Balance dropped, score dropped. FICO scores a mystery.

They only reason to pay for the service of credit monitoring here on myFICO is so you have some idea of where you stand when you apply for any type of credit or loan. All the information about understanding FICO scoring is all cookie cutter garbage that you can read on any other "credit monitoring" service. And the people that work for myFICO have no idea what they are talking about either. They just repeat the same cookie cutter garbage I was just mentioning. I really hope they are providing their "services" for free, because if they receive any kind of compensation, it is undeserved. My statement balance on my American Express Everyday card went from $50 to $0 and my scores dropped by 11, 12, and 17 points (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.) I brought the statement balance back up to $50 the VERY next month. Did my scores recover the lost points I just lost a month ago? No. And I am sure all these "credit experts" will say, "something else in your report must have changed." That is code for, "I have no idea what happened, I am just as clueless as you why your score changed the way it did." The precise formula for generating your FICO score is a well guarded secret. It is the same formula used in determining battle damage to your characters in the old Sega Master System game Phantasy Star. Sometimes when attacked, your character would lose 6 health points, other times 80 health points, and even other times 3/4ths of your total health, and so on and so on. This is how FICO scoring works. The formula basically goes, OOGA BOOGA, OOGA BOOGA, this is your updated score. The only advice on this site (again which you can find on EVERY other credit monitoring service) that is worth anything is what responsible credit habits you should be practicing. Other than that, just hope for the best. Your score is a mystery, and it always will be.

Beavakos wrote:
What difference does it make if there are any negatives on my report? I lost points for doing something negative, which is bringing my balance to zero, than returning it back to its previous balance. THAT IS ALL I DID. I thought time heals all wounds when it comes to credit. Any credit missteps I might have had taken should be corrected with time. I really don't know how to make this any clearer. Nothing in my report changed except TIME. If I have two dollars in my bank account, and spend one dollar, then deposit one dollar, I should have now have TWO dollars AGAIN. ?????????????????I understand what Beavakos is saying here and we all get it. Most of us love analyzing data which is why we are here after we've already cleaned up our reports and greatly increased our scores. Again, I understand how Beavakos feels - it is said time and again that UTIL has no memory and what is lost due to UTIL will be regained - well, not always true. Looking strictly at the data two things changed on Beavakos' report: 30 days were added to age and UTIL went from something above 0% to 0%, then back again and yet Beavakos' score did not fully recoup the loss. The reason for this, I think, is very clear - we do not know as much as we think we know about FICO or any other scoring algorithm. If I lost 10 points for going from 5% UTIL down to 0% UTIL but then gained those 5 points back by raising my UTIL to 5% again then scoring algorithm's are not as complicated as they are made out to be and are thus not worth paying for. The previous scenario is simple math and if indeed it was only that I should be able to retest that hypothesis time and again and get the same exact results - not happening. That said, I do not believe that scoring is a crap shoot or something only a witch doctor can understand. It is a complicated mathematical equation that has 100's, if not 1000's, of factors all having a different weight at a different time and I believe there is no one that can determine with 100% accuracy the effect any one factor, forget about multiple factors, will have on your score. Not even the people who wrote the code would know as no one person wrote the whole code. We should probably stop getting so frustrated with how our scores react to the different changes in our reports. The reason we get upset is that we think this is some simple black and white game and it's not. It is very complicated and we will never know what we want to know to the accuracy level we want to know it. What's important is we know what hurts our score to a high degree and what helps our score to a high degree. Take care of all those things we know about and your score will go up; don't take care of those things and your score will go down. After that it is just a game we play to see how we can get to 800...

Similar Messages

I paid down a card to zero and my score dropped 18 points

Hi and welcome! You need to keep balances low (1-9% util) on credit cards and other revolving credit. High outstanding debt can affect a score. Too much use of credit shows you may need more that you can handle, not good. Not enough use of credit does not demonstrate that you can use credit responsibly, also not good. It is a balance - show you can manage that balance and you will be rewarded. All revolving accounts reporting a 0 balance results in a Fico score decrease. Read up, take it all in, there are many answers in the following post, after that if you need calrification and/or still have questions, ask away! http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Credit-Scoring-101-START-HERE/m-p/8169

