I need more credit cards!

Well, according to Equifax and Transunion I do. LOL! I signed up with Credit Karma just to keep an eye on my credit and it seems to be fairly accurate. Supposedly Credit Karma is reporting info from Equifax and Transunion.

We have 2 we use. LOL! They are both rewards cards, on gives points that can be redeemed for giftcards and one sends checks to use at Kroger. The only reason we use them is because of the rewards. We used to pay cash for everything and decided we might as well earn some rewards for what we were spending anyway. We pay both cards balances, in full, every month. We have had the cards for years and have never paid one cent of interest.We also have a couple of store cards that we never use, so I am surprised that they have not been closed.

So, I get an email from Credit Karma that I need to update my credit score, which entails signing in to the site and it is "recalculated". This month is the first month Equifax is included in the calculations. My "credit score" is over 800, categorized as "excellent". Well, sure we pay our bills on time, never go to collections, etc. BUT when digging down into the details of the score, I found that our "number of accounts" is categorized as POOR, because we only have 9. I don't even know what they are counting as 9 and I am not worried about it as I check our credit reports regularly and they are correct. Maybe they go back to our car loans or something.

Everything else is categorized as excellent. AND our total account are equal to or higher than 42% of other Credit Karma members. LOL! So there is a whole lot of us who are in that poor category. I guess I am in good company.

Recommendation: This metric represents the total number of accounts listed on your credit report. Consumers with more credit accounts tend to have better credit scores, So Transunion and Equifax think I need more credit cards.

My opinion: I don't think so.

In other news, Hubby and I have jumped on "the year of the car" bandwagon. Last week, I started the car (I have been driving Hubby's Accord) one morning, turned on my headlights and had no light on the driver side. Told Hubby about it later when we talked and decided to take care of it on the weekend. It was cold and rainy so I didn't. But on Sunday, I took the CRV and the driver side headlight was out on IT! WTF?! It had just gone out because it was working the previous weekend. So I went to the auto parts store and bought 2 bulbs...$20.

I was not trying to figure out how to change them in the rain and cold, so Hubby took the CRV to our mechanic and they changed the bulb for us for no charge. Yeah for that! So I am driving it as I leave in the dark and come home in the dark. Hubby will drive his car, as he only drives in the day, until we can get that one changed. He said the mechanic would change it but asked him to wait a week or so as they are short a mechanic. He will take it to them or I may try to change it this weekend. I looked on-line and the Accord one looks pretty easy to change.

We have not been able to have a fire...because we had a fire. Hubby is getting antsy as it has been perfect fire weather. He called our manager and found out we have to wait until the chimney is inspected before we can use the fireplace. They got it all repaired pretty quickly, but who knows when the inspector will come.

Happy Wednesday!
from your cold friend with too few credit cards.