Posted by Tim Lewis on February 15, 1998 at 20:19:04:
I'm a prospective first-time homebuyer living in the SF Bay Area. I worked with a mortgage broker a year and a half ago who wanted to prequalify me.
As a first step, he arranged to have a merged mortgage credit report pulled using SMS Credit Services. At that time I had 2 Visa Cards and a Discover card with a combined credit limit of $20,000 on all three. Balances on those cards was less than $1000 and no other open accounts. He disclosed my FICO score which was 730 (4/96).
My balances are still around $1000, but these issuers have increased my credit lines without request and I have acquired an additional Visa. My available credit is now $60,000 combined. I have only two inquiries in the past two years.
Questions:
(1) Do you suppose the credit line increases and aquisition of a new Visa have substantially lowered my FICO score? I'm afraid to have another merged report taken to prequalify for fear that it might also lower the score.
(2) Is the credit available too high given an annual salary of $94,000 (8 years with same employer)? In other words, would you advise closing one or more accounts? I do use them. I've chosen to have 4 accounts with due dates spread equally througout the month so I can maximize grace period. Balances are paid in full always.
(3) Does income affect FICO score? If so, how do the credit bureaus know my income?