tufa4311 wrote:
Bostonia wrote:
WOW!! i did not know that little trick, thats wy, my scores has been so slow in rising up, is becouse i paid in full before the statement cus off,and always reported 0 balance, also recently closed a CC account with zero balance, and my scores dropped a lots points, so from now one i willlet report some small balance Hooray!!! i have learned so much from this forum, and each time i log in i learn somenthingnew and beneficial for my financial life!! thank you all for the greatest financial advices!!! you guys are awesome!!! Yes, ensure that not only you let report 1-9%, but also important, only let ONE of your credit lines report anything at all. No matter how many credit lines you have, only let one report a balance of 1-9%. You can and should rinse and repeat for your other credit lines. One billing cycle let Credit Card A report, next cycle let credit card B report. This is unnecessary and needlessly complicates things as cards seldom all report at the same time. Just pick one card and allow it to be your "reporter". By switching cards each month you can end up with periods between the cards reporting dates where either both are reporting a balance or neither is reporting a balance. That causes your scores to bounce around. So, wait until your statement cuts - when the statement is cut is when the reporting is done to the credit agencies, then before your due date pay in FULL so as not to incur any interest. Then start on your next credit line. Remember, it's not that you never want to pay in full, it's that you do not want to pay in full BEFORE the credit card reports. If you wait past the due date then you will incur interst. Also, note, you can use as many cards as you like with as high balance as you like during the billing cycle as long as when the reporting gets done you only have one line reporting 1-9%. Reporting to the credit agencies is not done daily, just once per billing cycle. If you know when your statement cuts, and you can ask them, then you know when you need to clean things up with your balances before it cuts/reports.

FICO Score change

I recently learned of a drop in my FICO score from 820 to 808. I cannot think of any reason for this except I cancelled my AMEX Gold Card after 52 years because of the annual $55 renewal fee and lack of need. About the same date I received notice from Skype that my annual fee for subscriptions for two telephone numbers for use with their service had failed to be paid. I had no outstanding charges for service usage and simply wanted to let the telephone numbers expire. I think Skype had tried to charge the subcription renewal against my AMEX card just after cancellation. I am now getting daily reminders from Skype by email that my subscriptions have expired but offering extended dates for renewal. I am also notified that I will not be able to purchase other services or products until the subscriptions are paid. Would these circumstances warrant a 12 point drop in my credit score?

houndear wrote:
I recently learned of a drop in my FICO score from 820 to 808. I cannot think of any reason for this except I cancelled my AMEX Gold Card after 52 years because of the annual $55 renewal fee and lack of need. I am now getting daily reminders from Skype by email that my subscriptions have expired but offering extended dates for renewal. I am also notified that I will not be able to purchase other services or products until the subscriptions are paid. Would these circumstances warrant a 12 point drop in my credit score?Not enough info here to establish root cause. I would suggest getting a copy of a CRA credit report and score. Check for new inquiries. None of what you said should allow for a hard inquiry but who knows. Look for any new reason codes associated with your score as they can point you toward cause for a score change. Check to see that Skype has not reported a late payment associated with their attempt to charge your AMEX. Also, look to make sure your AMEX was not closed with a non zero balance. Closing a high CL credit card will drop your combined credit line which results in an increase in aggregate credit utilization %. If utilization crosses a threshold, say 10%, this can drop score. However, if your AMEX is a charge card then it does not have a CL and should not factor into your combined CL. P.S. The 52 year age of your card will still count toward your AAoA for as long as it is listed on your credit report (closed accounts drop off 10 years after date of closure).

Why does my FICO score keep on dropping???

I check my FICO score that comes with my Discover card. I don't understand what's going on. My FICO score keeps dropping. About 6-7 months ago my score was a 832. I've had this score for a while. The following month it dropped down to a 789. Basically 43 points. The only thing I could think of was that I had used my Discover card quite a bit that month (3,000 out of the $6000 limit). But as I always do every month, I paid everything off in one shot. After a couple of months, it went back up to a 801. This is nowhere close to the 832 I originally had. I check this month and lo and behold, it's dropped back down to 786. The only thing that I could of think of out of the ordinary was getting a pre-approval for a loan. Just a pre-approval. Would this cause it drop back down this much? I don't understand why my FICO score keeps dropping. Would these 2 things cause it to drop down this much? I pay my credit cards off in full every single month. I don't have any other mortgage or loan.

