I know that having a long positive payment history is important. But, if I have an account like the capital one accounts that I have been complaining about the longest, and they are not reporting my limits, this is in my opinion hurting and helping my credit score. My capital one account has a credit limit of $400. It is my oldest opened positive account (since 11/99). I dont plan to make another big purchase until (4/02). This purchase should be a townhome or condo. I have opened several other accounts which are all subprime but at least the report the credit limits, providian for example (5/00). That is 6 months younger than my oldest account (cap1). I am thinking about telling cap1 to take a hike. I have another $2K account opened in 8/00. I am thinking of closing them both as a Christmas present. I dont really use credit too much. I am just trying to build my history. I also like gold and platinums. Capital one has terrible offers on the golds. I would appreciate anyones advice. roni.
RE: How much does lenght of ac I think that regarding mortgages, A paper could be done with a few trades with 24 mo. payment history. As long as you have a few lines 24 months or older, you should be able to qualify. So take that into consideration when deciding to close the Cap1 account. I am in the same dilemma with my NextCard/Providian accounts. I was opened 2/00, the other 3/00. NextCard is terrible with increases, and Providian is ugly. I have Citi and Chase now, but with my two store cards, think it's too many accounts, especially new ones.
RE: How much does lenght of ac ok so, I am trying to consider all of this Dave. I want to be in my new home by 8/02. That will make my chase 24 months old. But when I apply or go looking for a mortgage it will be under 24 months. Providian I am thinking of keeping because it does report, offers decent increases. It will be 2 years old in 5/02. It is just ugly as you said before. I would like a providian gold b4 capital one. Who wants a $200 gold card? I want to know if you think the 6 months difference in my cap1(11/99) and providian (5/00) will help my score. I want it to rise as much as possible by 2002. roni.
RE: How much does lenght of ac Since you don't use credit that much, maybe keep them both open just to be on the safe side. Use the Cap1 and Providian just enough to keep them active. Then when you apply for your mortgage you will definitely have accounts that are at least 24 months old. If your lender says you have too much credit when you apply, THEN close the accounts. Remember, when I got approved earlier this year, all I had was Providian from 1998 and deferred student loans. I think you're going to be okay.
RE: How much does lenght of ac Keep the oldest account. I don't think you were in the chat the night I was talking about my mom's credit. Perfect for 25 years, and still has her first bankcard (a First USA Gold Mastercard with $25,000 limit) She's been a housewife for some 18 years, and still will be approved for any card you can think of with very high limits (i.e. applied for Blue from AMEX, approved for $16,000). My dad's the same, but he doesn't have his first bankcards; his oldest are from like 1986. His credit history looks almost 10 years shorter than my mom's; I think my mom has a better rating. OK, OK. The moral is: Keep the oldest account, if not to use occasionally, but to maintain the age of your credit file.
RE: How much does lenght of ac Carrot, You got a mortgage this year? I dont remember you mentioning that. Did you have the judgement then? If so how did the lender look at your negative credit. I assume, it was pretty old. Thanks for your input. roni
RE: How much does lenght of ac Ok. I guess I will have to keep that silly $400 Capital one account even though I hate them. I will keep it open and use it to buy gas or at the grocery store at 3am. Thanks for your advise. I hope 10 years down the road it means something. roni.
RE: How much does lenght of ac I was approved for a mortgage but decided I didn't want to live here in West Hell for another five years. Anyway, my agent hooked me up with a lender that offers prime and subprime loans. I had a bk and some of my judgments were not showing as satisfied. The judgments were more damaging than the BK because someone can put a lien against your property if they are unsatisfied. The lender pulled my report and wrote dispute letters for me to fix the incorrect items. The downpayment was something like 10% for a $58K loan, but since my City offers downpayment and closing assistance, that was not a problem. The interest rate was high though, like 11%, but the lender said I could refinance after the first year. Even with the high interest, insurance and property taxes by mortgage would be $600 a month--much less than rent on a one bedroom apartment! I did a little research on the net and found a lender that makes FHA loans to people with less than perfect credit and they only required 3% down and interest was like 8.5%. My FICO at that point was 620, but I was told that it would go up once some of my inquiries dropped off. Actually, I found that I had an easier time getting approved for a mortgage than I did buying a car. The lender told me they are willing to take a chance on someone with high risk credit because houses appreciate in value unlike cars, so even if you defaulted they were likely to get their money back
RE: How much does lenght of ac thanks carrot. You answered so many of my questions with that post. Our situations are very,very similiar. My scores were in the 620s this summer when I prequalified for a mortgage and bought a car. Wow. YOu have given me so much hope. Thanks again. roni
RE: How much does lenght of ac Roni providian gold is comming along . It's definatly on it's way . They offered me it once my account hit 2 years depends on your payments I was over the limit alot of times 2 . So u cab count on them .
RE: How much does lenght of ac roni, I think you are concentrating too much on the superficial aspects of the cards. I would keep your oldest card, no matter how low the limit is. Some of the others could go. FICO does not look to see whether the card is gold, silver, platinum, or copper. It just looks at the limit, ratio, and how long you have had the card. since length of credit histor is 35% of the score, I would keep the ones youy have had a long time.
RE: How much does lenght of ac Now Mr. Belvedere you misunderstood me. I want metal on my card. But I also know that closing the oldest account can hurt. My main point was overlooked here. Capital one(open 11/99) and Providian (open 5/00). Between those two I wanted to close capital one cause I dont like the way they dont report credit limits. Well I did run up the card to the limit last month, so the high balance is actually my limit now. But providian has a higher credit limit which is reporting. I wanted to know if keeping the 6 month younger providian instead of the 1 year old capital one would hurt much. Everyone here knows, I want a mortgage in summer 2002. So those are my questions. You see I got much better cards, like chase and 2 citibank cards with higher limits this fall. I need to decide whether to close providian or cap1. roni mrBelvedr wrote: ------------------------------- roni, I think you are concentrating too much on the superficial aspects of the cards. I would keep your oldest card, no matter how low the limit is. Some of the others could go. FICO does not look to see whether the card is gold, silver, platinum, or copper. It just looks at the limit, ratio, and how long you have had the card. since length of credit histor is 35% of the score, I would keep the ones youy have had a long time.