Amex Causing Trouble

[Anonymous]

How can American Express cards have such an effect on credit score?  First, no pre-set spending limit means there is no % of limit data.  Second, balance must be paid in full each month.  I monitor my score and see that the delay in reporting from Amex to FICO is delayed.  There is no standard methodology, but today my credit score dropped by 6 points because my amex balance rose by $51!  But on the 2nd of January I paid down the card in full, on time, from a double-digit balance, and the score barely changed (went up by 1 point).  Where is the sense in that?  In January alone my FICO has gone up & down 5 times, all based on reports from Amex on my balance.  Anybody?

[longtime_lurker]

No lender has any preferential treatment on your CRs/FICOS. Sounds like you have a charge card with AMEX...what else is on your CR? AAoA, baddies, etc.

[Anonymous]

Not sure what you mean about preferential treatment... i'm just curious how a score can go down by 6 points on $50, but up by only 1 on a drop of far larger amount.  

[Berk]

You are like a day trader all worried because the stock he bought yesterday went down by 5 dollars in the morning and only recovered a dollar in the afternoon. This is one of the unintended consequences of making credit scores so readily availible. Don't worry about your daily changes. Only worry about your long term credit score. My scores will go up or down by 5 points or so on any given month. I don't care. If my score is higher 3 years from now then I am moving in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

It can change some , just wait and be pacent . It will bounce back, just wait not worry about it day by day. Its a long term .

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  It is just annoying that the change should occur almost daily.  Far better for FICO to track over time, as you suggest i should.  Thanks again. 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks.  It is just annoying that the change should occur almost daily.  Far better for FICO to track over time, as you suggest i should.  Thanks again. 

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They can change by the hour, Fico is a fluid number based on info in your report at that "moment in time" that someone requests it. There are always updates coming into your report they are not all posted at the same time every day. So yes long term trend of Fico is what you really want to track.

Welcome to My Fico

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Not sure what you mean about preferential treatment... i'm just curious how a score can go down by 6 points on $50, but up by only 1 on a drop of far larger amount.  

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It's a few points.  Stop fretting over it.  Instead of obsessing over numbers focus on the data in your reports.  The scoring model you're referring to isn't used by all creditors anyway.

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@Anonymous wrote:

It is just annoying that the change should occur almost daily.  Far better for FICO to track over time, as you suggest i should.

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As stated above scores are generated for a given point in time.  It's not FICO that needs to track over time.  If you're annoyed by daily score changes then you need to track over time.  Your scores will change as data in your reports change.  Nothing you can do about that.  However, you have full control over when you pull your own scores.