GiJoe81 wrote:
Thanks for the post. I don't have any debt. Literally 0. I have a BOA Visa card which has a credit limit of $17,000. Of that, I have a zero balance. My Discover card has a limit of $6,000. Back 6-7 months ago, I had charged $3,000 of the $6,000 limit on the Discover card. I paid everything off in one shot before the due date. This is the month that my credit score dropped from a 832 down to a 789. For the past 6-7 months I've never charged more than $1,000 on my BOA card and never more than $200-300 on my Discover card. As mentioned, everything is always paid off in full before the due date. Haven't had any type of revolving debt for the past year. I ran my credit report about 2 months ago (when I did a pre-approval) and under the "Key factors that adversely affected your credit score" it states the following: Equifax: TIME SINCE MOST RECENT ACCOUNT OPENING IS TOO SHORT. TOO MANY CONSUMER FINANCE COMPANY ACCOUNTS. TOO MANY ACCOUNTS WITH BALANCES. Transunion: TIME SINCE MOST RECENT ACCOUNT OPENING IS TOO SHORT. INSUFFICIENT LENGTH OF REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORY. LACK OF RECENT INSTALLMENT LOAN INFORMATION. INSUFFICIENT LENGTH OF CREDIT HISTORY. What kind of worries me is that it's saying I have too many customer finance company accounts and that the time since most recent account opening is too short. I don't believe this to be true. I only have a Discover card, BOA visa card, HSBC online savings account, and my checking account. I don't get what's going on First off...You have fantastic credit scores! The problem is that you don't have enough credit cards. You need a MINIMUM of 3 credit cards to be able to achieve the highest scores. Credit cards are the foundation of rock solid high credit scores in the future. Not many people can keep a mortgage open for 20 years but it is relatively easy for most people to keep a credit card open for 20 years. FICO has a number of calculations that are credit card specific and if you don't have at least 3 credit cards there is absolutely no way to "earn" all the points that you are entitled to. A case in point: FICO wants you to use your credit cards and you get points for having one card report a balance that is less that 10% of its credit line. BUT...FICO also doesn't want you to use too much credit so if you have 50% or more of your cards report a balance you get nicked points. By having only 2 credit cards you can't win that battle. I suggest that you app for 2 new credit cards each year until you end up with 5 to 8 quality cards that you can keep open for the rest of your life. Your scores are so high that you will qualify for ANY credit card that you desire. I would suggest that you apply for an AMEX Blue Cash Everyday and a CitiBank Double Cash Back card right now. A year from now pick up 2 more cards. Your scores are fluctuating wildly because of the uneven use of your 2 cards. If you use 1 card you are using 50% of your available cards and that is much too high by FICO standards. Having more credit cards will level your scores out and keep them from jumping around so much.

Score Dropped 60 Points from paying off loan

I had two college loans. Nelnet - 40,000 and KeyBank - 30,000 (Default) Had a family member Pledge money into a loan for myself and I paid back Nelnet for the full amount and settled with KeyBank for 70% (around 20,000) Two months later I ran another report and my score dropped from 672 (Started at 400 from five years ago) and dropped down to 612. No way my wife and I can get a house. I knew it could drop but not 60 points! It's going to take another year to bring it back up to the 670-680 range that I really needed to make a mortgage work. My tracking the last 2 years had been great. Each score was going up each 3 months and we've put a lot into savings and everything has been great. Very depressing to hold my family back like this. I also knew I would be applying for a mortgage at this time so about 6 months ago I opened my first credit card (Capital One QuickSilver -$2,000 limit) SO I have made weekly payments (I emotionally feel better making weekly payments for some reason) and wonder if asking to increase my limit would help or hurt my score. Thanks everyone.

MrE wrote:
I had two college loans. Nelnet - 40,000 and KeyBank - 30,000 (Default) Had a family member Pledge money into a loan for myself and I paid back Nelnet for the full amount and settled with KeyBank for 70% (around 20,000) Two months later I ran another report and my score dropped from 672 (Started at 400 from five years ago) and dropped down to 612. No way my wife and I can get a house. I knew it could drop but not 60 points! It's going to take another year to bring it back up to the 670-680 range that I really needed to make a mortgage work. My tracking the last 2 years had been great. Each score was going up each 3 months and we've put a lot into savings and everything has been great. Very depressing to hold my family back like this. I also knew I would be applying for a mortgage at this time so about 6 months ago I opened my first credit card (Capital One QuickSilver -$2,000 limit) SO I have made weekly payments (I emotionally feel better making weekly payments for some reason) and wonder if asking to increase my limit would help or hurt my score. Thanks everyone. Increasing your limit will not effect your scores either way, unless the card is carrying a large balance - then it will help. First off - your revolving credit is thin with only one CC. Second - do you have any other installment loans? The drop is most likely from the defaulted loan updating and not having any installment loans. That's temporary and your scores will recover as that item ages now. Your issues are easily fixable. First step is to get a second Capital One card. You should get an immediate boost from a second card. A third card from another lender would be good as well. Maybe Discover. If you have no other installment lines, open an account with SDFCU and do a share secured loan with them for $500 @ 36 months. That will also boost your scores. If you have trouble getting a third card, you can get a secured card from SDFCU as well. Three revolving lines will force your scores up much faster than just one. If your last two years are clean, you could easily hit 680 in 3-6 months. After you get the multiple revolving accounts going, to peak your scores you want to only allow one of the cards to report a small balance of less than 10% of its limit.

Help! "Fixed" credit issues and score dropped today!

