Does a SIM only cell phone contract help credit rating?
I have never seen any of my mobile phone providers report any data to any credit agency. They tend to only do that if you don't pay on time. Maybe sometimes it helps, but from my experience over the last decade - it must be some very rare times. I'm not sure if there are nuances between countries and appreciate your question is specifically about the US, but in the UK, mobile phone contracts, including SIM only, as seen by the chat in this experion website chat shows that mobile contracts are included in credit ratings for 6 years.
"It appears that you already know this, but FICO credit scores (as controlled by Fair Isaac Corporation) are the real official credit scores, and FICO takes a cut on their production no matter which of the 3 major credit bureaus calculates the official score (all using slightly different methods). Be careful when obtaining a score for making a big decision that it is a FICO score, because relatively few lenders will lend based on a non-FICO score. That said, some non-FICO scores are easy to obtain and can be roughly translated to an approximation of your score. Barclays US/ Juniper Bank credit cards offer a free Transunion ""TransRisk""(TM) score. The TransRisk score is a 900 point scale, while the FICO score is an 850 point scale. This is a simple ratio and you can calculate your approximate FICO score by the formula:" Businesses have bond ratings just like people have credit ratings. It has become common for businesses to issue low rate bonds to show that they are strong, and leave the door open for further borrowing if they see an opportunity, such as an acquisition.  One of the reasons Microsoft might want to build a credit reputation, is that people become familiar with their bonds and will purchase at lower rates when they want to borrow larger amounts of money, rather than assuming they are having financial issues which would lead them to demand higher rates. 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. Yes, there is.  I was a victim of Experian's breach last year.  The only thing these credit reporting agencies sell is their opinion.  If their opinion is not worth shit because they are compromised, then what they sell has little value.  Next time you hear a lender explaining to you this credit score thingy, ask them if they still remember how to underwrite without it, because it is going away.  They will look at you and try to carefully explain its importance, but you are under no obligation to believe them.  Tell them COBOL sucks, and so does much of the '80s music they still listen to. "In the other question, the OP had posted a screenshot (circa 2010) from Transunion with suggestions on how to improve the OP's credit score.  One of these suggestions was to obtain ""retail revolving accounts.""  By this, they are referring to credit accounts from a particular retail store.  Stores have been offering credit accounts for many years, and today, this usually takes the form of a store credit card.  The credit card does not have the Visa or MasterCard logo on it, and is only valid at that particular store.  (For example, Target has their own credit card that only works at Target stores.)  The ""revolving"" part simply means that it is an open account that you can continue to make new charges and pay off, as opposed to a fixed retail financing loan (such as you might get at a high-end furniture store, where you obtain a loan for a single piece of furniture, and when it is paid off, the account is closed). The formula for credit scores are proprietary secrets.  However, I haven't read anything that indicates that a store credit card helps your credit score more than a standard credit card.  I suspect that Transunion was offering this tip in an attempt to give the consumer more ideas of how to add credit cards to their account that the consumer might not have thought of.  But it is possible that buried deep in the credit score formula, there is something in there that gives you a higher score if you have a store credit card. As an aside, the OP in the other question had a credit score of 766 and was trying to make it higher.  In my opinion, this is pointless.  Remember that the financial services industry has an incentive to sell you as much debt as possible, and so all of their advice will point to you getting more credit accounts and getting more in debt." Rating agencies should be paid on accuracy, i.e. each bond issued pays x $ into a pool, and the bond companies whom are accurate over the maturity get a share of the pool.  Those whom are not, must add money to the pool. (Like an accuracy market!) I guess we opt in when we take out credit, or if you sign a lease or anything like that. While credit reporting is the backbone of consumer finance, im not sure exactly how it works, and this may not be the right sub. r/personalfinance may be better. If you get a good answer elsewhere I would be much obliged if you posted it back here. A credit card can be a long running line of credit that will help to boost your FICO score.  However if you have student loans, a mortgage, or car payments those will work just as well. If you ever get to the point where you don't have any recent lines of credit, this may eventually end up hurting your score, but until then you really don't need any extras. Your credit rating will rise once the loan is repaid or paid regularly (in time). It will not get back to normal instantly. If the property is dead weight you may want to sell it so your credit score will increase in the medium term. Lowering of the US credit rating would affect all US bonds.  Some institutional investments are required to invest in securities with a certain credit rating (i.e. money markets and some low risk mutual funds).  If the credit rating is lowered these institutions would be required to dump their US bond holdings.  This could have a serious affect on bond prices.  The lower bond prices would drive up yields. If the US credit rating was lowered after you purchased TIPS then the price you could sell your TIPS for would most probably be lower then what you bought them.  