vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Credit scores have a huge financial impact on consumers, even though most people don’t know how they are calculated or which bad habits may be driving theirs down. Your credit score is a number on a scale of 300 to 900 that can affect all of your financial decisions, from shopping for groceries to applying for a mortgage. Read on to find out why a good credit rating is so important. 4 Things to Know About Your Credit Score Why it’s important. Throughout your life, you will probably rely on your credit to acquire the items that you want and need but can’t necessarily pay cash for. Each time you buy something on credit, merchants are taking a gamble on you; the bet is
Credit scores, or at least components of them, can sometimes factor into how much you pay for car insurance. Source: Consumer Reports: How a Credit Score Increases your Premium
Your credit score is based on your use of Debt. From wikipedia: Opening and closing bank accounts, buying or selling cars without debt, or even buying or selling houses without debt won't affect your credit score.
Some aspects of your general financial lifestyle make a big difference in your score. Always pay late; declare bankruptcy; have bills go to collection, these will hurt your overall score.  Some aspects of your life start with a low score and rise over time: the number of years you have had credit. Some only have short term and transient impacts: what is your utilization rate today; when was your last hard pull. Any agonizing you do over the transient aspects during a period of time when your score doesn't matter, is a waste of energy. If you are looking for a new mortgage, or a another type of loan, then act in a way that will improve your score. But If you see no immediate need then don't sweat the details. If your credit limit is too low for your lifestyle, then ask for it to be increased. Just don't ask for the increase a few days before you put in the auto loan application.
Your credit report is composed of different factors and each has a different weight. Payment history has the biggest weight, at 35%, while length of credit history is 15%. So together, these two factors make up 50% - there are 5 factors total. Given that your card is your oldest card, and assuming you've made on time payments on that card, it does have an influence on your credit report/score. I would not close the card, and use it to make occasional purchases. I have a card like that where I only use it to make iTunes purchases - at most a couple bucks every few months.
Credit is important for many reasons. Establishing credit is an important step and should be no challenge for someone who already has good habits.  The same lessons and advice that you would find for a student to establish credit would be applicable to your case as well. Factors that influence credit score, Since you are already established in your home country (Australia), you probably have a credit card (and references) that you can provide for the first few challenges (renting a car, renting an apartment). Here are the steps, Your credit score should improve quickly as the first couple of credit cards and the installment loan show good payment history, low utilization, and gain some age. After 1-2 years, you should have a good score.
Payment history is probably the most significant contributor to your credit score.  Having a solid history of making, at least the minimum, payments on time will have a positive impact on your credit score.  Whether or not this specific transaction means anything to that equation is up for debate.   If you have no credit lines now and 0% for 18 months on a computer makes sense to you, then yes, making this purchase this way and paying on time will have a positive impact on your credit score.  Paying interest doesn't help your credit score.  Repay this computer before the 18 month period ends, then be sure to pay your balance in full every month thereafter.
The factors to consider:
It does not matter. Your credit score is affected by late payments, by credit usage and by age of credit. DO NOT PAY LATE.  Paying early is only good in that it means you don't pay late. Your credit usage is calculated by percentage of the credit you have that you actually use.  Keep your usage to under 20% of your limit and you look great as a credit risk as you have lots of buffer.
The biggest risk is Credit Utilization rate.  If you have a total of $10,000 in revolving credit (ie: credit card line) and you ever have more than 50% (or 33% to be conservative) on the card at any time then your credit score will be negatively impacted. This will be a negative impact even if you charge it on day one and pay it off in full on day 2.  Doesn't make much sense but credit companies are playing the averages:  on average they find that people who get close to maxing their credit limit are in some sort of financial trouble. You're better off to make small purchases each month, under $100, and pay them off right away.  That will build a better credit history - and score.
