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Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

No negs/derogs

Student loans 22K@4%

NFCU CashRewards VISA 15K SL@15.65%, 2% Util

NFCU Platinum MC 2.3K SL@6.99%, 0% Util

AAoA 5 years

AaOA 20.1 years

FICO 8 EQ 748 (1) TU 775 (3) EX 785 (0)

FICO 9 EQ 789

 

I don't need a 3rd card, but I do want to maximize my points so I can break 800 by December.

Thoughts? Advice?

 

Message 1 of 12
11 REPLIES 11
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?


@Anonymous wrote:

No negs/derogs

Student loans 22K@4%

NFCU CashRewards VISA 15K SL@15.65%, 2% Util

NFCU Platinum MC 2.3K SL@6.99%, 0% Util

AAoA 5 years

AaOA 20.1 years

FICO 8 EQ 748 (1) TU 775 (3) EX 785 (0)

FICO 9 EQ 789

 

I don't need a 3rd card, but I do want to maximize my points so I can break 800 by December.

Thoughts? Advice?

 


IMHO, no you shouldn't get a 3 rd card, I don't think it will do a thing for you. Just make sure that as between the 2 cards you have, 1 reports at zero, the other reports a small balance.


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

Message 2 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

How many total accounts do you have on your credit report and what is your AoYA?  How many scoreable (<1 year old) inquiries do you have per bureau?

 

While my advice may not be any different than SJ, I slightly disagree that it "wouldn't do a thing for you."  I started a thread the other day asking about the scoring benefits of a 3rd card.  You can read it here:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Anyone-with-EXACTLY-3-cards-scoring-impac...

 

In the discussion, only 2 data points have come forward thus far... one being 4 points and one being 8 points in terms of the benefit of adding a 3rd card.  IMO, 4-8 points is rather insignificant.  Not doing a thing for you is 0 points.  Really you just need to ask yourself if it's worth it for 4-8 points.  Maybe there are people out there that have seen more than that, but in the very limited data I've come across thus far that's all I've got.

 

Two other questions.  You have a 37 point spread between your top score and bottom score, which suggests different information between those two reports.  If that's the case, what's different?  I see in your sig that you have 1 inquiry on one of those bureaus and 0 on the other, but with 0-1 binned together this would be a non-factor even if the 1 inquiry was from the last year (scoreable).  Your student loans?  How many do you have?  What is your total installment loan utilization?

 

I'm surprised on an aged clean file with top notch revolving utilization that your scores aren't already > 800 to be honest.

 

 

Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

Is the OP planning to buy a house in the next five years?  If so, the mortgage models have been shown to benefit far more than does FICO 8 from having multiple cards at $0 with exactly one card showing a small positive balance.

 

My feeling is that a third card cannot hurt the person in the medium to long term (even if there were to be a short term drop due to adding a new account) so it probably makes sense to do it -- that's just my take.

 

I also think there are other reasons to add a third card aside from the scoring advantage.

Message 4 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

When I added a 2nd and 3rd card, my score increases. Some even recommend 5 cards for maximum Fico points.

Message 5 of 12
arkane
Established Contributor

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

Maybe 4, but definitely not 5. Supposedly a breakpoint exists for EQ at 33% of cards reporting a balance. 1/3 is exactly 33%, whereas 1/4 is 25%, so I could see an argument for trying to get to 4 cards.

 

The only tangible benefit scoring wise I can see from having >4 cards is to build an age buffer, such that each time you open a new account, your AAoA takes a lesser hit. 

Active:

Closed:


6/8/20:

Message 6 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

For the first time since starting to rebuild in Aug 2017 I didn't implement AZEO and allowed 4 of my 9 cards to report balances.  None of the balances were over 8.9 percent individual utilization.  My scores actually increased.  I'm back to AZEO this month but I think sometimes we obsess over things that eventually turn out not to matter much.

Message 7 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

Thank you all for the replies. 

 

(CCT allowed me to do a 2nd $1/7 day trial today.)

FICO 8 EX 785 TU 784 EQ 762

 

@BrutalBodyShots

 

My 4 inquiries are all less than a year old, and they are all from hard pull happy NFCU.

 

9 total accounts (6 student loans, 2 credit cards, and 1 closed retail card)

AaYA 1 month (NFCU Platinum MC)

 

I have thoroughly scrutinized my reports to see if there was a discrepancy that could account for the lower EQ score.

I can see no difference on the digital reports that I generated from annualcreditreport.com.

However, the CCT reports show that EQ incorrectly coded my student loans as credit cards and my credit cards as installment loans.

 

I have 6 student loans with disbursement dates from 11/2013 - 8/2015. They were in deferment/forbearance until 9/2017, and I stupidly did not realize that they were accruing interest during that time. (I owe approximately 1K more than I originally borrowed.)

 

@CreditGuyInDixie

 

I was planning to wait until 12/2019 to buy a condo/townhouse/cottage, but I was informed yesterday that my rent is being increased yet again. That prompted me to post this topic. 

 

Message 8 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?


@arkane wrote:

Maybe 4, but definitely not 5. Supposedly a breakpoint exists for EQ at 33% of cards reporting a balance. 1/3 is exactly 33%, whereas 1/4 is 25%, so I could see an argument for trying to get to 4 cards.

 

The only tangible benefit scoring wise I can see from having >4 cards is to build an age buffer, such that each time you open a new account, your AAoA takes a lesser hit. 


Someone posted in a thread a few months ago a chart that had been done showing the benefits of 5 cards being optimal for Fico scoring. I can't find it now. Anyone remember this and can find the chart.

Message 9 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will getting a 3rd card be the most expeditious route for me to break 800?

3 cards minimum for sure.

 

5 cards is a boost only when all cards are 24 months aged but it's a visible boost.  But 3 cards is a viable boost after the 3-6 month young account penalties are aged off.

 

4 cards minimum for best AZEO boost due to 1/3 penalty mentioned.

 

OP needs to post original loan balance so we can see what's keeping them from 800s already.

 

 

Message 10 of 12
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