You can't have your cake and eat it to. Higher risk for ID theft vs. higher FICO score ;)Originally posted by mhd:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Gman:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by mhd:
some of this advice doesn't make sense, like not closing unused accounts, you can only close them if you pay them off, paying off credit card debt is always a good idea, but following their advice makes you a greater risk of identity theft. also, if the article advises to keep accounts with higher rates over newer accounts with lower rates, that makes zero financial sense, to me. fact is, you should not have many cards anyway
What I got from the article is to keep the older higher interest rate cards open but don't necessarily use them in place of the newer lower interest cards. He was making the point that it would be far better in terms of keeping a high FICO score to close down the new cards with the lower rates than to close the older cards because they carry so much more weight in computing the score. No one would continue to charge on a higher interest credit card when they have a lower interest one available.
-G </font>[/QUOTE]i'm not buying it,
consider the relative impacts, if you don't protect yourself from identity theft and someone abuses your identity, don't you think your fico score will go up?
what about this quote:You mean your FICO score will go down if someone stills your identity. Yes. I guess considering all the ways that your identity can get stolen having those few extra accounts open is not going to increase your risk that much more than it already is
"Consumers, understandably enough, often seek to close out high-interest-rate cards. They're "looking at their credit from a smart consumer point of view not a credit point of view," Rhode said. However, "you might be better off to close the newer cards even if they have lower interest rates, and keep the older cards with the history."
how can being a smart consumer be against your better interest? doesn't make sense, unless you consider how many big ticket items or transactions will the typical consumer make? one maybe two home purchases, a car here and there? so the importance kinda diminishes if you look at it that way, meanwhile if you follow these guys advice you will actually pay more for a high fico score.
being a smart, savvy and safe consumer should be consistent with a fico score, in other words, you should be rewarded for doing the right thing for yourself. besides, my history is my history, it just doesn't vanish just because i'm paying 8percent for two years rather than 18 percent for twelve years.I hear what ya saying Mark, but my point was keep the old credit accounts open but don't be stupid and keep using them
getting back to those big purchases, imo, fico is somewhat of a mystery, a combination of factors, which tells me it is also one of the MANY elements of a transaction that are negotiable, and if not, its negative impact surely can be offset by things that are negotiable.If this FICO score is so important and thats what the lenders are looking at first then the implication is that by closing those accounts that account history does lower the score
finally, i'm waiting for an answer from leslie, who apparently did not follow the advice in this article and guess what "no adverse implications" </font>[/QUOTE]I thought she simply meant that she could have had a higher FICO score after it was all said and done.The FICO score's negative impact may be able to be offset by things that are negotiable but I just want them role out the red carpet [img]smile.gif[/img]
-G
[ October 23, 2003, 08:29 AM: Message edited by: Gman ]
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