool with using it as my baseline. Also, I'm too cheap to pay for scores.

 

Looking ahead to early 2022 when the two baddies will drop off and I am rebucketed. From what I've read I think my score will drop fairly hard on one of the clean cards because my file's thin, credit's young and mortgage is high vs. original. I think I need to bulk up and am hoping to get some pointers on a roadmap for the next 12-18 months so that I can land on the most advantageous of the clean cards. Am I on the right track with that thinking?

 

The Nelnet particulars—although I doubt it matters, they just gotta age away: both have max delinquency 120+ as of June 2015. One loan was PIF in 1/2020 and the other will be PIF in 1/2021. I'm actually feeling pretty good about these because I'll have paid off $57K in less than three years.

 

I have a mortgage ($179K against $218K,) Chase Visa, Chase Prime, Kohl's, and a $20K HELOC. I keep a balance of ~$100 on the HELOC to keep it open. For the cards, I alternate AZEO (not sure that's even helpful on a dirty card but it can't hurt?) against available CL of $25,200.

 

For installments: One PIF Chase auto, and one open Chase auto that's got a $4,700 balance. I dropped 30 painful points the day my son paid off his loan early and have slowly regained them; my other son's looking at paying off his early so I'm cringing. I've suggested that at this stage the extra year of payment history will benefit him more than the few dollars in interest so we'll see. 

 

I have one hard pull in 3/2019 for a Chase card. 

 

Again, zero lates but for Nelnet. 

 

Looking ahead to 2022: My hope is to get and stay in the neighborhood of 825 or so and then just relax with the AZEO stuff - is that a decent goal for someone nearing retirement? 

 

Strategically so far, I picked up the Chase Prime Visa in 3/2019; in early 2020 I joined Navy Fed and parked a good chunk of savings there in prep for the SSL trick. I'm thinking of taking that out next week. Any suggestions for the amount and term, vis à vis FICO?


I'm also eyeing a Navy Fed card - Amex, maybe?

 

I have some stuff to buy at Home Depot so could grab their card and get the 10% discount. (Had one and closed it in 2010; it just aged away...) Good idea?

 

I'm presuming approval, of course, but NFCU and HD are pitching me so I'm theorizing their promo pulls wouldn't put me at risk for a wasted hard pull.


My thought is to get the hard pulls and new accounts on the books in the next couple months, take the score hit and then just garden until the magic happens. Or should I stagger? I don't need the HD or Amex, would only be only getting them for the ultimate score bump down the road - are there better (and more) accounts I should go after given my situation?

 

Current score reasons
- serious delinquency
- few accounts paid on time
+ low revolving credit usage
+ bills paid on time recently
+ long credit history* 

*My oldest account (22 years) is long closed and will drop off any day now, which will ding my AoOA since everything else was opened post-divorce in 2010 or later.

 

Any suggestions would be welcome, thanks much!


1. I think your score is going to go up, not down, when you are rebucketed.

2. Chase will post a zero balance off cycle when you pay it down to zero, so be wary of using a Chase card as your balance-reporting card in AZEO. You have to be careful not to pay it down to zero.  Since you're interested in a Navy Amex card, perhaps you'd want to switch your thinking to an Amex Amex card, and then use that as your balance-reporting card. Home Depot and Kohls might not work, as there are reports of store cards not being counted.

3. It will help your FICO 8 and FICO 9 scores to get the auto loan down to 9% of the original loan amount.

4. You don't need the NFCU SSL until your auto loan is about to be paid off. Last time I looked you need for it to be > $3000 to get the 60-month version.

5. IMHO it's a bad idea to clutter your portfolio and ding your scores with a Home Depot card. You don't need store cards.

6. Personally I don't think you should get any new cards just for score purposes. You have enough to get perfect scores.

 


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 2 of 5
HeraC312
Established Member

Re: Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop

Thanks; it's reassuring to hear I might be worrying needlessly about the rebucketing.

 

I learned that the hard way about $0 Chase. My $15 Netflix bills the day before my cycle date so that's been working well as my permanent AZEO now.

 

I previously had an Amex Amex and until it aged off it was my oldest account on file. I closed it in my Great Purge because of the annual fee, so between the SUB, $0 fee, and 3% rewards I'd been attracted to Navy. Maybe I'm missing something about an Amex Amex?

 

It'll be another 18 months—right around the time my baddies will drop—before his auto loan is below 9% and at that point there'll only be four payments left. The greater likelihood is that he sells the car outright soon, in which case 0% and a ding. But I'll still (feels like it'll be always) have my mortgage so as long as that counts for an installment I should be OK for mix, right? Nowhere near <9% so no hope of an 850 anytime soon, though. For some reason I was thinking I needed an installment other than a mortgage, hence the SSL idea, but I'll sit tight with that.

 

Thanks again!

Message 3 of 5
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop


@HeraC312 wrote:

Thanks; it's reassuring to hear I might be worrying needlessly about the rebucketing.

 

I learned that the hard way about $0 Chase. My $15 Netflix bills the day before my cycle date so that's been working well as my permanent AZEO now.

 

I previously had an Amex Amex and until it aged off it was my oldest account on file. I closed it in my Great Purge because of the annual fee, so between the SUB, $0 fee, and 3% rewards I'd been attracted to Navy. Maybe I'm missing something about an Amex Amex?

 

There have been reports that a credit union card might not be counted as the balance-reporting card in AZEO. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's why I suggested an Amex Amex. Personally I like NFCU a lot more than Amex Smiley Happy

 

It'll be another 18 months—right around the time my baddies will drop—before his auto loan is below 9% and at that point there'll only be four payments left. The greater likelihood is that he sells the car outright soon, in which case 0% and a ding. But I'll still (feels like it'll be always) have my mortgage so as long as that counts for an installment I should be OK for mix, right?

 

Yes. Absolutely. Pardon me if I overlooked it but I didn't see anything in your OP about any mortgage other than the HELOC. If you have a mortgage then you're covered and there's no reason in the world to get an SSL, so I don't know why you were even considering that.

 

Nowhere near <9% so no hope of an 850 anytime soon, though. For some reason I was thinking I needed an installment other than a mortgage, hence the SSL idea, but I'll sit tight with that.

 

Good.

 

Thanks again!


 


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 4 of 5
HeraC312
Established Member

Re: Preparing a thin file for rebucketing when baddies drop

I ended up applying for Navy Fed Amex and Home Depot on the same day (8/27.) Navy instant approval for $23,100 CL with a TU HP. Home Depot (HD/CBNA) did a HP with EQ, and because I'm a prior HD/CBNA cardholder I got flagged and had to call for approval confirmation. Got a $5K CL. (Have already charged the obligatory $3K with on Amex and received my 30,000 SUB points - woohoo!)

 

Both open accounts are now reporting to all three with $0 balance. EX FICO 8 score saw no change - still firm at 759. EQ FICO 9 (via NFCU member dashboard) is also unmoved at 799. FWIW, CK Vantage scores for TU/EQ actually went up 2 points when these accounts reported.

 

So no hit for adding two new revolvers, which is great. My aggregate CL is now $73,600 with $75-100 reporting monthly on my AZEO Chase, and $85 on my HELOC with 5/3.

 

Just pulled my TU full report and noticed a CoreLogic report (all zeroes) was provided to Navy on 8/27, as well a full property report from my local count authority. Had not seen that before so that was interesting. Navy also pushed my employer to update on file with TU. 

 

Off to the garden until 2022 to wait for those Nelnet baddies to age away!

 

 

Message 5 of 5
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