The various simulators are basically single-category simulations that hardly ever take into account the changes from month to month that occur itn ALL of the various categories, combiined. Who ever goes 3 or 6 months just making minimum payments? All that simple simulation takes into account is aging. Similarly, decreasing %util over time is not a single category factor... it is usually accompanied by simultaneous changes in other categories, such as credit mix, %util of each indiv card, adding or dropping of inquiries, adding or dropping cards, etc. Consumer lawsuits have been brought, many successful, for advice given by CRAs on what should be done to improve scores. They are notoriously the source of very bad advice. For example, a standard statement on CRs is that you have too many CCs, That is pure and unadulterated BS. So people read this crap, cancel cards, and hurt both their CL and their avg age of accounts, and worst of all, they cancel their oldest credit lines. Ignore the advice and simulators offered by the CRAs, and instead listen to the saged advice of those who post on here. They are the real simulators that should be listened to.
Those who generate credit scores will not give you real and useful information on the effect of actions on your credit score for a very simple reason. This would compromise the proprietary trade-secret logic underlying their algorithm models. That aint gonna happen. Credit advice from a CRA is about as useful as marital counseling from Hugh Hefner.
Message Edited by RobertEG on
10-16-2007 08:48 PM
