Actually, I DO have evidence.
The math is simple., although in previous comments I referenced the wrong item, referring to "Type" rather than "Terms".
The math is simple. Add up all the revolving account credit limits. Add up all the revolving account balances. Divide the total balances by the total of the limits, and you get your revolving credit utilization rate.
As of a few days ago, the actual credit reports I got when pulling a FICO 8 from Experian's Credit Tracker and a FICO 2 FROM Experian's Credit Works were identical. Yet the "What's Helping My Score" and the "What's hurting My Score" were different. With the FICO 8 it said my low credit utilization was helping, and with the FICO 2 it said my high credit utilization was hurting. I went to the bank, which uses FICO 2, and had them pull my credit again. Their actual report, from Experian, was not identical to what I was getting. One account had slightly different data in it.
The S.D. Villey (not the actual name) furniture store account was listed as Type: Home Furnishings Store on both the 2 and the 8 reports I'd gotten. When the bank pulled the Experian FICO 2 they told me it was listed as revolving. The 25% utilization rate I got with the FICO 8 matched the number found when I added up the limits and balances of all the open revolving accounts and divided, NOT including the S.C Villey account. The "high" rate I got with the FICO 2 I pulled and the 40% the bank saw when they pulled it matched the number when the math was done with the S.C. Willey account included. Also the report summary for the FICO 8 I pulled and the FICO 2 the bank pulled had identical totals for revolving limits, but different totals for revolving balances. The difference in the total balances was exactly the amount of the balance oin the S.C. Villey account. That is clear proof that the FICO 8 was not using that account as part of the revolving utilization calculation but the FICO 2 was using it.
So why was that account used to determine revolving credit utilization with the FICO 2 but not with the FICO 8?
The one thing I overlooked was the "Terms" category. I do not know what it said there on the reports I had pulled because I'd been overlooking it, but on the one the bank pulled it said "Revolving". On the FICO 8 I pulled it must have either said something different or maybe been blank. Whichever was the case, it was not being included in the computation for the FICO 8 but was included in the computation for the FICO 2. And no matter what the "Terms" category said, it should have been either included or not included in the utilization calculation no matter which FICO edition was concerned.
This account is in actuality an installment, not a revolving, account. After a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 2015 I reaffirmed a debt to S.D. Villey. The agreement I signed, as explained to me by the S.C. Villley representative, was for a specific amount, to be repaid with specific monthly payments, payments which would never change regardless of remaining balance, and no possibility of ever adding anything to the account. The local S.C. Villey tells me it is revolving because all their accounts are revolving. But the true terms of the account, by any definition I can find, is an installment account, not a revolving account.
I am going to their Corporate HQ Monday, and will ask them to change it to an installment account with the credit bureaus. However, they may refuse. Their credit management software is undoubtedly designed to manage revolving accounts. To actually treat it as an installment account themselves they'd need different software. Unfortunately, like pretty much everyone does, I believed the S.C. Villey rep instead of reading the whole 4 or 5 page small print document. I now suspect that what happened was that I signed a revolving account agreement, and they closed the account, with a balance remaining, the second they entered it into their system. So technically, I suspect, it will turn out to have been a revolving account (for maybe 2 seconds) which they closed so it couldn't be used, just paid off. If that's the case, I'm going to have a real hard time winning in court. If that's what they did, my only hope to prove they misrepresented it to me will be if the opening and closing dates on the account are identical, and I suspect that they have the ability to change that in their computer.
