Revolving Vs Installment Credit

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What is the difference in the way these are used in scoring by the credit bureaus? Are they looked at separately or combined? One can easily figure the 30% mark to try to stay under with revolving accounts....how is it figured (or is it even used) with installment accounts (for which I have no idea what to use as the amount of available credit)? Am I better paying down revolving accounts or installment accounts? Thanks for any help.

Comments(2)

  • Steena21st November, 2003

    I think I understand your question.....
    The differences in revolving and installments is huge. Revolving is credit cards, installments are house payments, car payments, etc. Like it's been said a thousand times, revolving credit is horrible for you when it's a large amount. Pay down the revolving credit and make your installments on time, everytime. With revolving credit, it seems easier, because there's a minimum due. it's too tempting to just pay that small amount. That looks really bad to lenders. You have over-extended yourself, and can't pay it off. therefore they are less willing to take a risk and loan you money. I hope I understood, and answered your question.

  • classimg21st November, 2003

    Pay down the credit cards! Make sure the cards fall within 20-30% of their recorded max. The scoring for credit cards is blended across all the cards. If ONE card is near max and the other are in the 20-30% of max range. Your score is impacted. CC's near the max impact score along with payment history. Finally, 2-3 cc's is plenty. American Express is a strong trade line to lenders. (due to their stringent requirements/qualifications) Too many cc's may hurt your score as well.

    Eric & Rosa
    [addsig]

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