Need To Increase FICO Score (old News!!!)
Well I see several posts here that state getting a secured credit card would boost credit. I wanted to know if a "closed" account that was in good standing would also help with boosting a fico score. I have been paying a school loan for the past 14 months for an online course i was taking. This is my last month paying, based on the installment agreement I was on. Should I ask them to report to the credit agencies on my behalf..... or will another account lower my score even more?
any suggestions would be great. 
Best answer is, IT DEPENDS. Your payment histroy is only 35% of your credit score. There are other portions or your credit profile. Such as how old/long have you had this line of credit, how long has it been open etc. How much or your Credit limits do you currently have as Available Credit? Are you over extended? Do you have tooo much credit extended to you? That can have a negative effect, so closing an account when you have too much credit is a good idea.
As a general rule, I do not close accounts that are paid off and have long standing good payment histories.
But again, that Depends!
Getting listed as an authorized user on a card with perfect payment history and a few years old will also raise your score.
Credit scores are interesting creatures and they seem devoid of all logic. More than likely, a 14 month payment history (with no late payments) on an installment account would be beneficial to your credit history. Since the line is paid off, it will not add to your overall credit use. This answer, of course, is not certain. If you already have an over-abundance of installment accounts it could be bad, as FICO likes to see a wide variety of accounts. If most of your accounts have a longer track record than 14 months, it may shorten your average account length, which lowers your score. It really all depends on what you have there....
-Chris
p.s. Don't you like how (un) helpful this post has been?
[addsig]
increase limits in your established acounts seems to be a good thing too. As the amount you owe verces how much credit you have is a percentage of the score as well
