It's been a while since this thread got bumped. Is this section still more or less accurate?
Quote:
Types of credit:
Banks like to see that you are not only responsible, but responsible with multiple types of credit. Credit cards are only one type. Car loans, mortgages, and other loans are other types.
How to use 'types of credit' to help your score: Don't worry about it. If you happen to have a school loan, or a auto loan in addition to a credit card, good for you. But typically this section does not have a big effect on your score and it's not worth taking on a new credit type unless you need to.
Situation from the car ownership thread is just over two years ago wife and I bought a car together, she paid half in cash and co-signed a loan on the rest to help build my non-existent credit (yay poker). Fast-forward to now and my most recent credit score is 748 and the car loan is getting paid off early by insurance because the car was deemed a total loss after getting smashed while parked.
According to the above, it would not really make sense to take out a new loan for the remaining balance ($8-10k) on a new car if we don't have to (we don't).
Currently the only credit I have are 4 credit cards that I pay off in full every month so am just considering/curious about the affect of 'losing' (if that's even that correct way to think about it) the car loan credit line from my credit history.
fwiw, I just got a Chase Freedom Unlimited card for the $200 bonus for $500 spend offer + 5% back on groceries for a year. They included my most recent credit score from experian and included 4 factors that adversely affected my score;
-Length of time since the oldest credit card established
-Total available credit on credit cards
-Credit card balances compared to the age of the accounts
-Number of requests for new credit in the past 24 months
My oldest credit card is less than 24 months old. Total available credit combined for my cards is $18.4k. I don't remember specifically applying for additional cards in the last two years but it wouldn't be more than 2 or 3. Not really worried about any of the above as it feels like something that will work itself out over time but it's cool that Chase included that with my new CC info.