Your credit score can be part of the algorithm for setting your rates for auto insurance. It is one of many factors including sex, age, zip code, driving record, type of car... There are some states that are concerned about using credit scores, some sates have passed legislation regarding this issue
Since recent changes to credit scoring (July 2017) it may not be necassary to do this, as more emphasis is placed on having a timely payment history and less emphasis is placed on having a low credit utilization ratio. Using what’s known as trended data is the biggest change. The phrase   means credit scores will take into account the trajectory of a   borrower’s debts on a month-to-month basis. In fact, having a low credit utilization ratio may even negatively effect you (if your available credit line value is high): ... VantageScore will now mark a borrower negatively for having   excessively large credit card limits, on the theory that the person   could run up a high credit card debt quickly. Those who have prime   credit scores may be hurt the most, since they are most likely to have   multiple cards open. But those who like to play the credit card   rewards program points game could be affected as well. source
It doesn't matter to the credit agencies if there is a co-signer or not. However, your family member will need to take into consideration if they are willing to be responsible for the loan in the event you are unable to make payments. Being a co-signer means they are agreeing to pay the loan amount. It will also impact their credit score/report, either improve it if all goes well, or destroy it if neither one of you are able to pay the loan. So to you, assuming you can pay all the payments and not default, it makes no difference. But to the co-signer, it could create a huge impact.  https://www.thebalance.com/does-co-signing-affect-credit-315368
Specific to the inquiries, from my Impact of Credit Inquiries article -    8 is at the high end pulling your score down until some time passes. As MB stated, long term expanding your credit will help, but short term, it's a bit of a hit.
"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_imk_wp_178_2017.pdf) reduced by 100%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; Economic activity may affect the development of credit through credit demand and credit supply channels.  &gt; 3.1 Credit expansion and financial crises The empirical literature on the determinants of excessive credit expansion and financial instability has mostly analyzed the large build-ups of bank credit to the private non-financial sector since these data are available over a long time period.  &gt; The positive correlation between economic activity and credit may result from the effect of economic activity on credit demand and credit supply but also from the effect of credit availability on economic activity.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6kt8rs/imk_macroeconomic_factors_behind_financial/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~157450 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **credit**^#1 **income**^#2 **financial**^#3 **test**^#4 **household**^#5"
"First, a note of my personal experience: up until a year ago, my credit lines were composed exclusively of credit cards with perfect payment histories, and my credit score is fine. If you mean that credit cards have no impact on a person's credit score until they miss a payment, that is certainly not correct. FICO's website identifies ""payment history"" as 35% of your FICO score: The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you’ve paid past credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in a FICO® Score. ... Credit payment history on many types of accounts Account types considered for payment history include: ... Details on late or missed payments (""delinquencies"") and public record and collection items FICO® Scores consider: How many accounts show no late payment A good track record on most of your credit accounts will increase your FICO® Scores. Clearly, from the last item alone, we see that credit lines (a category which includes credit cards) with no late payments is a factor in computing your FICO score, and certainly other credit bureaus behave similarly. Possibly the banker was trying to explain some other point, like ""If you're careful not to spend more on your card than you have in the bank, you can functionally treat your credit card as a debit line,"" but did so in a confusing way."
Check out this Relevant Article.  Here's the first paragraph that answers your question: The opening and closing of bank (deposit) accounts doesn't affect your credit score. Your credit score is based on your lending relationships and public records, such as bankruptcy filings or court judgments recorded against you. The rest of the article goes into more detail.
I can think of one short-term solution: lower your debt-to-credit ratio.  Even if you pay off your credit card before the due date, the balance you owe is registered as a debt on your credit score for that statement period.  If you pay off your balance before the statement period closes, the amount will be zero. Debt-to-credit ratio is one of highest impact factors used in computing the credit score. The dip from the hard pull should be only temporary.  Additionally, there are different FICO scoring models that lenders use, which can provide significant variance.  Once your score is in the mid 700s, however, that and sufficient income should be sufficient for a prime-rate loan, credit card, or other service for which the credit score is relevant.
Consumer Profile types such as utilisation rate are a lot more about EFFECT than CAUSE: The most important thing is to honour your obligations, whether you pay before or after you spend makes little difference, so long as you pay in full and prior to maturity, your rate/score will improve with time. Financial Institutions have many ways to make money of everyone. Some, such as interest rates and fees are directly charged to you and some are charged to your goods-and-services providers. That has no bearing on your score. Sometimes it even makes sense to take on customers with rock-bottom ratings, lend them lots of money, and charge them to dirt. As you may well know, the recent financial crisis - with ongoing after-shocks and tremors - was the result of such practices."
You can improve your credit score simply by being an authorized user on someone's credit card account.  They don't even physically have to give you a card to use, they can just add you to the account as an authorized user and your credit score will be affected.  Be forewarned though, it can be negatively impacted as well.  Only participate in such a scheme if it's with someone trustworthy and reliable.
