12/12 Speaking of amazon, I'm thinking of signing up for their visa
card. Is there any harm in having several credit cards (this
would be my third; I have a moderate balance on my first one, and
I don't use my second one at all.) BTW I'm signing up to get the
$30 off my purchase. Thanks.
\_ Your credit score declines when you apply for credit (not
so much but just don't do it too often) or when you cancel
old cards. Having about 2-3 cards helps your credit score
but you should make sure there's some activity on those cards.
Having more than 3 might not be such a good thing.
\_ I went crazy and got about 10 credit cards at one point. I
just kept applying for them until they started refusing me.
I never used 3/4 of them. When I went to buy a house 5 years
later, it lowered my credit score. Not too much, probably
50 points or so, but if I had been a marginal case, it would
have been the difference. I closed most of the accounts and
two years later my score is back up to the high 700s.
\_ Does it harm your credit when you cancel/close a card?
\_ For a while. But a few years later your score
is higher, assuming you had "too much" available
credit.
\_ This is where ia m right now. shit i didnt know that
cancelling fucks w/ your score!
\_ Cancelling might shorten your credit history. That might
hurt. Get rid of newer, smaller-credit-line cards.
Second, your "debt ratio" counts: how much debt you have
vs. how much credit you have. If you have no balances at
all, then your "debt ratio" won't be hurt. --PeterM
\_ Debt ratio and total overall debt are the most
important things. Do not roll over a balance
on your credit cards if you want a high score.
\_ This makes no sense. Do you mean 'carry a balance'?
\_ Yes, they mean the same thing, really. You are
rolling the loan over every month. Sorry, I
guess I have been reading The Economist too
much lately. I forgot what normal people
call it.
\_ I have a low 800s credit rating score? Is that low or high?
\_ That's really good, since the max score is 850. Check out
this article from http://bankrate.com: http://csua.org/u/aas
\_ In fact, my mom has worked at banks (credit card
industry, branches, you name it) for 40+ years and says
that she didn't come across many 800+s in that whole
time. 'Excellent credit' (where you will be offered
the best-available rate) is around 760-780. That 11%
number (800+ people) seems high, but that's probably
because those people also apply for credit less often.
\_ You can get home loans at the best rate with a
credit score of 700 or so. Perhaps there are
other kinds of loans that you can get with a higher
score, I dunno.
\_ Home loans are rather easy to get, being secured
by an asset that tends to appreciate. However,
I will say that if you want a 'no doc' loan then
700 won't get it done with the best rate.
\_ Okay, I can believe that. What kind of
score do you need to get a no doc home
loan at the highest rate? I also see that
\_ 760-780, depending on the lender. Another
feature with a high score is that you can
often borrow more than you can 'afford'.
Back when I could only afford a $300K
house they let me borrow up to $500K 'no
questions asked'. This is similar to 'no
doc' in that they are trusting you.
the FICO site says you need a 720 to get
the best interest rates. That was not my
experience when I bought a home, but that
is close enough.
\_ OT: You can check your Credit Report at link:www.annualcreditreport.com
for free, but they charge you $7 to see your actual score. That
sounds awfully dodgy.
\_ The only reason they provide anything for free is because (as
of December 1st) the FTC requires them to. They don't have to
tell you your score for free, and the different credit bureaus
charge different amounts for that.
\_ GODDAMNFUCKINGEQUIFAX
Their site is so damn broken. Failed to serve up the report,
then wouldn't re-serve. Has NO email address contact for
support.
\_ I use the actual FICO site, which costs more but isn't
dodgy. http://www.myfico.com
\_ doesnt checking your credit affect your credit? anyone know
by how much?
\_ checking your own credit does not affect your score according
to the many articles that have been written about this in the
last couple of years. if you have not done this, do it now.
*every* person I know who has checked their score found
errors - probably because the credit checking companies have
almost no incentive to keep things correct. I'm kind of
waiting for this to become a court case since it places
proving "innocence" as the burden of the "accused" and credit
affects just aobut everybody sooner or later.
\_ Well, I checked my credit and found no errors so
there's an exception.
\_ Be a little grateful, then. It took me a couple of years
to completely iron out the three credit cards they said
I still had open - including one that I had closed seven
years previous and that one required a letter from the
issuer. Fair disclusure is that these probably had no
more than 10 points effect on my score. The real fun
was a parking ticket that went to collection that I
never knew existed until it had eaten a hole in my score
for two years. The collection agency never tried to
contact me because they knew I would have to come to
them as soon as I pulled my first report on myself.
\_ I used to have an Amazon card by Nextbank. Then the
bank went bankrupt and never bothered to forward the
last batch of information to the credit agencies,
so I was stuck with a $4000 balance on my credit reports
even though I had paid that off immediately like all my
credit card charges. I was a lazy fuck, so I never
bothered to go correct it. After a few years, the
credit agencies finally figured it out and things are ok
now. |
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