Great credit history. No loans. No debt. Yet, a crappy credit score. Help!

[Horseshoez]

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@kasniak wrote:

I feel they are ruining my financial reputation.  Taking 35 years of great history and slinging mud at it.  I feel violated.  Mislabeled.  Terribly wrong.  And anything else you can think of.  I deserve better!  I don't know what the future holds and whatever it should require, my credit report should provide me with an account that is right and just.

It's the same thing if I were a student and I worked hard and put in the time and effort to get all A's only to have the university change my transcript to all C-'s.  Because they "felt like it".

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Your financial reputation is not in the least harmed because what you're upset about are Vantage 3.0 scores, and literally nobody in the financial world looks at those scores which are often referred to as "FAKO" scores.

As I see it, you have two options:

1. Open up another card, or better still, two more cards, and use them to their best advantage, like say, an Amazon Prime card for the rewards and Whole Foods discounts, and maybe a travel related card.
2. Keep doing what you're doing; a FICO 8 score of 780+ from EX is a very nice score; I expect your EQ and TU FICO 8 scores are similar.

[kasniak]

The fact you mention EQ and TU scores together smells strongly of Credit Karma. In that case the scores would be VantageScore 3.0. The VS3 algorithm penalizes severely for too few revolving accounts. It also penalizes harshly for increased revolving utilization  They are VantageScore 3.0's.  I didn't know I was penalized for too few revoving accounts or for increased violation.  To be totally honest, I never had an interest in "Financial 101" outside of paying debts off, as much as you can, as fast as you can, and on time.  --I'm learning fast.

Take a look at your Fico 8 credit scores. That algorithm does not require a lot of cards to have a high score. It is not unusual to have a scores in the 780- 810 range with only 2 open cards. All that is required is to have a clean file with the cards being atleast 5 years old and no new accounts under 12 months. No loan required.  Ok.  But I only have one card right now.  So, I CAN open another card, but that would then defeat the purpose of:  1.  The card would not be at least 5 years old and 2. It would be a new account under 12 months.

So, what should I do??

Two important points:

1. The cards should be "bank" cards such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover or AMEX blue everyday. NOT charge cards such as AMEX green/gold/platinum or store cards.  Ok.  Good to know.  Thanks.

2. The 1 or 2 cards should report a small statement balance and then be paid in full before due date. By small I mean under 9% of the card's credit limit. So, If the card has a $5000 limit then statement balance should be under $450. If you have low limit cards - say $500- you could still charge $450 on the card but, then make an early progress payment so balance reported on your statement is under 9% ($45).  Should I have my credit limit raised?  Again, not being into "Financials 101", I just assumed all was good and happy as long as I don't charge up to my limit and I pay it off, in full, the next month when the bill arrives.  If I open a second card though, my charges on my original card though will be obviously less.  If I open a second card, and I'm thinking I might, I might just use it exclusively just for my Amazon purchases, just to make things organized for myself.

P.S. Having 2 cards is much better than 1. You husband should use that 2nd card atleast once every year, assuming the account is still open. Otherwise, there is significant risk the card issuer will close the account for non use.  I'll let him know.

[CreditPoor]

I'm just gonna come out and say it, you sound absolutely foolish and overly entitled. No one owes you a credit score. You have one card that you pay on monthly, so "they" aren't ruining anything. It's absolutely ridiculous that you filed a complaint with the CFPB because you don't feel you have a high enough credit score. If I received that complaint from you, I'd fall out of my chair laughing. You seriously need to get a grip on reality and either play the FICO game or keep the score you have and enjoy life debt free 

[kasniak]

As others have stated you need to educate yourself on the different scoring models and what scores are actually used by creditors.   Yes.  True.  Up until now, I really had no idea.  I didn't even know what a vantage score was or why it existed if FICO score, which I have heard of, exists.  I still don't know why there is all these scoring models??  It just seems to make things more confusing and complicated.  Credit profiles and scoring algorithms are complex animals designed to provide lenders with a quantative picture of your credit worthiness. If you want a credit card, one scoring model is used. Want a car loan? A different scoring model is used. How about a mortgage? Totally different scoring model is used. You do not have 1 credit score, not even close. Worse, the Vantage scores you get free from sites like Credit Karma are not used for anything. In the end, you are wasting your time titling windmills writing letters and filing complaints.  Ugh.