You would lose money. All US bonds, including TIPS, would be affected by a lower credit rating since the credit rating is suppose to indicate the borrower's ability to repay the debt.  This is independent of inflation.  TIPS provide no additional benefit over regular bonds in regard to credit rating. Consider that however high your credit score gets, there is a 'worst piece of it'. The automated software will always report your 'weakest' two points, even if they are already at the top 0.0001% of everyone; that's just how it is coded. 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. "The weird thing is that if you use the credit impact simulators with the credit monitoring services, they show that the impact of paying your credit cards off completely is more negative than carrying a small balance, which doesn't make a great deal of sense, one would think.  From what I can gather, the rationale is that carrying a small balance shows you making payments over time, as opposed to having a zero balance.  This doesn't quite compute with me, but I don't truly understand the inner workings of the scoring models.  To confirm this, I used simulators with both TransUnion and Experian, and both showed this.  I know that it's easy to find people on both sides of this argument, so I can't say which is the best option (certainly whichever side someone falls on is the one they'll argue is the right one! chuckle). In all fairness, your best tool is time.  The effects of your prior bad decisions will lessen over time as they move further away in your history and then disappear altogether.  Obtaining a credit card just because you think you need one is not a compelling argument, by any means.  If you can't rationalize reasons why you need it then maybe you should question the wisdom of such a decision.  If you don't have a particular need for better credit right now, why be in a hurry to take on debt? Whatever the formulas are for calculating credit scores, the specific details are a pretty closely-guarded secret (they're proprietary for starters, plus it theoretically prevents people from ""gaming the system"" for a better score), but if you do enough research online, you can get a pretty good sense of how they work in general. Whatever you do with your credit should be in line with your overall financial goals.  If you want to remain debt-free (at least for now) then having a credit card you can't otherwise justify a need for just introduces temptations which could prove tough to resist (""wants"" quickly turn into ""needs"" when you can put it on a card you pay later), then you're right back in the same place you were earlier in your life. Instead of trying to figure out the ""best strategy"" for a credit card, first ask yourself how necessary it is to you right now in light of your financial objectives, then go from there. I hope this helps. Good luck!" "The fact that you pay the bill reliably is going to count more for your credit rating than anything else, even if you are paying it off in full every month. Lenders seem to like to see at least one instance where you charged a large balance, held it a couple months, then paid it off in full... but I wouldn't go out of my way to do that. Remember that the credit card company is making money on transaction fees as well as interest. If you're pushing money through their system, they're happy. They'd be happier if you were paying them interest too -- reportedly, they actually refer to those of us who pay in full every month as ""deadbeats"" -- but they aren't going to kick you out or ding your credit rating for it. The quote you give says that a small balance ""may be slightly better"". I submit that ""may be slightly"" is too small a difference to be worth worrying about, unless you have reason to believe that your credit rating actively needs to be repaired. (And as noted in the comments, it's actually stated even less strongly than that!) Personal recommendation: You can get a free credit report each year from each of the ""big three"" credit rating agencies. Those reports usually include a brief explanation of what they think the most negative item on your record is. The phrasing of those explanations is often somewhat misleading, but I'd still suggest that you get these reports and see what they think would improve your rating. I'm willing to bet it won't be ""doesn't carry a high enough debt balance.""" "Credit scores are not such a big deal in Canada as they are in the US and even some European countries.  One reason for this: the Social Insurance Number (SIN number) isn't used for so many purposes like the Social Security Number (SSN) in the US.  The SIN number isn't even required to get credit (but with some exceptions it is needed to open an interest-bearing savings account, so that the interest income can be reported).  You can refuse to provide the SIN number to most private companies. Canada also has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates of any large country, so new arrivals are expected, and services are geared up for them.  Most of the banks offer special deals for ""New Canadians"".  You should get a credit card (even if just a secured credit card) through them with one of these offers to start a credit file anyway, but there's no need to actually use it much.  Auto-paying a utility bill through the card, and paying it off in full each month, is one way to keep it active.  No need to ever pay any interest. Most major apartment rental firms will expect a good proportion of their renters to be new to Canada, so should have procedures in place to deal with it (such as a higher deposit).  You should not give them your SIN for a credit check, even when you're more established. Same for utilities, they can just charge a higher deposit if they can't credit check you.  For private landlords, everything is negotiable (but see the laws link at the end of this answer). You will later need a credit rating for a mortgage on a house (if not paying cash), so it's worth getting that one token credit card.  Useful for car rental also. Here's a fairly complete summary of the laws on renting in Canada, which includes the maximum deposits that can be asked for, and notice periods."