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Confused about the negatives on formal credit report
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As part of the mortgage application process for buying my next home, I received a paper copy of the formal credit report that was conducted. At the bottom, where it lists what is bringing down the credit score, it listed these items:
- Revolving balance too high
- History too short

These both make very little sense to me. I have two cards. The first has a 25k limit and I usually have a monthly balance (paid in full each month) of 1k to 3k. The second card has a $5k limit and I typically have a monthly balance (again paid in full each month) of $0 to $100. How is this too high of a revolving credit balance? I have no other active cards (gas cards, store cards, etc.).

For the History too short remark, the main card that I used, I opened when I was 16. Given that I've had it now for half of my life, it just seems crazy that this came up. The other card that I use much less, I've had for about 7 years.

I'm constantly struggling to get my score above 800, and I guess these things are holding my back. I'm missing something here...does it make sense to anyone else?

Asked by ezatnova 1 year ago Flag this question Flag this Question

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3 responses

My understanding is that those remarks are just automatically generated and don't necessarily mean much. Those are the two factors that are the least strong factors on your report. If you only have two cards, one 16 years old and the other 7, then your average for accounts is 11.5. That's good, but not as good as 15 or 20 years. You don't mention if you have other accounts--student loans, car loans, etc.--so maybe the average age of your accounts factors those in too and it's even lower. It seems you still have a good history, but not as good as somebody with 30 or 40 years of history.  The same thing could be true of your balances. It's great that you pay in full each month, but that doesn't show up on your report, so having 3K on your card looks like you might just have a 3K balance you aren't paying down quickly. It's not a big problem since that's still only 10% utilization, but that's not as good as 7% utilization. It seems like the report just generated automated responses that don't really make much difference. You say you've been chasing the 800 mark, but that's pretty tough to reach. Give it another ten or twenty years of history, and maybe you'll get there. In the mean time, it seems that you have very good credit for someone who's only 32, and if your score is in the upper 700s you'll get the best loan rates anyway, so who cares if it isn't above 800?

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jhrhodes 1 year ago

dont use your cards for a month, it takes a month for bureaus to update, bring to 0 debt .  The credit too is just a bogus excuse

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nbirnbaum2 1 year ago

 You dont have to have a balance for it to tell you revolving balance is too high. It can say that just because of how much open credit you have to income ratio. I tell all of my cards that I dont want auto increases and I keep my overall limits at 5000.00 or less per card. 

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bchybaby 1 year ago

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