SonorityGenius wrote:
So how does one know they have a s-p-l-i-t file??
Splits happen because "too much information" gets onto one's CR. Exactly how much is too much, and in what category, no one knows for sure.
Some have said too many soft pulls results in a split, but this is far from absolute and I don't even agree with the admonition. I've talked to far too many people who've been soft pulling for, literally, hundreds (plural) of days and they've experienced no split. Others have soft pulled a dozen times or less, and bang they get split.
Remember that the CRAs have been diddling with computers and databases for a LONG time. Each still runs an IBM COBOL mainframe, although they do use a lot of new fangled technology as well.
COBOL does have some limitations, and I know because I is a COBOL programmer. Without getting into a lot of technical nonsense, basically you sometimes run into a numeric limitation and someone in charge needs to decide, "OK, we don't ever foresee the need to store more than X number of widgets. Lets add 10, or 10 percent, or double X, and move on. Agreed? Agreed."
Then something unforeseen happens and you get X plus 1 of whatever. To compensate for this "catastrophic" situation, the credit file gets split into 2 files with a theoretical linkage between the two.
In one of my past contract programmer lives, I worked on a state motor vehicle licensing system with one of these "hard limits" of 50 traffic violations, because afterall who would EVER accumulate 50 traffic violations in their entire life. I mean c'mon. Right? Wrong. Years before I got there, this happened, the equivalent of a split driving record was coded for, and everything generally worked OK. Most times. Your first 50 violations were stored, there was a link to your second file, and you could continue racking up violations. [Actually the more common situation is a woman who gets married, or divorced, and changes her last name. Your last name is part of your Driver's License Number in Washington, and if it changes then your DL # changes. This results in two or more linked "split" but linked driving records.]
With the CRAs, splits don't always get "linked" together very well. Generally what seems to happen is they stick all your adverse info on one of the two split files, and that's the one they serve up to OCs doing INQs or ARs.
Starting Score: 583 EQ, 612 EX, 569 TU