If you want to borrow money (credit) you need to play by their rules. Period. If you don't need to borrow money then don't care about your scores. Otherwise, take control of your credit. Pull your free credit reports from ACR (annualcreditreport.com) and go through them to be sure they are all correct. Then use the community here to read up on what the scores are looking for and what you need to do to maximize your scores. That's what I'm trying to do.  I'm trying to learn what I need to do to maximize my score.  I guess I'll just have to open another credit card.  So then I'll have two cards.  But then, how does it work because I also hear my score will get "dinged" for opening a card and it will get dinged having a new account on file for less than 12 months and it will get dinged for being a card that is under 5 years old.  Learn the rules of the game and beat them at it with high scores, which for someone who is financially solid is not hard at all. It won't even cost you money, in fact those with high credit scores use credit card reward programs to get all sorts of free stuff. Working the credit game is easy for someone who has the finances. Do that instead of wasting all that time writing letters and complaining, it will pay off for you in the end.  I'm trying!!  Not having any clue what to do, I just started filing my letters of dispute.

[kasniak]

1. The cards should be "bank" cards such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover or AMEX blue everyday. NOT charge cards such as AMEX green/gold/platinum or store cards.  What about getting a credit card through my local Credit Union, as long as it has the visa or mastercard logo on it?  Is that ok?

[kasniak]

Cool.  Thanks!!  I'm going to try that!!   : )

[FicoMike0]

I see you are getting some good advice here. Let me summarize a few points.

1. You feel offended by this whole system. Get over that. It's not personal, not about you. The scoring system is complex, one of the things that hurts you score, aging out old info, was legally mandated to help those with bad history. They're required to throw out both the baby and the bath water,lol.
2. The important scores are fico , fico8 in particular. Once you get all three of those, you probably won't care about any of this. The quickest way I know of to get those free, is the credit.com 7 day free trial. Don't forget to cancel before day 7.
3. If you still want to play this game, you can't buy better advice than you get here.
4. First step is get at least 3 credit cards. Might as well pick some that give cash back or benes you can use. Might as well pick those that pay sign on bonus. Back to you being offended, let them pay you, it's the only apology available. Search "azeo". Do it.
5. If you're still playing, search "ssl". Do it. I recommend penfed.
6. If you need a goal, I'll bet you can beat your husband's score, with coaching from this forum.

[JoeRockhead]

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@CreditPoor wrote:

I'm just gonna come out and say it, you sound absolutely foolish and overly entitled. No one owes you a credit score. You have one card that you pay on monthly, so "they" aren't ruining anything. It's absolutely ridiculous that you filed a complaint with the CFPB because you don't feel you have a high enough credit score. If I received that complaint from you, I'd fall out of my chair laughing. You seriously need to get a grip on reality and either play the FICO game or keep the score you have and enjoy life debt free 

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I'm 100% certain that absolutely no-one on this forum, or any other forum for that matter came out of the gate loaded with the knowledge of how all this works. I'm sure anyone going along through life thinking, believing they were doing all the right things, then finding out their scores were sub par would come as a bit of a shock and be upset by it. Not knowing any better, I'm sure they'd do whatever they thought was the right thing to do whether or not it was the right course of action.

The overwhelming majority of those here trying to help people find real answers to their questions and/or dilemmas usually do so with common decency. Sorry, but throwing insults is of no help to anyone.

[FicoMike0]

One more thing.  JoeRockhead mentioned " throwing insults". I don't remember anyone here insulting you, but I apologize, since it was likely me,lol. They make fun of me too.  We have to have some fun, no ones paying us for this. Keep in mind, we're all on your side. You can't say that about fico, the credit agencies, or the banks. It's us vs. THEM. I just collected a $400 bank sub, I call that a win for our side. I accept their $400 apology.

[FicoMike0]

Oh, now I see what CreditPoor said. Take it with good humor, it's the price we pay for free advice. Truely great advice! Your complaints do seem petty to those who have had "real" credit problems. Many here speak the language of lates, charge offs, etc. You may not know, or care, what the difference between a bk7 and a bk13 is, many here have to.

Take heart that your score is not dragged down by any baddies. Those hurt for 7-10 years. You can inflate you scores quickly.