Score increase from "inactive account nowactive"

[Anonymous]

I got an alert from myfico that basically said my equifax score increased 6 points because I used an account that hadn't been used in a while. It specifically said that "an account that has been inactive for more than 5 months has become recently active". I had no idea this had an affect on scoring. Does it help if I use every account monthly? Or just not let the account go 5 months with no use? This was my first capital one secured account and the activity was actually just the annual fee.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

It doesn't affect FICO.  It triggered an alert but the score change was due to something else in the background.

The difference between what causes alerts and what causes credit score changes is a huge source of confusion and comes up every day.

[Anonymous]

It doesnt have an effect on scoring. It does however trigger an alert/score update. Not everything that triggers a score change triggers a myfico alert.

[Anonymous]

It is confusing. The only other alert is that one of my account balances has increased by $29 (the annual fee).

[Thomas_Thumb]

There is absolutely no need to show activity in each account every month.

It is a good idea to have a primary account you use every month and to rotate through all secondary accounts so they show use at least once every six months.

[Anonymous]

So with the myfico monitoring, there will be times that scores fluctuate without a corresponding alert showing precisely why?

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So with the myfico monitoring, there will be times that scores fluctuate without a corresponding alert showing precisely why?

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Yes for TU and EQ in my experience.

[takeshi74]

Triggers are covered here:

http://myfico.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/463/~/understanding-what-triggers-fico%C2%AE-3-bu...

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@Anonymous wrote:
So with the myfico monitoring, there will be times that scores fluctuate without a corresponding alert showing precisely why?

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Even with an alert the alert may not explain the score change as you have experienced.  Even in caases where the trigger activity has a scoring impact it may not be the only activity with a scoring impact.

The only way to determine the cause(s) of any scoring change is to carefully review reports from before and after the change.

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@Thomas_Thumb wrote:

It is a good idea to have a primary account you use every month and to rotate through all secondary accounts so they show use at least once every six months.

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Though that has nothing to do with scoring.  It's just a generalization on how to avoid closure due to inactivity.  I recommend verifying such policies with each creditor.

[CreditDunce]

I agree with the others that in your case, it was just the trigger that gave you a score update.  However, if the unused card had a high limit and you had high utilization, then it could help your score.  Inactive accounts CLs are not counted when calculating utilization.  Once the account becomes active again, it can help your overall utilization.  If you have very low utilization, it will not help.

Note, Just because MF says it was inactive, doesn't mean EQ/FICO was also counting it as inactive.  I think if you are making one purchase per year to keep the card open, you should be fine.