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Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

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Anonymous
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Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

First time poster, so let me know if I do/say anything wrong!

I recently tried to apply for a ING Direct Electric Orange account. They check your credit to determine the overdraft protection they'll provide you. I was very surprised to see the application denied because I have either a low or unavailable FICO score.

ING uses Equifax for credit checks. I requested a credit report and FICO score from Equifax, and they're reporting the score as 720. This is lower than it should be (one of my CCs has mysteriously stopped reporting), but I imagine this is still enough to get a checking account! Here's where it gets weird. I requested a score from Equifax through myfico.com, and I get the "minimum scoring criteria" error:

"We regret we are unable to fulfill your Score Power order request because your credit report does not currently contain enough information to meet the minimum scoring criteria required to calculate a FICO® score. In order for a FICO® score to be calculated, a report must contain: At least one account which has been open for six months or more. At least one account that has been updated in the past six months. No indication of deceased on the credit report."

I imagine that ING wasn't able to grab a score for the same reason that myFICO isn't. But what could that reason be? What gives?

For reference I have a $23K limit CC that's about 5 years old. If there's any other information that might give you guys a clue let me know. Thanks!
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
SmartCookie
Valued Contributor

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

hi yogi and welcome!
 
 Call ING and do a recon... explain you are having some sorts of trouble with EQ's database and see if they will pull EX or TU for you under the circumstances.
 
Is that credit card your only account?  Do you use it often enough to report to the CRAs?  Call the company and ask them to report the account info to EQ directly as for some reason it is not updating.
EQ 787 EX 781 TU 737 11/17/07 *** I am not an attorney. If I was, I might not clip coupons. If you want legal advice, consult an attorney. If you want my personal opinion, feel free to consider my posts***
Message 2 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

smartcookie, thanks for the reply.

I tried talking to ING for a bit, they said their system is completely automated and can't really make it do what they want. I wasn't completely satisfied with that though, I will give them another shout and see if a supervisor could help me. I've had really good experiences with ING's phone support, so hopefully they can uncover some clues.

I do have another CC, but for some reason it's not showing up, but I'm taking care of that separately from this issue.

The CC that is there, however, is definitely current. All three bureaus show a balance date of 12/2007.

Even if a Equifax work around is OK with ING, I will probably have issues in the future. Is there any other way to uncover what is blocking myFICO (or some other vendor) from getting a report/score from Equifax? Is there a way to get someone from Equifax on the phone?

I really appreciate your help!
Message 3 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

My fiance had this problem as well. He hadn't gotten any new credit for awhile but had a child support account reporting every month and we could only get 1 of the 3 fico scores. We even posted to this board about it and after a lot of convorsation we couldnt' figure out why it did that. We got him a small jewelry store credit account 2 months ago. 2 weeks ago we pull myfico and get all 3 of his new scores. 1 week ago he gets approved for an auto loan. All seems to be well now so i bet the problem is that you haven't gotten anything new and so they have you on some kind of inactive status. Try the recon with ING again and also maybe try to get something small through an easy lender or something that pulls from the CRA that does give you a score. Also make sure there are no fraud alerts on your reports. Good luck and keep up posted!
Message 4 of 10
SmartCookie
Valued Contributor

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

I've heard of this issue happening.  Check the 'Using myFICO Products' forum for similar issues and repost that particular question there.  I believe that this is even more common if you only have a few TLs reporting.
 
Clean up any incorrect personal info on your CBRs, especially outdated addresses that were not tied to any accounts.  Update old addresses that were.
EQ 787 EX 781 TU 737 11/17/07 *** I am not an attorney. If I was, I might not clip coupons. If you want legal advice, consult an attorney. If you want my personal opinion, feel free to consider my posts***
Message 5 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

orhippychic: Thanks for the info. I am definitely going to bug ING some more, especially before I start applying for credit anywhere else.

SmartCookie: Thanks again. You might be onto something with the old/incorrect addresses. EQ has only one address on file for me, and it's about 7 months old (it was once tied to the CC account that has since disappeared from my CBR). I would think that the address from the reported CC would show up. How does the address stuff work? Looks like it's a separate process from the TL themselves. This stuff is actually pretty interesting...

In any case, I will do a little more digging and post some updates. If you have any more ideas, please post 'em. Thanks again, I really appreciate it. It's driving me nuts.

On a side note, I've come to find a CC on my TU CBR that I didn't signup for. I poked around a bit and it was my parents! Nice of them to do that...but apparently in August of 2006, they were 60 days late. I'm not sure if I should dispute it or have them try something from their end ("it wasn't his fault"). Credit is a pain!
Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

omg your parents got an account in your name!? i'm so sorry what an uncomfortable situation to be in!! since you say there is only one 60 day late, I assume that they are paying it otherwise? if that's the case, i'm at a loss for what to do... but you seem to be on the right track otherwise so hopefully that late won't hurt too bad.
Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

Yea, ridiculous eh? To clarify, they added me as an authorized user to one of their CCs, but of course it still shows up in my CBRs. Hopefully they can remove it from their end since I never used the card. I would hate to file a dispute... Smiley Happy
Message 8 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

oh wait yogi!! that is totally different!! this is good news for you! FICO is rolling out a new scoring formula over the next few months. One of the major changes is that authorized user accounts will no longer be part of the scoring, and if i understand correctly, will not even be reported. this account will likely drop off over the next couple of months. ignore it. I'm so glad i misunderstood! that would have been an awful situation otherwise.
Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Minimum Scoring Criteria met...or not?

You don't have to wait until the new scoring model kicks in, just call and ask to have your name removed and it will stop reporting.
Message 10 of 10
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