For some reason, my score dropped 13 points today. There's 5 alerts on MyFico -- but I just had a $16,000 CO deleted. I can't imagine that would make my score drop. I mistakenly paid all my CCs down to 0 before knowing this wasn't good. My disputes haven't been removed yet. LVNV promised me 3x they would remove from my CR and the alert said it's still there! I called them and they claimed they haven't reported it this month. A couple other old COs are there so I can't think why on earth it would drop 13 pts. I'm in a very tight window for FHA. I'm fine but I can't fall at all and thought my score would bump up a little.a) what can I do quickly to bump up my score just a little?b) what can I do to run a small balance on one of my CCs (because I learned 0 is bad) when it won't update until the end of the month?c) what do you do when these CA say they're going to delete several times (it's almost falling off) and they don't? We are going to underwriting soon, in August, and I'll be so upset if all my efforst resulted in a 13 pt drop. To me, it makes no sense. When a mortgage co pulled a hard inquiry it jumped 11 pts last week! !!? Advice appreciated!

You might be able to put a small amount on one of your credit cards and call them and as for them to report now, and not wait for the normal cycle. I'm not sure which cards are more likely to do it than others. I know I've read on these boards examples of people doing that.

Credit Score Drop & Credit Limit Increase.

This morning I had 7 points drop from my credit score. This past month I decided to pay off a 10 year student loan early thinking it would help my credit score. I know it has helped my financial situation but has given my credit score a hit. I am thinking I got the hit because I closed the account out which significantly lowered my AAOA. I have a auto loan that I am currently paying off and the loan ends in about 2 years. Ive been going back and forth about paying off this also, but since I got the hit I just decided not to and just wait the 2 years. In my report I have 1 missed payment waiting to fall off next month, and after that I am pretty set. I have been also itching for another credit card. At the moment I only have one card which is my Barclaycard. What are your thoughts on opening up another one? I know it'll drop my score but I am thinking that I need to replace my loan with something beneficial such as another credit card. I am just not sure if that is a good thing. This morning I checked my Barclaycard statement and realized that they increased my credit limit. I started off with $1000 and they gave me a credit limit of $3500. So my question is how will this affect my credit score? I am on the road of rebuilding my credit. I started this road in the low 500's and within a few months I was able to get my score up to the low 700's with the help of this forum and advice. I would hate to see myself go backwards again. Any advice would be great.

hazeboo wrote:
This morning I had 7 points drop from my credit score. This past month I decided to pay off a 10 year student loan early thinking it would help my credit score. I know it has helped my financial situation but has given my credit score a hit. I am thinking I got the hit because I closed the account out which significantly lowered my AAOA. I have a auto loan that I am currently paying off and the loan ends in about 2 years. Ive been going back and forth about paying off this also, but since I got the hit I just decided not to and just wait the 2 years. In my report I have 1 missed payment waiting to fall off next month, and after that I am pretty set. I have been also itching for another credit card. At the moment I only have one card which is my Barclaycard. What are your thoughts on opening up another one? I know it'll drop my score but I am thinking that I need to replace my loan with something beneficial such as another credit card. I am just not sure if that is a good thing. This morning I checked my Barclaycard statement and realized that they increased my credit limit. I started off with $1000 and they gave me a credit limit of $3500. So my question is how will this affect my credit score? I am on the road of rebuilding my credit. I started this road in the low 500's and within a few months I was able to get my score up to the low 700's with the help of this forum and advice. I would hate to see myself go backwards again. Any advice would be great. Your AAOA doesnt get affected, it will still count towards your AAOA for 10 yrs from the time of closing.The credit line increase will not hurt your credit scores. If youre going to apply for another CC, i would wait until your CR repoets $0 balance/account closeed/paid as agreed. If you're score went down for paying the school loan off, it should go back up soon...doesnt make sense. When i got my two auto increases with Barclay, they HP me...maybe it changed but i would check and make sure they didnt do that. If they did, i would dispute that you didnt give them permission for auto HP increase. Worked with my wife. Anyonre?

Need advice helping raising my Fico score (571)

