Jump to content

What is with the New line obession?


divadend
 Share

Recommended Posts

New to site and reading like crazy. Noticing several have signature lines that show Hooters MC, Crown Jewelers and Gas cards, with their respective balances.

1. Is this to show that they can now get approved?

2. Is this a technique used to get easy credit lines approvals to help boost scores?

3. If #2 is true, typically doesn't a new line cause a decrease in scores? How long before they begin to report positively?

4. What is the recommended score you should have before you start applying for these? Would hate to apply and get denied.

Thanks for bearing w/ my numerous posts as I get started.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New to site and reading like crazy. Noticing several have signature lines that show Hooters MC, Crown Jewelers and Gas cards, with their respective balances.

1. Is this to show that they can now get approved?

Nope... just pride of accomplishment

2. Is this a technique used to get easy credit lines approvals to help boost scores?

No, again it is just pride of accomplishment. In the words of Amerikaner "Credit repair is about fixing the old but also building the new"

3. If #2 is true, typically doesn't a new line cause a decrease in scores? How long before they begin to report positively?

It varies and the FICO scoring is so complex there is no way to say. Some people have jumps in their score after a new account while another with the same company and credit limit will show a decrease. All of it works together for your score and all the various accounts and reporting are different for each person.

4. What is the recommended score you should have before you start applying for these? Would hate to apply and get denied.

You can go to www.whogavemecredit.com and search by company, state, which report they pull and see who was approved and what their score was at the time. Very informative.

Thanks for bearing w/ my numerous posts as I get started.

Welcome! :)++

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's to show people what companies are willing to lend to people with credit problems and what kind of CL can be expected. Will new accounts have an adverse affect on your FICO? It really depends on what your current CR looks like. If you have little to no accounts in good standing, getting a new TL can actually give you a healthy bump.

Adding an additional line of credit also reduces your utilization, which is a significant contributer to your FICO. Assume that you have one CC with a $1000 CL and a $800 balance. If that's the only account listed on your CR, your utilization is 80% (bad). If you got approved for another $1000 card, your utilization drops to 40% (not great, but decent).

However, if you already have good accounts (esp. if those accounts are well-established), then yes, in the short-term a new TL can drop your score. This is because FICO scoring takes into account the age of your oldest account, plus the average age of all your accounts. So adding a new account reduces the average age. However, the drop is generally pretty negligible.

So, you might not want to risk opening a bunch of accounts if you're going to be applying for a mortgage soon, hoping to eek a few more points. In fact that alone would probably disqualify you. But credit repair is a long term process. We open new accounts knowing that they'll probably drop our score in the short term. It's an investment though. Once we prove ourselves worthy though positive payment histories, our scores can only go up.

As for applying for stuff yourself... The first thing you want to do is your first round of disputes before attempting to apply for new stuff. That'll knock off the easy baddies. If that results in your FICO in the 550-ish range, you could start looking at cards like Orchard and possibly Target. If you're still sub-550, try Crown Jewelers and the various secured cards. http://www.whogavemecredit.com is an excellent resource when it's time to start your rebuild phase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I find there are several strategies people on this board are trying. One is how many CC's they can possibly accumulate in the hopes that with proper management and time will be numerous TR's on the report as a positive. I saw a poster yesterday that said he had 52 and was trying to get more.

I'm of the other strategy that says maintain a health mix of credit lines in the positive column. I have three majors with from 2-9 years age without a flaw. Also a car loan and minors with no problems. I'm trying to get rid of three bad TR's that will drop in a few months. These were from 2001 when financial setbacks meant letting these go. Not a good decision on my part.

Each individual has to decide what works for them. I'm of the belief that getting these tier two lines is easy for most and are relatively harmless in the short term because these OC's only look at the scores and not the reports. If your plan is to get a home in the future, for example, they will look at the reports. I'm no expert, but can't help to think 52 tier twos is going to be a red flag, despite their standing. Even if you drop these in a few years, and they were good standing, they will remain for at least 10 years as a positive TR, but lots makes these look funny IMHO. The total credit line is also a factor in how much debt "you could" get into or default on potentially.

Again, look through your time line and future plans. If you have lots of things that will take years perhaps to clear up, and or may stay with you for the full term on the reports, than having some of this is probably a good thing. If your problems are minor, and or your plans call for a major purchase in the near future I'd think this would not be a good idea.

Again, opinions and strategies differ here, and you need to read and read and decide what works best for you. No right or wrong, just differences.

Good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The TL's I have now are all that I need at the moment. I'm going to cancel the Cap One if there is no CLI by the 2 year mark in May. It will have a 2 year good history at that point, and that will be enough. The Best Buy I've had since March, still waiting on a CLI for that. BB is worth hanging onto for all the shopping I do there, but the Cap One is going to go because of their attitude.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

New to site and reading like crazy. Noticing several have signature lines that show Hooters MC, Crown Jewelers and Gas cards, with their respective balances.

1. Is this to show that they can now get approved?

I don't know why most people have them in their signatures, but the ones that are there, I have always viewed as something for me to look forward to as a goal, so I put mine up as encouragement to others. I have never really looked at them as pride of accomplishment where mine are concerned because most of mine are the easy ones and were not difficult to get...just look at my scores! they're AWFUL! =)

2. Is this a technique used to get easy credit lines approvals to help boost scores?

Actually, most of mine are. I have a couple of cc's that I paid a high price to get (the initial set up fees were nearly 3/4s of the available balance) but I know that by paying them off, I have a higher available credit with low utilitzation that will boost my score a bit, not to mention different types of credit that will also help.

3. If #2 is true, typically doesn't a new line cause a decrease in scores? How long before they begin to report positively?

I believe so, to an extent about the initial decrease, it shouldn't be much, but within about 6 months of good payments and low utilization it should boost it higher, (providing all other accounts of your report have not been negative during this time)

4. What is the recommended score you should have before you start applying for these? Would hate to apply and get denied.

Some of these cards can be pretty much automatic at any score if you have no baddies, some higher scores with baddies might not qualify..*shrug*, basically it depends on more than your score, such as what is in your report.

Thanks for bearing w/ my numerous posts as I get started.

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.