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I received an alert from myFICO today. I figured I'd see that my score had taken a hit because of an inquiry and new account. I was very surprised to see that it increased after the new account (Lowes) reported. I pulled my report before posting this thread. I don't see that anything else has changed. My utilization was at 8% so that wasn't a factor. It usually hangs in the 696-699 range when I have my cards paid down to maximize my scores. Could never break 700. This score took a hit when I let a bunch of cards report a balance last month to see what that would do. I've been paying them off but I still have a few reporting. One has a utilization of 41%.
Nice! Congrats!
Thanks! I wish I knew why it happened. It's not like I have had utilization and then that $17K limit substancially lowered it. I wonder if I'll gain more points after I pay off my Barclay Apple card and then pay the Barcard Rewards card down from 41% to 29% in a few weeks?
Looks like I found the reason why I gained some points. The last negative account fell off my EQ report. Coincidence that it happened the same dayt hat my new Lowes card started reporting. The alert made it look like it was because of that. I'll take the points either way!
Seems like there is a new one of these "my score went up because...." and then "oh, it was really something else" threads every few hours. Maybe myFICO should look into changing their display or do a better job of educating their customers about the triggers and alerts.
This alert made it look like the score increase was because a new account was added. I pulled my reports from each of the 3 CBs last night and throughly went over everything. Found that one account, which was a mortgage (foreclosure) missing. Now it's only reporting on EX. I'll see what this does to my EQ04 score in a few days.
I understand, it seems to happen too often which is why I know it isn't an individual issue.
Congrats on the new account and the derog falling off!
@masscredit wrote:I received an alert from myFICO today. I figured I'd see that my score had taken a hit because of an inquiry and new account. I was very surprised to see that it increased after the new account (Lowes) reported. I pulled my report before posting this thread. I don't see that anything else has changed. My utilization was at 8% so that wasn't a factor. It usually hangs in the 696-699 range when I have my cards paid down to maximize my scores. Could never break 700. This score took a hit when I let a bunch of cards report a balance last month to see what that would do. I've been paying them off but I still have a few reporting. One has a utilization of 41%.
An experienced user has reported that 50% of credit cards reporting a balance, any balance, is a breakpoint. He performed an experiment in which 8 cards each reporting a $1 balance was worth 45 points less than 1 card reporting an $8 balance + 7 others reporting zero. And he observed that every time he crosses the 50 percent barrier it makes a big scoring difference.
^^^Excellent info to know - breakpoint at 50% of cards reporting. Makes sense but it is good to have the actual datapoint.