Hi guys, Long time lurker, first time poster. Long story short, I had a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharged September 2014. At that time, my Fico score rose 9 points to 584. Since that time, my Fico score dropped to 544, and has seen a very mild increase up to today’s date at 574. I don’t have any of my own credit cards, although I am an authorized user on all of my fiancés Credit Cards. Between her and I we have two installment (auto) loans. She has the following Credit Cards, with the credit limits in the first column, with our typical balances in the next column (first 5 cards are paid off in full each month by due date, the last 4 cards have running balances on them that are targeted to be paid off at various points in the next year) : American Express Blue Cash Everday: $2000 $200 10.0% Target Visa Credit Card: $6500 $600 9.2% Wal-Mart Mastercard: $6000 $400 6.7% Toys R Us Mastercard: $8000 $200 2.5% Kohl's Credit Card: $1500 $100 6.7% Kay Jewelers Credit Card: $7650 $700 9.2% will be paid off on 10/1/15Best Buy Credit Card: $3000 $2900 96.7% will be paid off on 2/10/16Citi Diamond Preferred Card: $8800 $7800 88.6% will be paid off on 6/3/15Capital One Card: $7000 $3300 48.5% will be paid off on 9/30/16 My question is: Do I need to add credit cards for just me, instead of being an authorized user on her cards? All of the cards I am added as an authorized user for are added to my credit report, and I thought with having multiple balances reporting each month that my score would change, but it really hasn’t at all. Does my bankruptcy really keep my score weighed down so much? Today I applied for a Capital One Quicksilver1 Unsecured card and was approved with a $1000 limit and I will start using that monthly. Should I apply for additional cards just under my name? I know that keeping most if not all cards below a 10% utilization rate is key, and we are trying to get there and hopefully won’t have any outstanding balances in one years time. However, I am curious as to what tips and advice I can get at helping raise my score. I figured that my score would be higher than it currently is, but clearly I am not doing the right things in raising it. Our plan is to purchase a new home next fall (she currently owns our current home just under her name), but by the time we are married next summer, it would be nice to have both of our incomes considered for a new house loan, and I certainly won’t help out that situation with my garbage credit rating. Thanks guys.

NormanFH wrote:
sanders_tj wrote:
I was approved for $1000 limits on both the Quicksliver One card and the Platinum. Those both should be sent to me in the next week or two. We will be starting to move the charges we currently use on the Target credit card (groceries), the Toys R Us card (dinner, activites, etc.) and the Wal-Mart Card (fuel) over to the AmEx card in order to take advantage of the cash back so there won’t be much of a balance (if any at all) on any of those 3 cards. I figured instead of paying some of our utility type bills such as cell phone, cable, internet, gas, electric, etc. I would put those on my Quicksilver One card and pay them off each month, just as I would normally do with the cash in our checking account. I don’t know what I will use the Platinum card for, but I’ll find a use for them. As for the first reply I received, yes, some of the balances are high on a few cards. Those aren’t charges of us just racking up debt for fun. Life happened (child custody case with my ex, vet bills, etc.). As I already stated, we have a payment schedule set up to pay off those high balances within the next year. Normally, we don’t carry that high of debt on our cards. And best of all, we don’t miss payments. EDIT: Is there no effect to my credit report (or is the effect not as substantial?) if I am an authorized user as opposed to the sole card owner?Remove yourself from the AU status on the four cards that have the high balances. No sense in letting those balances hurt both of your scores.PIF before the statement closing date ALL cards except for one. Allow that one card to report a balance of under 10%. That strategy will always put you in maximum FICO score territory. Request CLI's on both Cap One cards after the third statement. Don't wait for the credit steps. You will still get a credit steps auto increase at the sixth month+1

Need advice helping raising my Fico score (574)

Hi guys, Long time lurker, first time poster. Long story short, I had a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharged September 2014. At that time, my Fico score rose 9 points to 584. Since that time, my Fico score dropped to 544, and has seen a very mild increase up to today’s date at 574. I don’t have any of my own credit cards, although I am an authorized user on all of my fiancés Credit Cards. Between her and I we have two installment (auto) loans. She has the following Credit Cards, with the credit limits in the first column, with our typical balances in the next column (first 5 cards are paid off in full each month by due date, the last 4 cards have running balances on them that are targeted to be paid off at various points in the next year) : American Express Blue Cash Everday: $2000 $200 10.0% Target Visa Credit Card: $6500 $600 9.2% Wal-Mart Mastercard: $6000 $400 6.7% Toys R Us Mastercard: $8000 $200 2.5% Kohl's Credit Card: $1500 $100 6.7% Kay Jewelers Credit Card: $7650 $700 9.2% will be paid off on 10/1/15Best Buy Credit Card: $3000 $2900 96.7% will be paid off on 2/10/16Citi Diamond Preferred Card: $8800 $7800 88.6% will be paid off on 6/3/15Capital One Card: $7000 $3300 48.5% will be paid off on 9/30/16 My question is: Do I need to add credit cards for just me, instead of being an authorized user on her cards? All of the cards I am added as an authorized user for are added to my credit report, and I thought with having multiple balances reporting each month that my score would change, but it really hasn’t at all. Does my bankruptcy really keep my score weighed down so much? Today I applied for a Capital One Quicksilver1 Unsecured card and was approved with a $1000 limit and I will start using that monthly. Should I apply for additional cards just under my name? I know that keeping most if not all cards below a 10% utilization rate is key, and we are trying to get there and hopefully won’t have any outstanding balances in one years time. However, I am curious as to what tips and advice I can get at helping raise my score. I figured that my score would be higher than it currently is, but clearly I am not doing the right things in raising it. Our plan is to purchase a new home next fall (she currently owns our current home just under her name), but by the time we are married next summer, it would be nice to have both of our incomes considered for a new house loan, and I certainly won’t help out that situation with my garbage credit rating. Thanks guys.

