Scoring Retail Cards v. Bank Cards

[Anonymous]

Does FICO make any distinction between retail cards and Bank cards when it comes to scoring? I lost a chunk of income recently, so I've been spending more on my bank cards than I would like. I got CLIs on my retail cards to try and offset the UTI and I'm wondering if it's going to do anything?

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does FICO make any distinction between retail cards and Bank cards when it comes to scoring? I lost a chunk of income recently, so I've been spending more on my bank cards than I would like. I got CLIs on my retail cards to try and offset the UTI and I'm wondering if it's going to do anything?

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The increased credit limits will have the same impact on your utilization that they would have if they were on bank cards.

Which is why some people keep their store cards

[Anonymous]

Thank you much! That is exactly what I was hoping to hear.

[RobertEG]

Many of the segmentation trees used in the literature to determine the scorecard that will apply to a given consumer file use absence or presence of a bank card as one of the parameters.  I presume FICO follows that pattern and also uses presence of a bank card at least as part of determining scorecard segmentation.

[RonM21]

In increasing your limits, that was a good move to offset as you were trying to do. Even if you increased them on your bank cards, it still would have had the same effect.

[Anonymous]

I know your score will go down if you let one retail card report and 0 bank cards report so make sure you let one bank card report a balance

[CreditDunce]

All of the modern FICO algorithms consider bank and retail cards the same.   Your score may take a hit for individual cards reporting higher utilization.  FICO doesnt' just look at overall utilization.  Remember, finances is always > FICO.

[JagerBombs89]

According to MyFICO, the "Credit Mix" includes revolving accounts, bank-issued credit accounts, and installment loans.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I know your score will go down if you let one retail card report and 0 bank cards report so make sure you let one bank card report a balance

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I didn't know this. Thank you so much for this wealthy piece of info!

[Anonymous]

They don't make a difference.  I get some when I need a purchase promo.  If I really don't think I would use it again or not very much, I would close it. I got a few for furniture but will cancel them when I'm finished decorating our house.  I prefer the primes instead with just a couple of store cards that we get some great rewards on.