No, it will have no negative impact on getting a mortgage. You are building up a history with regular payments and are not carrying a balance on the card each month. Your ability to get a mortgage will ultimately be based on other things. Money Saving Expert has a good guide on what will affect your credit score. A further discussion on the topic that backs up that what a mortgage company is interested in is affordability and a stable history. They really don't care about utilisation ratios.  (Though might be spooked by almost maxed out cards - sign of poor spending control, or large unused limits - too easy to go into bad debt.)
Several factors are considered in loans as significant as a home mortgage.  I believe the most major factors are 1) Credit report, 2) Income, and 3) Employment status If you borrow jointly, all joint factors are included, not just the favorable ones.  Some wrinkles this can cause may include: Credit Report - The second person on the loan may have poor credit or no credit.  This can/will hurt your rate or even prevent them from being listed on the loan at all, which will also mean you can't include their income. In addition, there are future consequences: that any late payments, default, foreclosure, etc. will be listed on all borrower's reports. If you both have solid work history, great credit, and want to jointly own the home, then there shouldn't be any negatives.  If this is not the case, compare both cases (fully, not just rates, as some agents could sneakily say you can get the same rate either way but then not tell you closing costs in one scenario are higher), and pick the one that is best overall. This is just information from my recollection so make sure to verify and ask plenty of questions, don't go forward on assumptions.
For instance and to give a comparison to the US - in Austria, almost everybody gets a credit card (without a credit history (e.g. a young person) / with a bad credit history & with a good credit history).  The credit history is in the USA much more important than in Austria. In future, the way to assess a credit history will change due to analysis of social networks for instance. This can be considered in addition to traditional scoring procedures. Is your credit history/score like a criminal record? Nope. I mean is it always with you?  Not really cause a criminal record will be retained on a central storage (to state it abstract) and a credit history can be calculated by private companies. Also, are there other ways to get credit cards besides with a bank? That depends on the country. In Austria, yes.
Paying on time is the most critical factor. Paying ahead on the loan will not help you from a credit score POV, but it will not hurt you either. In general, to maintain a good credit history, don't bother focusing on credit scores. Frankly, there is very little reason for you to even know what your score is. Just do the following: Lenders want to deal with people with long histories of paying debts back on time.
While one credit provider (or credit reference agency) might score you in one way, others may score you differently including treating different things that contribute to your score differently. Different credit providers may also not see all of your credit score as potentially some data may not be available to all credit suppliers. Further too many searches may trigger systems that recognise behavior that is a sign of possible fraudulent activity (such as applying for many items of credit in a short space of time). Whether this would directly affect a score or trigger manual checks is also likely to vary. In situations like this a person could have applied for (say) a dozen credit cards, with all the credit checks being performed before there is any credit history for any of those dozen cards.
MrChrister's answer is just plain wrong. Your history of carrying debt or paying interest has nothing to do with your credit score. The biggest factors are payment history, debt to available credit ratio and length of credit history. If you have active credit accounts for 5 years, have 10-15k in limits on credit cards and put gas and groceries on a credit card that is paid in full each month, you'll have a top notch credit rating. There is no way to tell from a credit report whether you carry a balance for pay in full. Anyone who gets into debt to improve a credit score is ignorant of the process. If you have bad credit, here's how you improve it:
"There are normally three key factors that define different kinds of loans, these factors affect the risk that the lender takes on and so the interest rate. The interest rate on any loan is linked to market interest rates; the lender shouldn't be able to receive a higher rate of interest for lending the money at no risk, and the level of risk that the lender believes the borrower to have. The three features of a particular loan are: These reduce the risk of complete or total non-payment (default) of the principal or any missed interest payments. Taken in order: Amortising Here some of the monthly payment pays a proportion of the underlying principal of the loan. This reduces the amount outstanding and so reduces the capacity for default on the full principal as part of the principal has already been paid. Security In a secured loan there is an asset such as a car, house, boat, gold, shares etc. that has a value on resale that is held against the loan. The lender may repossess the security if the borrower defaults and recover their money that way. This also acts as a ""stick"" using the loss of property to convince the borrower that it is better to keep paying the interest. The future value of the security will be taken into account when deciding how much this reduces the interest rate. Guarantor A guarantor to a loan guarantees that the borrower will repay the loan and interest in full and, if the borrower does not fulfil that obligation, the lender is able to seek legal redress from the guarantor for the borrower's debts. Each of these reduce the risk of the loan as detailed and so reduce the interest rate. The interest rate, then, is made up of three parts; the market interest rate (m) plus the interest rate premium for the borrower's own credit worthiness (c) minus the value of the features of the loan that help to reduce risk (l). The interest rate of the loan (r) is categorised as: r = m + c - l. Credit ratings themselves are an inexact science and even when two lenders are looking at the same credit score for the same person they will give a different interest rate premium.