I was approved for $1000 limits on both the Quicksliver One card and the Platinum. Those both should be sent to me in the next week or two. We will be starting to move the charges we currently use on the Target credit card (groceries), the Toys R Us card (dinner, activites, etc.) and the Wal-Mart Card (fuel) over to the AmEx card in order to take advantage of the cash back so there won’t be much of a balance (if any at all) on any of those 3 cards. I figured instead of paying some of our utility type bills such as cell phone, cable, internet, gas, electric, etc. I would put those on my Quicksilver One card and pay them off each month, just as I would normally do with the cash in our checking account. I don’t know what I will use the Platinum card for, but I’ll find a use for them. As for the first reply I received, yes, some of the balances are high on a few cards. Those aren’t charges of us just racking up debt for fun. Life happened (child custody case with my ex, vet bills, etc.). As I already stated, we have a payment schedule set up to pay off those high balances within the next year. Normally, we don’t carry that high of debt on our cards. And best of all, we don’t miss payments. EDIT: Is there no effect to my credit report (or is the effect not as substantial?) if I am an authorized user as opposed to the sole card owner?

Auto FICO score question

I have one more payment due on my auto loan (YAY!) which I'll pay off in August. Does paying off an auto loan affect my auto FICO score? My FICO has my auto enhanced FICO scores at over 700. Will that drop with a paid off loan? Or does that number stay high since I have a good history with my auto loan? Currently, it's my only installment loan on my report so I'm expecting to take a hit for my credit mix. Thanks.

IllinoisNative wrote:
I have one more payment due on my auto loan (YAY!) which I'll pay off in August. Does paying off an auto loan affect my auto FICO score? My FICO has my auto enhanced FICO scores at over 700. Will that drop with a paid off loan? Or does that number stay high since I have a good history with my auto loan? Currently, it's my only installment loan on my report so I'm expecting to take a hit for my credit mix. Thanks.It is well known that there is a possibiltiy, is some instances a high one, that once an installment loan is fully paid off it can negatively affect your score, esp. if you have no other installment loans. As an example: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Paying-off-my-car-loan-ruined-my-credit-Score-dropped-70-points/td-p/2235271 If you do a google search of myFICO.com you will see many instances of this.

AU not counting toward AAoA Equifax FICO score!!

I recently pulled my Equifax FICO score and report. The Equifax FICO score usually indicates the oldest account that was opened and average age of accounts. I have a AAoA calculator which when populated with all the accounts on my credit report produces an AAoA of over 10 years. After messing around with the AAoA calulator, I figured out that the Equifax FICO calculation is not counting my AU credit card. When I delete the AU from the calculation, the AAoA produces 7 years, which matches the FICO report. Additionally, I saw on my FICO report that the oldest account was 29years 4months. The AU that is on my FICO report was opened 2/1984 which would be 31years 5months. Thought this interesting. Don't know if it has always been this way or if it is a new development or perhaps something wrong with the calculation of my credit report only. Kind of irritates me somewhat. I mean, if a AU isn't going to count toward your AAoA, what is the point other than having a good trade line on your report? As matter of fact, the AU card isn't counting toward my utilization either. Basically, it is there on the credit report, but seems invisible when FICO's calculates. I will try and determine if Experian and TransUnion FICO calculations are also treating it this way when I get around to pulling them. Will paste what I am seeing for Equifax You have an established credit history.Your oldest account was opened 29 Years, 4 Months agoAverage age of your accounts7 yearsFICO High Achievers opened their oldest account 25 years ago, on average.Most FICO High Achievers have an average age of accounts of 11 years or more. Ratio of your revolving balances to your credit limits1%For FICO High Achievers, the average ratio is less than 6%.Company Date opened Balance StatusSyncb/Belk AU 2/1984 $855 Pays account as agreed (This is the AU) Macy's/Dsnb 3/1986 $1 Pays account as agreed ( FICO says this is my oldest account 29yrs 4mths)Usaa Savings Bank 1/2015 $41 Pays account as agreedAmalgamated Bank 8/2014 $0 Pays account as agreedBarclays Bank 6/2015 $0 Pays account as agreedAmalgamated Bank 8/2014 $0 Pays account as agreedIberia Bank 5/2003 $0 Pays account as agreedFmc-Omaha 11/2003 $0 Pays account as agreed AAoA calulator with all accounts 10.63 yearsAAoA calulator without the Belk AU 7.75 years The Belk AU card is not counting toward my utilization either, as you can see FICO says 1%. If it counted the AU it would be 5 or 6%. Didn't know if this should be on this forum, or maybe Understanding FICO scoring forum. Any one have any input??

