I have three cards (AMEX, MC, and VIsa). All are rewards cards. I use the AMEX and MC all of the time, but leave the VISA in my sock drawer. Is it better for my credit rating to show activity on all three cards, or does it matter if I use the Visa at all? I don't use it because the cash rewards on the other two cards are better, but the Visa has a $14,500 limit, and I am afraid that this looks bad on my reports to the three bureaus and might hurt my score (about 740 with all three bureaus). Should I get rid of the Visa, keep it and use it sometimes, or keep it and not use it? Which will help my credit rating the most?
Keep that card, and utilize it if but just a little bit so that it can be actively contributing to the scores. Keeping say $50 balance from month to month, will help; so that the creditor does not up and close the account due to inactivity. Look at your utilizaiton on the other cards also, want high credit limit verses low balances for the best scores resulting.
3 lol is fine. Try 20 open CC's to knock your score down lol. I keep about 5 in my pocket, only use the Amex blue for purchases in person, use one for online purchases, and the rest for BT offers.
If you are not using them, at least a bit of a balance, then it is not being factored into the credit scores. 20 is too much; think about keeping the oldest; with the best reporting and close some of the others. Also if you mix in using installment loans; this will sure help your scores mixing in different types of accounts utilized.
If it's open, the credit limit should still count in your ratios, therefore in your score. But I agree, keep it open and use it a little. Otherwise, the creditor may close it for inactivity, and then you not only have a closed account, you have a "closed by credit grantor" notation. On manual reviews, that is bad. It doesn't say WHY the credit grantor closed it, just that they did.
tell me nightstar why 20 is too many as long as scores are 720 plus is 20 still to many let me know your secret>>>>>>
The idea is to mix evenly amoung the different types of credit that contributes 10% of the credit scores. I know the 20 cards with (excelent utilization) 30% will blow this on out of the water, but really... a lender is not going to want to deal with you holding that many cards. I know they will say "come back after you close some of these accounts". Your scores will mature and increase by interducing these new types of accounts belive me, the better financial choices which you make, the better your scores will reflect this. Like myself, I recently refinanced personal finance loan (bad choice, but got rid of multiple cards) which did increase the scores; but recently when I refinanced my loan with a bank, my scores just went through the roof. Plus finally adding a mortgage; I look forward to this increase as well, so it only gets better as you go. By the way, my scores are in the mid 700 range. Recently checked TransUnion after the refinance and found that one to already be up to 776. Just to give you an idea.
heres an answer to your idea 24 prime cards 9 years of history 2 mortgages multiple cars paid off and my low score is 764 on transunion I don't think scores mean much sense they vary on an almost daily basis ........I have been in this game a long time and just wandered where you got your information .... all and all if your just starting it makes a lot of sense ....I guess I,m just a card collector that can't help myself .... but by no means does one have to limit oneself to 3 cards or have the perfect mix,if you talk to some of the people that have been here awhile you will find the perfect mix is nonsense ... ask george ron marci to name a few......... anyway good luck and you make some good points.
I agree that it's not necessarily the number of cards that's important. And as for the mix, in many cases having a finance company account seems to be detrimental. A lot of it depends on other things as well, such as how long you've had accounts. There's no one answer for everyone, as willgator points out. What increases one person's score may decrease another person's score. The algorithms are so complicated that no one knows all the answers. It could be like a neighbor we had growing up. He always paid cash for everything. I'm not even sure he had a mortgage. When he wanted to buy another car, he couldn't get financing. Why? Because the fact that he always paid cash for everything didn't mean he could or would pay a bill every month. So there he was, good job, wife with good job, house, car, and he couldn't get credit. I was 20, my finance was 21, we had lower paying jobs and a pile of debt (which we could barely afford to pay), several credit cards (this was long ago or we would have had a fistful of cc), and we could have bought almost anything we wanted. Granted, this was a long time ago, but you'll still see situations like this today. The deeper in debt you are, the more you can borrow in many cases.
I agree, that each persons case is different, and it is important to look in prospective to what is already established to know where to go next with on the imporvements. I always figure there is room for improvements; when saving money, and I study this part quite a bit. My information and experience comes from two years working at a credit bureau. So I do have an unusual opportunity to view credit reports and talk to people on a regular basis about credit. With all three directions: Consumers; Creditors; and Credit Reporting Agencies. It is not an easy thing communicating on message boards, verses viewing the persons credit report to know the fact of the matter, since a lot of people don't always know what is relevent to present when asking questions. But I find that I usually over explain myself just to be on the safe side of not missing something crutial & forgive me if I do. (least let me know). Thanks,
I have been watching these boards since last December; and can say that it has been a most agressive learning experiance for me. I would very much like to explore even further on certain key issues. Have to appoligize that I am not up on technical reference; more general here with what feels right, for each situation. I am not agressive; so don't want to cross purposes stepping on anyones toes when posting responses to questions. My approach is to try and resolve problems, but that might be from my background of working both sides. I really think it is the rules in place that make them the enemy by function not by choice, I have had the opportunity to meet great people working on the creditor side of things (that do go through great lenghts to help people). I have found lack of knowledge on credit issues exists on their side as well. It is not an easy thing to see where the breaks are in the system but not having the power to fix them, so I guess I opt for education (on both sides) to break the link - that maybe the right person will take notice at some key point to make the difference. Thanks much for your time,
Re: Re: How many active cards help rating? YMMV One person with 24 cards may NOT have enough... Another person with 10 cards may have too many...
Re: Re: How many active cards help rating? 30 MPG...YMMV YOU MAY GET 38 SOMEBODY ELSE GETS 27 SOMEBODY ELSE GETS 19 IT ALL DEPENDS ON "HOW" YOU DRIVE!!!
