@VeryHappy, @shellfell: Oh, my goodness. I cannot believe this conversation. I just discovered a few days ago that I am in the same situation of not having sufficient loan information available to the credit reporting agents available for them. What the heck is going on?
We are probably going to buy a car sometime during 2019. I had planned to pay cash, but maybe we should take out a loan just so we can pay it back.
With interest, of course. (Grrrrrr emoji here. Hey, where are my emojis?))
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What a scam this credit score really is. Folks who manage to not get into debt get dinged for that. We have not had an “installment loan” in ages… until we got into House2, we had not had a mortgage for a while (keeping the mortgage for a little longer because now it makes sense). The credit reporting companies are definitely in cahoots with the lenders.
Good things is, when you reach a certain age and amount of assets, should you/do you need to worry much about your credit score and the shenanigans the credit agencies make arriving at them? I say no.
If you can pay cash, don’t need credit, etc. take comfort in knowing you are fiscally responsible and better off than the vast majority of people. IMO, you don’t need to worry about playing their games.
We don’t have any loans or debt by last time we checked, our Cardi score was in the 800s. I wouldn’t bother taking a loan just to boost my credit score—we froze out credit so I honestly don’t care what our score is.
I don’t envision taking on any credit in the future.
The sad part… car and home insurance companies look at your credit score before deciding whether to issue you a policy or not and how much to charge for it.
Well, before I froze our credit due to frequent beaches by large companies, we were at credit scores of 800+ —haven’t been told by our insurance agent that there is any problem getting the great coverage we have at reasonable rates—no change in premiums pre & post freeze.
My guess is not having recent credit purchases isn’t dropping one’s credit rating substantially and therefore any impact on insurance rates would be negligible. In fact, it isn’t your credit score that is used but another number called an insurance score.
https://www.esurance.com/info/car/myth-your-credit-score-doesnt-affect-your-insurance-rate
@VeryHappy Would you be willing to share how much your FICO score dropped point-wise? Was it substantial or just something like 25 points?
It dropped 42 points. We have our credit frozen because we really have no plans to need it – we just use our existing credit cards and life goes on – but I find this punitive to the people who actually manage to live their lives without taking out loans.
If your credit score drops, some banks can cancel their CCs and/or up the rates.
That “credit-based insurance score” in the link above is just a variant of your credit score. This is just for eSurance.
I had 2 of the same credit card, but one had a limit of about 25K, and the other had a $44K limit. I closed one when it came up for renewal, because they wouldn’t waive the $95 fee. Then I realized it was the $44K balance one, and I should have closed the $25k balance one. I asked them to reopen the card, but my credit score will probably take a hit. I also suspect they will treat it like a new request, instead of a card that’s been open for 20 plus years, and they won’t even give me the high limit. Live and learn.
@1214mom - Since both cards are with the same company, you might be able to straighten this out with a phone call. Once I applied for second card from a bank where I already had a card. They approved the second card with a slightly lower limit than the first. I called and they told me I was approved for the combined limit and that I could divide that limit between the accounts however I chose to designate it. I expect that your bank will adjust the limit on the remaining card to the old limit on the other card, or possibly higher.
@1214mom Could you ask the $25k limit card to raise your limit?
Thanks @sherpa. They told me they would have to run my credit, and asked me a bunch of questions. It will be fine, but it will likely lower my credit score a little. I don’t need the credit - but I think I handled it stupidly.
Yes, before you ask for a CC to be closed, you can ask for any other CC you have with the company to get the limit raised and/or ask to be switched o a no annual fee card with your high limit. Many companies Will oblige.
Just following up on the credit card stuff above. It’s not a big deal. They probably wouldn’t deduct the $95 annual fee because I really didn’t use the card much last year. I mostly use my southwest card. But I had a slight worry that reducing my available credit so much might impact my credit score. I’m not sure it matters, because we pay things off every month and have no debt except a mortgage, but I had a wild hair moment and decided I wanted that one instead of the other one that’s the same card with a lower limit. I don’t even know what my credit score is, and probably haven’t checked it since we got my son a credit card when he left HS in 2014. Maybe I should check 
If one has a credit card and no longer uses it, will it be cancelled due lack of use? Does that impact one’s credit rating, etc?
I’ve had an AmEx card for about five years that I activated but never used. They haven’t cancelled it.
Once in awhile, I’ve had CC companies cancel cards we aren’t using. Sometimes they warn us that they will be doing so if we don’t use the card (so we use the card if we want to keep it open). We mainly use our USAA visa anyway, so don’t care much if others are closed.
My SIL was complaining yesterday about her low credit score. They’re retired (62/60), house is paid off, pay any cards off in full every month, last cars bought w/cash, plenty of assets. Yep - the no debt/installment payment issue. They aren’t planning on any loans or getting new insurance so it isn’t a big deal, but she’s still annoyed.