Momof5 wrote:
TRC_WA wrote:
slimshady66 wrote:
I am under the opinion, legally, it is suppose to count. And if it is counting or making a difference, how is it doing that without effecting AAoA or Utilization?Good question. My question is why AU's carry any weight at all in FICO scoring. If my FICO score is supposed to be an indication of how I pay my debts... how would being added to Mom's 30 year old CC and inheriting her payment history be any indication at all of how I would pay my debts? I was in like 4th grade 30 years ago. The whole thing is just baffling to me. I'm all for AU accounts... I have added my Dad to my Sallie Mae MC because he has a limited history and I wanted him to have a CC he can use on a daily basis... but IMHO the FICO score shouldn't be affected at all by someone else's account.I believe that this stems from the old housewives, married women don't get credit days. The wife was an AU on DH's account, but was the one that actually managed the finances for the family. This helped bring women into the credit world.Basically this, millions of stay-at-home spouses who didn't bother with credit effectively lost their credit scores when FICO 8 was introduced. It was rolled back in favor of an anti-abuse algorithm to determine whether the AU counts or doesn't. All or nothing now. Presumably the lenders don't want AU's to count still (or they wouldn't have pushed FICO to do that in the first place), it wouldn't surprise me if further tweaks happen. FWIW I would strongly recommend everyone to have tradelines in their own name, regardless of AU's on the report. While mortgages are leaving the mandate of having to have your own tradelines behind, it's simply better to have your own history period to fall back on. OP: you can't really trust any third party (including MF's) interpretation for an AAOA calculation. I would be stunned and amazed if the abuse calculation was given to the front-end developers in FICO Consumer who wrote the simulator.

Our Forums' FICO High Achievers: Who has at least one FICO Score of 760 or above?

I've noticed that some Forum members have improved their scores, and now have at least one FICO score of 760 or above. Others, have had 760+ scores longer. This is not a contest or competition to see who has the highest FICO scores. Rather, I'd like to see which Forum members are FICO High Achievers. Who has at least one FICO Score of 760 or above?
Message Edited by psychic on 04-02-2008 02:59 AM

Good thread Psy, I have been close monitoring this forum in hoping to one day reach 800. From my previous posts, my fico scores been from mid 650's to now 750-760 on TU,EX, and EQ. These changes reflect from only a month that I started to monitor my scores. Since 650's, a month ago, I have since removed 1 late payment, got my util to down to 14% with activities showing on 9 out of 16 c.c.'s, and finished my payment on a leased car. I took a 10 point loss on TU, 6 point loss on EX and 4 point loss on EQ for using a zero balance c.c. few weeks back. Just wondering tho, if I got my util to 1-3%, what kind of increase I could see on my scores...I did the simulator but the point increase doesn't seem to be accurate since it doesn't take in to consideration that I will have most of my c.c. reporting a zero balance except for 1 or 2 accounts so I can maximize my points. I still have a c.c. from BofA that I opened up last September that shows as new account but I'm hoping that it will be removed from the negative factor to boost me up in few more points... I just want to be safely over 760's to maximize my interest when I'm ready to buy my first house. But 800+ would be just dandy.

Have you had high cc usage for a planned expense that lowered your FICO scores?

In a week or so I am initiating some home improvements and repairs. I know the charges to my cc will be way over the ideal limit until I pay it(them) down, but I now have zero interest on several cards so now is the time to do it. Has someone done this and seen their credit scores sink to the bottom of the barrel? I am thinking I should just not look at scores while I am doing these necessary things and just continue paying down the balances until my credit scores recover. How badly did your credit take a hit if you have done this? Was it worth it to you? (I only just got these scores in the last weeks due to utilization and new accounts.) Oh, and what is considered 100% usage? How close to the limit can I go? Thank you for any responses. In my wallet: Venture 15k; Barclay Ring 12.5k; Discover 10k; CareCredit 7.7k; Amazon Store Card 5k. QS 5k; Band of A Travel Rewards 3.5k; Bank of A Travel Rewards 3.5k; Bank of A Platinum Visa 2k; Barclay Apple Rewards 2k. Total Credit: 66,200. 7/2-FICO: EQ - 788; TU - 777; EX - 690; Utilization: 12%; GOAL: 780 across the board then 800 across the board. Inquiries: EQ: 5 TU: 7; EX 3; Chapter 13 seven years May, 2015. Reset my garden date to 6/27. Gardening until further notice.