Since no one else answered this part of your question yet:  Checking your own credit score or report will not affect it in any way.  It only hurts you when someone looks it up to run a credit check at your request for the purpose of possibly getting a loan, for example a car dealership. This only hurts it a tiny bit, and is not worth worrying about unless you are going to 20 different car dealerships who each do a check. However, it is a good idea not to let them run your credit until you are seriously ready to buy a car. In fact, it is better to just get financing somewhere else and not let them run it at all.
This will have no effect on your credit score.  Even though your credit card account number is changing, it is still the same account, so your history of payments and age of accounts will remain unchanged.
"Two factors that positively your credit score are the number of open accounts you have in good standing, and the average age of the accounts. The more accounts you have in good standing, the more likely you seem to pay back what you borrow from new creditors. The older the average age of the accounts, the more you seem like an experienced borrower who has had many years of successful credit activity. Closing them would lower the total number of accounts in good standing you have, and would also likely lower the average account age (unless you've recently opened them). To ""simplify the number of cards you have"", pick the one or two you would consider cancelling (worst rewards/benefits, highest yearly fee, etc.) and just don't keep them in your wallet anymore. You don't have to worry about paying them off every month (because you don't buy anything with them) and you still get the credit score benefits of having the accounts open."
Credit scores are designed to reflect your ability to make payments on time. As long as you're not closing your old credit card account, you will only see a minimal impact on your score. See estimated credit score breakdowns below:
In this example you are providing 4x more collateral than you are borrowing.  Credit score shouldn't matter, regardless of how risky a borrower you are.  Sure it costs time and money to go to auction, but this can be factored into your interest rate / fees. I don't see how the bank can lose.
It will reduce the credit ding you will take but why does it matter?  Next cycle when it's paid off your credit score will go back to where it was.  Unless you're looking for a loan right now and your credit is marginal why worry about it?
I plan to stay debt free, but I appreciate the non-debt-related advantages of having a good credit score. If you plan to stay debt-free, then opening up more cards will not significantly change your credit score.  You seem to want to be going from a good score to a great score, which adding cards alone will not do.   Also, I highly doubt it will significantly affect any of the five things you mention.  If you had a bad credit score, then I could see some effect on renting an apartment, getting a job (where trust with money is a component of the job), etc., but don't try to game the system for some number. You won't magically get cheaper cell phone rates, lower insurance premiums, etc.
Great question.  First, my recommendation would be for you to get a card that does not have a yearly fee. There are many credit cards out there that provide cash back on your purchases or points to redeem for gift cards or other items. Be sure to cancel the credit card that you have now so you don't forget about that yearly fee. Canceling will have a temporary impact on your credit score if the credit card is your longest held line of credit.  Second, it is recommended not to use more than 20% of all the available credit, staying above that line can affect your credit score. I think that is what you are hearing about running up large balances on your credit card. If you are worried about staying below the 20% line, you can always request a larger line of credit. Just keep paying it off each month though and you will be fine.  You already have a history of credit if you have begun paying off your student loans.
Banks use quite a few parameters to arrive at the decision for card approval. The credit score is just one input. There are multiple other inputs it would source, for example total years in job, the number of years in current job, income streams, etc ... the exact formula is a trade secret and varies from Bank to Bank
Sounds like a case of false causality.  If somebody is taking the time to sign up at opt out sites, then that same person is probably making other smart decisions with their credit, causing scores to rise. Optoutprescreen.com does not help your score, the other actions taken might.  People seeing different results can probably be tied to the timeframe they signed up.  People who signed up then took care of their credit vs. people whose credit was already good and then signed up. A 10 pt bounce one way or the other is not significant.
The effect on your credit score would be a positive one.  If you have plenty of money now then pay off the balance each month. If you are very disciplined and can pay off the balance each month you could stop using your debit card to make daily purchases and use your credit card instead. That way you can keep your money in an interest bearing account all month and pay the bill in full when it comes due.
Your credit score, for better or worse, is increasingly about more than just getting loans. For example insurance companies can use it to some extent to determine your rates,.