@frugalQ wrote:FWIW, it was his Experian 98 that tanked...experian was his mid score, and him paying off the truck made Equifax his mid score...which was a 678. We had to get him up 2 points to qualify for our loan. TU and EQ did not budge with the car paid off. Before the pay off, his mortgage scores were TU/EX/EQ 702/696/678. After payoff of car, it was 702/672/678. And, because his score was below 700, a lot of options were not available to us anymore....so, paying off his car actually cost us more from a home perspective.
other open loans were in good standing: 1 mortgage, 1 student loan, and 1 other car. All of his baddies were closed accounts and there's been no negatives on his report since February 2010.
I agree with you Revelate regarding spending money to play the FICO 8 games, but a true financially sound move like paying off car loan almost cost us our home. Still baffles me how something like that can happen.
It's been a long time since anyone had access to test against EX 98 with the exception of PSECU members and sadly I joined this board about 5 months after that place closed to individuals outside of PA.
The 04 models didn't move, and the Beacon 5.0 testing we've done supported that. I do know that EX 98 does change with installment utilization if you see my thread in UFS; however, it is so high for my file anyway I am very surprised it moved appreciably for your husband but I do appreciate the data point. Thank you for that.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
@frugalQ wrote:even with multiple open installment accounts, if you close one, it's a high probability that your score will drop. it happened my DH and Bamaguy posted that it happened to him also.
Really appears to depend on the status of the other loans. Installment line utilization might actually be a real thing in the model.
Also I'd note this is a bigger factor in FICO 8, which just ain't used for mortgage underwriting. Until they switch off the mortgage trifecta (04/98 mix) if you need room under the DTI calc, I'd suggest paying it.
Also in my opinion (others may disagree but IMO no credit card approval is going to change my life) FICO 8 really isn't important enough in life currently anyway to hold on to a non-trivial interest rate loan... can pick up a silly small secured installment loan (or maybe some other tricks with said silly installment line that are being tested) to cover that part of the scorecard. I am not of the opinion that FICO reindeer games are worth playing with real money: finances > FICO always.
I agree with you, but at the same time I'm currently playing reindeer games with FICO myself. Though I already have my mortgage, all the credit cards I need, and scores high enough to get just about anything I want, I just can't let it go until I surpass the magic 800 number. It's neurotic, I know, but I'm playing nonetheless. I only have two open installment loans, one auto, one student). The balance on my student loan is only about $1600 which I could pay today if I felt like it, but I'm only making minimum payments to stretch it out as long as humanly possible, which will be a long time considering the minimum payment is only $31. My auto loan will fall off in 8 months and I do not plan on buying a new car or applying for another loan to replace it. That leaves my student loan as my only installment account and I want it there as long as possible. 3% interest on $1600 isn't real money to me, so keeping that TL open is worth it to me in my admittedly neurotic quest to see scores over 800 across the board.
Signed, Neurotic Marlena.
Grin, I hardly consider that to be a neurotic endeavour... and by that measure my attempting to reverse engineer pieces of the algorithm is almost assuredly insane 
.
I may have been unclear but you're doing exactly what I was suggesting: real money != trivial by my definition. I have a trivial line as well, and anything that falls beneath it I don't sweat. I even have an absurd trivial line, less than a yuppie foodstamp. In my case I absolutely pick up tiny installment loans just to maximize my instant-in-time FICO score, at least your auto and student loans have some redeeming value outside of FICO purposes heh, but hanging onto low-rate loans for as long as possible not only is beneficial FICO wise, I could make the argument is smart financially.
Vis a vis my hopeful mortgage is at 3.87%, I'm pretty certain I can get 4% or better without much difficulty regardless of market, so why pre-pay? Minimum payments, put excess money to work elsewhere.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you, Rev, vis-a-vis your vote of confidence in my sanity. Honestly, I have no idea why I've chosen to get into this contest with Fair Isaac because it doesn't mean jack in the grand scheme of things; but somehow I just have to win, dammit.
Can ya tell I'm a tad competitive? LOL!
Marlena
I view it as a cheap and non-destructive hobby personally .
It's probably not the best use of my time, but it's nowhere close to the worst. The way I look at things given my personal history, anything which helps keep life on the rails is beneficial, and having a high credit score is one part of the equation so I can't fault anyone for chasing 760+ (or higher boundaries) regardless of their rationale.