Musiclover wrote:
Have you had high cc usage for a planned expense that lowered your FICO scores?I don't recall but I have been up to 76% recently. However, the balance was immediately paid off. I don't recall if reported or not. The impact didn't really matter since it was going to be paid off immediately. Musiclover wrote:
Oh, and what is considered 100% usage?
Utilization is balance/limit. If the balance equals the limit it's 100%. Musiclover wrote:
How close to the limit can I go?Depending on the card you may be able to exceed the limit. However, such cards would require that you immediately pay any balance exceeding the limit. For scoring purposes it is recommended to not exceed 30%. However, short term high utilization generally isn't an issue. It's prolonged high utilization that can get you into trouble. Be aware that there is a double hit from having high utilization on a card and having itmaxed out (generally >90%). Musiclover wrote:
I know the charges to my cc will be way over the ideal limit until I pay it(them) down,How long will that take? What utilization would you be at initially? How long would it take to get it down to 50%? Under 30%?

Asked Chase How I See My FICO Score With Slate Card.....

an FYI for those with Slate already. I was planning to close mine out after the BT period at 0% ends since it will have served its purpose and will go towards resetting the clock for hte offer in the future if I need it..... Thank you for contacting Chase about the free monthly FICO
Score for Slate card.
Upon review, I see that you have an option to change your
current Chase Slate account to the new Chase Slate with
Credit Score Visa Non-Signature Card.
Your account number will not change, so you won't need to
make any changes with merchants where you have automatic
bill payments set up. Please know, however, that the
benefits and terms of your account are subject to change.
If these changes occur we will let you know.
Your Annual Percentage Rate (APR) will not change.
Please review the following information before we process
your request.
- All enrolled features on account will be retained.
- Any promotional balances attached to the old account
will transfer to your new account based on terms of the
original promotion.
- If you have previously been excluded from receiving
solicitations, you will continue to be excluded going
forward.
- Your FICO Credit Score is for your educational purposes
and based on data from Experian. It may be different from
other credit scores used by Chase and other lenders in
making credit decisions. This information is available
online to active, primary cardmembers only at Chase.com
provided Experian has sufficient credit history in a
credit file for FICO to generate a score.
- If any of the terms of the account have changed, you
will receive a letter in the mail explaining the changes
and your right to reject them.
- The new product doesn't have Blink Capability. If the
change is completed, you won't be able to use the new card
for Blink transactions.
- Please note that your expiration date and signature
panel code will change. If you have automatic charges
billed to this account, you will want to inform those
merchants of the new expiration date once you receive your
new cards.
Once the account is changed and to view the most up to
date information, you can log into chase.com and access
your Chase Slate Credit Dashboard post April 2015. Your
dashboard is free. It will allow you to view your monthly
FICO score, reasons behind your score, a summary of your
credit report information and helpful tips to manage your
credit health. The information provided is based on data
from Experian.
If you wish to continue with this request, please reply
using the Secure Message Center. We're not able to process
your request unless we receive your confirmation.
We look forward to hearing from you.
If you have any further questions, please reply using the
Secure Message Center.
Sincerely,

Irish80 wrote:
Monoglot wrote:
signaturecardmember wrote:
an FYI for those with Slate already. I was planning to close mine out after the BT period at 0% ends since it will have served its purpose and will go towards resetting the clock for hte offer in the future if I need it..... Are you saying you can use the slate offer 0% offer again after you close it for a period of time...? Monoglot, this a 4 month old thread. It's very possible that the OP isn't monitoring it any longerAww thanks for pointing this out. Would you happen to know if offers reset if you app again?

FICO scores used for mortgage - and where to obtain them

So would I just do the FICO Standard Purchase and select Equifax and Experian and that would show me the EQ Beacon 5.0 and Experian V2SM scores that mortgage lenders pull? Just curious as the ones I get through banks listed in my sig are drastically different from the one a lender pulled - they said mine is 740 but wouldn't give me more information or show me the print out.

The FICO scores used for mortgages Equifax Beacon® 5.0Experian®/Fair Isaac Risk Model V2SMTransUnion FICO® Risk Score, Classic 04These are sometimes listed on the tri-merge mortgage report as follows: Equifax/FICO classic V5 FACTAExperian/Fair Isaac (Ver. 2)Transunion/FICO Classic (04)Note: they have been commonly referred to on the myFICO forums and elsewhere as: EQ 04EX 98TU 04 Availablility Equifax: myFICO Equifax FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase. Equifax Score Power purchase. DCU provides this score monthly to it's membershipExperian: myFICO Experian FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase. PSECU provides this score monthly to it's membership.Transunion: myFICO Transunion FICO Standard purchase, or FICO 3 Report View purchase. Updated 3/10/15 - addition of Transunion (yay!) and some clarifications

Balance dropped, score dropped. FICO scores a mystery.

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