This should be insightful: https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/credit-scores/credit-scores-and-credit-reports
Also, if you get free credit reports from your credit card issuer: With the report I get from Capital One I can navigate to where it explicitly suggests what I should do to raise my credit score.
Thanks for the link. I don't know why I never thought to go directly to the source before! So according to FICO, the breakdown as far as how much a variable affects your score is:
35% Payment history
30% Amounts owed
15% Length of credit history
10% New credit
10% Credit mix
This is starting to make a bit more sense. My payment history is perfect, so the most important factor is taken care of. But digging into the details of what they consider for 'amounts owed', it's not just credit cards, but also includes the amount outstanding on any loans. I have a personal loan with a $19k balance remaining, and the limit on my only credit card is $27.5K, so perhaps my credit/debt ratio is too high when the loan is factored in. They also consider the percentage of the loan that has been payed off. I do have the cash on hand to pay the loan off right now (potential house down payment), but the interest rate on the loan is 4.25%, so not worthwhile according to the 'investment order' rules. I'm not in a huge hurry to buy a house, so I think I'll put it off for a while and open a new credit account to raise my credit limit.
Yes, my card issuer does have credit reporting, but the suggestions are mostly contradictory and make no sense:
Helping:
- You have few or no accounts that were opened recently.
- Total of all balances on bankcard or revolving accounts is not too high.
- The balances on your accounts are not too high compared to loan limits.
- There are no or only a few recent delinquencies on your accounts.
Hurting:
- The date that you opened your oldest account is too recent.
- Lack of sufficient credit history.
- Lack of sufficient relevant real estate account information.
- No open bankcard or revolving accounts in your credit file.
After years of reading/learning from this forum, finally registered...just to respond to your post. LOL
Anyway, last year my husband was in the same situation as you. Credit score of 721 for months on end and had great credit. 1 installment loan, a couple credit cards. Everything paid on time.
Made no sense why it was stuck at 721.
He opened up another credit card for the airline points and voila, the following month his score jumped to 765. Only change having opened that card. And his scored has continued to climb (with no other changes other than using the cards and paying them off in full each month). Today it's 802.
Not saying I believe 100% opening a new card would benefit you the same way. Just our experience. Worth a thought anyway.
Glad to be an inspiration for registering!
Based on the info above from the FICO site, I think this makes sense. In my case I think adding another card will be helpful. It may lower my score in the short term, but the overall credit limit is a more important factor. Also, the time spent waiting for the new card to be considered 'not new' will also be age added to my oldest card, and time spent paying down my loan balance. So in the end my score should come up a lot.