The irony

As I paid off and dumped my credit cards, my credit rating dropped.  Well, I have great news, I just bought a car.   By going in debt with a secured load my credit rating has taken a jump upward.  

Yeah, a good credit rating is useful in all sorts of ways but the method of calculation is a bit of a joke.

The algorithm loves a big credit space and a small utiization of that space. I keep a big fat line of credit secured against my house as a last ditch contingency fund. The balance has always been zero, but it does nice things for my "credit utilization ratio."

People forget that the best time to ask for credit (at a very low interest rate) is when you absolutely don't need it. I have to make sure I pay one bill on the line of credit around Christmas, and pay it back immediately, to keep it from going dormant.