WaMu TU Bankcard Score - huge drop (?)

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone - hope someone can provide some feedback here.

I've been working hard on repairing my credit - haven't been late on a cc payment in 6 years, on time with every car, mortgage and loan payment. All my credit clams are years old at this point, and I almost never use any of my 9 cards. I'm at about 14% of my total available cc credit line.

I have been watching my WaMu / TU Bankcard score climb steadily, hitting 713 on 12/1. The only change I made was to take out a Chase Freedom account, transfer my WaMu balance over and zero-out the WaMu account (extortionate interest rate).

On the 1/1/08 report, it shows my Bankcard score dropping almost 60 points, to 654. What ????

I immdiately suspected something amiss, paid for a Equifax 3-1, everything shows current and accurate for all three agencies, Equifax FICO showing 688. I called TransUnion - they absolutely denied Bankcard score was their product. I called FICO - they couldn't help, suggested I call WaMu. Their systems were down, said to call back.  

I am just now learning there is a difference between the std FICO and the Bankcard FICO (I think I already know more than the offshore script readers at the other end of the 1-800 numbers I've called this morning...).

Can anyone confirm 1) this drop is not that unusual 2) it is consistent with just opening one new acct 3) should I be closing my zeroed-out accts to bring this up? 4) does it really matter, as I'm not looking for any new credit accounts at this time, having plenty of unused credit at hand.

Thanks for any feedback.

[Anonymous]

Hi B.D. Welcome to the forum. Ouch! 60 points. Sorry.

It is very unusual, but not unheard of, for a score to drop after getting a new cc, but not 60 points.

Unless you have very few cards, and the additional new one would dilute your average age of your cc's.

Have you pulled your CR's lately to see if anything else is going on? Losing 60 points would put me on alert. I'm thinking something else must be happening.

The score you get from WaMu IS a real FICO score, BUT it is an enhanced score particularly for the credit card. We call it the PFICO score.

And yes, it varies considerably from the FICO score you can get from here.

I'd suggest that you pull all 3 CR's from here, using the FICO Complete product, so you can view all 3 of your CR's with FICO scores, and be consistant in the comparison.

[Anonymous]

i looked at my bankcard on WAMU today and it dropped 4 pts.  why?  there is no way of knowing.  I did open new cc for 5000 and had one inquiry dropped.  It's all a big secret......sigh.........60 pts is devastating.

[Anonymous]

The only place to get real FICO scores are here....all CC scores are FAKO. Yes you do know more then those offshore people!!!!

[Anonymous]

I experienced a similar drop at about the same time. My WaMu TU score was at 708, but in November I applied for a new card so I could close out an old secured card that I no longer needed ($35 a year fee). I experienced a 40 point drop to 669 and I can only guess that it was a combination of a new inquiry with a new credit card that caused the drop. My WaMu TU score matches exactly with my MyFico TU score at the moment and my utilization was unchanged.

Message Edited by gtree on 03-19-2008 05:37 PM

[Anonymous]

my wamu fico is usually a little higher than regular tu fico.

no doubt about it Pfico is a real fico score. 

[Anonymous]

My WaMu  bankscore is 40 below my FICO score

[ngerasimatos]

Its possible the balance you transferred to the new account is still reporting on both credit cards.