Newcomer made an interesting speculation about whether subprime cards affect your FICO differently than prime cards on another thread. Does anyone know? I was disappointed to learn that finance company loans are indeed suspected of pulling down the score. This is not fair and I hope the card thing is not the same way.
RE: FICO score & subprime Well yes and no. The creditor's name ("Providian") does not affect your credit score. But a low-limit card will yield a lower score than a $10K-limit card. Keep in mind you don't want the limits too high either. This will hurt your income- to- available credit ratio. Saar
RE: FICO score & subprime Not if you take advantage of the phraze "HOUSEHOLD INCOME" on the application. A lot of other people live at my house!
RE: FICO score & subprime LOL! I 'm sure many people get higher limits that way. As long as they don't spend it all, they can usually make the payments, and the higher limits help their utilization ratios.
RE: FICO score & subprime It seems that every day I'm finding new reasons to cancel my Associates Visa, with its $500 credit limit. Not to mention Capital One, which charges me $59 a year to clutter up my credit reports and scare away prime creditors.
Saar: Are you sure about a low card affecting your fico score? At what point is it considered low- $4,000, $6,000 etc. so what you're saying is that even with a sub-prime card(Providian, Orchard etc.) if you have a reasonable limit it won't detract from your score? Thanks for the input. Skip
RE: Saar: Are you sure about a I'm not trying to anticipate Saar's answer, but I do have an alternative theory you may find interesting. I agree with Saar that the name doesn't affect your score. I also agree that limits affect your score insofar as they affect your debt to credit limit ratio (i.e., utilization.) But I don't think that low limits reduce your FICO score just because they are low. As far as I can tell, what happens is that other low limits may reduce the credit line you get offered. Or if there is some minimum credit limit they think they need to make a profit on you, you may get declined. But it wasn't because of your score; it was a separate decision based on your other limits. Just a theory, but it seems to fit the available evidence.
RE: FICO score & subprime Richguy wrote: "It seems that every day I'm finding new reasons to cancel my Associates Visa, with its $500 credit limit." Got the same card & the same thought. But I need at least one Visa card. A couple of months ago I started getting Providian's 3K-limit Visa offers w/o a grace period (GP). I've learned here that as my score gets a little higher, they'll offer me the same deal *with GP*. When I get it, The Associates are history. Sure, I could have done that right now and in a year, apply for a GP on an existing Providian Visa. But that would be too high a price to pay for building credit a little faster. My Associates comes w/ 18.99% APR, 3% cash rebate and online access including e-BillPay. Customer Service improved since they were bought by Citi. Saar
