Does it help improve your credit score

[achiro]

by over and over buying stuff regularly on your credit cards and paying them off the same month?

[SoonerKnight]

No.

[Frozen Sooner]

by over and over buying stuff regularly on your credit cards and paying them off the same month?

No more than it would to just leave the card at 0 balance.

[kbsooner21]

:mack: Only at Big Red Sports and Imports :D

[yermom]

by over and over buying stuff regularly on your credit cards and paying them off the same month?

the credit card companies hate you :D

[sooner_born_1960]

They are still collectiing on the seller side.

[SoonerAtKU]

If it's one of the big companies, they love you, because they act as a card processor as well as credit issuer. Add that to the fact that they don't have to spend any money going through collections for you, you're a dream. But it doesn't really improve your credit any more than paying off an electric bill that happens to do credit reporting.

[sooner_born_1960]

Even if it doesn't help per se, keep it up. Credit card debt is the devil.

[achiro]

A buddy was telling me that he was doing this, I told him I didn't think it worked that way.

[mikeelikee]

It would also help you to limit the number of credit cards you have. If you've got a lot of available credit you could run up, it hurts your overall credit score, even if you keep those balances at $0 most of the time.

[SoonerAtKU]

Oh it "works". It's just that it's not a significant determiner of good credit activity, so it doesn't get reported as such.

[mdklatt]

It would also help you to limit the number of credit cards you have. If you've got a lot of available credit you could run up, it hurts your overall credit score, even if you keep those balances at $0 most of the time.

I don't think this always is true. What they look at is the ratio of your debt to your available credit. I'm sure there's an upper limit to this--you certainly don't want a dozen open accounts--but if somebody tells you to close all your credit cards but one, don't listen to them.

[StoopTroup]

Investing heavily in a whorehouse operation in Juarez doesn't help either.

Please don't ask me how I know...I just do.

[Hamhock]

why do you need to improve your credit score?

dave ramsey wants to know.

[Frozen Sooner]

It would also help you to limit the number of credit cards you have. If you've got a lot of available credit you could run up, it hurts your overall credit score, even if you keep those balances at $0 most of the time.

This is incorrect.

A major component of your credit score is ratio of used revolving credit to available revolving credit.

[NormanPride]

So have a ton of credit available but not use much of it?

[Frozen Sooner]

Yes.

Having most of your available credit used up indicates that you are living beyond your means and is a major indicator of future bankruptcy. Having a lot of available credit also means that you can ride out a financial crisis better than someone who's tapped out.

For what it's worth, this information was given to me directly from a statistician with the Fair, Isaac company. You may get different information from various people who are paid to talk about personal finance.

[mdklatt]

For what it's worth, this information was given to me directly from a statistician with the Fair, Isaac company. You may get different information from various people who are paid to talk about personal finance.

I had a 30-day trial to a credit reporting service, and one of the features was a what-if calculator that let you see how various things would effect your credit score. I have one credit card that I rarely use, but my credit score would go down quite a bit if I close that account. So when people tell you that cutting up all your credit cards will boost your credit score, they're wrong.

[soonermix]

f-r-e-e that spells free credit report dot com babee

[soonerbrat]

I had a 30-day trial to a credit reporting service, and one of the features was a what-if calculator that let you see how various things would effect your credit score. I have one credit card that I rarely use, but my credit score would go down quite a bit if I close that account. So when people tell you that cutting up all your credit cards will boost your credit score, they're wrong.

just cut'em up and leave the accounts open

[SoonerAtKU]

It is true that long-standing accounts reflect better on your score than newly-opened ones. If you close a well-performing card that you've had a long time, you can take a fairly large hit to your credit score. When I worked for Chase, we would always laugh internally at the people who revolved their balance among cards that offer 0% for 6 mos or whatever. Opening and closing accounts that rapidly speaks to a huge credit risk, and that's reflected in your score.