Credit Score Tips

Sep 2, 2012 | News

The type of credit that you have open – 10% impact on your score. A good mixture of auto loans and leases, credit cards and mortgages is always best. Too many credit cards is not a good thing, and having a mortgage does increase your score.

Practical steps to improve your score in this area are:

  1. Having 3-5 revolving credit cards open is optimal.
  2. Having a good mix of auto loans, credit cards and mortgages is positive for the score; rather than having a concentration in credit cards only.

The number of recent inquiries that have been made by creditors – 10% impact on your credit score. Inquiries affect the score for one year from the time the inquiry is made. Personal inquiries do not count toward your score. In other words, you can check your credit report as often as you like and that won’t affect your score. The score is only affected if a potential creditor checks your credit. Potential creditors include credit card companies, auto finance companies, department stores and mortgage companies.

The reason that inquiries impact your credit score is because the scoring system assumes that if you have many recent inquiries, you must be strapped for money and in some type of “panic” mode, trying to get credit wherever you can find it. The system also assumes that all these inquiries will eventually result in new accounts being opened, and as stated before, the system doesn’t like you to open new accounts and punishes you by giving you a lower credit score.

Here are three practical steps that you can take to improve your credit score in this area:

  1. Multiple auto and mortgage inquiries are treated as only one inquiry if made within 14 days of each other. So, it is better to shop for a car or a mortgage over a two week time-frame, rather than to prolong it over a longer timeframe.
  2. Don’t apply for a lot of credit or open multiple credit cards at the same time.
  3. If you are thinking of applying for a mortgage within the next 90 days or so, it would be good to wait until after your mortgage closes before you apply for any new credit.