FICO Score Tracking #6 - Back Above 700!
Posted by Cap in Credit Related on August 28, 2006 |FICO Score Tracking #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8
- Number of accounts opened: 7
- Inquiries: 3
- Total revolving balances: $2,500
- Total available credit: $53,000
Finally, back above 700!
This another fine example that the total amount of revolving balance affects your FICO score greatly. Since the last update in June, there has been little changes to any of these accounts besides the pay down of 0% balance transfers. Remember kids, if you’re utilizing a large portion of your credit limit, you’re giving your credit scores a major hit. Refer to the November 2005 score as an example.
The current, real-time score is most likely above 727, as the current total revolving balance should only be around $500—but the Providian score was most likely acquired during the middle of August. Will grab some scores via myfico.com for a quick comparison later on in the week.
Now that the scores and balances are in a more reasonable range, it may be time to look for another card to replace the soon-to-be defunct Citi Dividend Card.
If you’ve never seen these FICO tracking post before, check out some of the past post… the scores are like a roller coaster ride!
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August 28th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
I also see you use Providian to check out your FICO score. I do the same and love it. My score just went up into the 700s too but now I’m worried it might come back down because I accidently payed the wrong credit card company via my billpay online and I missed a payment for the first time in my life!
August 29th, 2006 at 8:41 am
The only reason I keep my Providian/WaMu credit card open is the score tracking once a month. When I paid off everything I shot up to 762, then when I got my $4000 eye surgery it went down to 726.. It’s interesting to see how my actions impact my score. I just closed 3 accounts, so I’m curious to see what that will do for me.
August 29th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Tom: if you pay your card fast within the due date, you might get away with it. if not and you incur a late fee, check out this post.
your credit score should also be fine, most late payment are only shown if they’re 30, 60, 90 days late etc. So if you pay it off fast, you should be in the clear.
Todd: same exact reason. in fact, I really dislike this card I have. the three close accounts may affect your score depending on their account age and credit limit in proportion to your total limit and total current balance.
if their history is short compare to the other accounts you have opened, and if their limit is small compare to your other accounts.. it probably would have a minimal impact.
September 11th, 2006 at 12:47 am
Question: If you close out paid off credit cards would that affect your FICO score?
October 21st, 2006 at 4:32 pm
FYI on good cheap FICO score tracking. I use the truecredit.com service after I found that freecreditreport.com was a rip off in the sense that it made its own credit score (for 12.95 per month) that groups the utilization of all credit cards together (so if you have 10 credit cards, 9 with a $1,000 limit that’s maxed out and a $20,000 card with nothing in use, it reports 9,000 out of 29,000 used … in actuality on the three major CRA’s you’re majorly penalized for being above 50% on nine cards).
truecredit.com gives you unlimited reports (limit of 1 every 24 hours) for 14.95 per month. This includes the FICO scores and reports for all three CRA’s (Credit Reporting Agencies - TransUnion, Experian, Equifax).
If you have bad “dings” on your credit report, challenge them! Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Reporting Act (FACTA) there are guidelines for verification and challenges of debt. Among the most powerful that I’ve used are that an unverifiable debt can be removed from your credit report (many companies don’t keep enough information to adequately verify debt so that could get you off right there).
If you have a situation such as Tom up above (#1) just swallow your pride a bit and call up the credit card company and explain what happened and that you don’t care about the fees just the negative impact that it has on your credit report and that you’ve always made your payments on time (basically beg) for it to be removed … they usually will because they want to keep you as a happy long term customer.
One big disadvantage I’ve found from using the Credit Arbitrage game myself is that credit card companies look at your balances and usage across the board (ie they are not limited to looking at their own account to make adjustments on your account with them). I have had both Chase and Discover reduce my credit card limit due to excessive usage and lowered credit limit score. This is a nasty cycle once it starts because it increases your debt to available credit ratio which can cause other companies to decrease their limits to you. In my case, discover dropped their limit from 9,000 to 7,400 when I had a 7,360 balance and an 8,463 high balance. Chase dropped by 5,000 card to 2,300 when I had a 2,240 balance and a 3,715 high balance. Chase dropped my second card from 2,500 to 2,100 when my balance was 2,050 and my high balance was 2,400. All three of these cards were used in the Credit Arbitrage money shift, but now all three of these cards show a higher maximum balance than the current credit limit which means that any company looking at my detailed credit report will know that either I exceeded my credit limit (untrue) or that the credit card company reduced my limit (negative implications). This still has me very PISSED OFF at them, but they are unwilling to adjust my limits back to their prior limits. In addition, my fixed rate BankOne (the 5,000 limit card above) had a fixed rate of 7.99% and after Chase took it over, the attempted to sneak by an increase to 31.99% (a 400% increase) and the only way to avoid this was to “Opt Out”. Although I don’t see any disadvantage yet of the “Opt Out” I’ve seen some comments through my research that “Opt Out” means the card won’t be renewed by the company once it expires … hmmm, just wait and see I guess … it’s better than paying 3.199% interest rate.
Another point in the FICO scores are the percentage of usage on a card that triggers a negative implication on your report. The levels are triggered as low as 16% for some reports, 30-35%, 50% (and 65% for some). I’ve noticed that dropping four of my cards below 50% increased my score from 620 to 673 (0 balance was at 741 last year).
I hope I’ve added some useful information to this discusion.
October 21st, 2006 at 4:42 pm
In response to Tanyetta in #4,
Closing a card will usually hurt your FICO score because it reduces the available credit. If you have too many credit cards, then that may be the only case where you can improve your score by closing a card. In any case, don’t just leave an usused card laying around … buy a pack of gum or a carton of milk every few months just to keep the card active.
Oh, another point which I’ve found that is not stated in the credit guides … don’t pay just the minimum unless that is all you can afford. Pay a few dollars more. For some reason, paying just the minimum can trip a negative flag … maybe they’re trying to do an early detection of people that are beginning to experience financial difficulty … maybe they’re just paranoid jerks, but it has an effect against your credit.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Does Providian still provide the free FICO tracking??
April 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Err I mean Washington Mutual?
April 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I still have access to it, and I’m fairly certain anyone that logs into their account at the providian.com site will still have access to the free FICO tracking.
But I don’t see credit card sign-up at the providian site anymore.. so I’m unsure if new Wamu card holders will have access to the same feature.