41 Point Increase - Experian

[Anonymous]

Got an alert this morning through my Experian and myFICO accounts that I have a score increase. Checked Experian account and increase is attached to "credit limit increase" of $3K with US Dept of Education for my student loan and my credit card utilization went UP 2% making aggregate utilization go from 28% to 30%.

Can anyone offer explanation on the student loan increase? I didn't realize it was being treated as a "credit limit". More importantly, my account with Dept of Education was closed back in February due to a consolidation. FedLoan is my new servicer.

[NRB525]

Congrats on the score increase. 

The Alert for CLI that you got may not be the proximate cause of the score change, it is only a specifically notified action in your file. 

With your starting scores I would guess you have a baddie or two? The score increase could be related to the baddies either aging in your favor, or some other development in the baddies that moves your score up. 

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on your score increase! I'm quite interested to see that an uptick in your overall utilization actually seems to have helped your Experian score - my general understanding is that increasing util tends to do the opposite.

[Anonymous]

A utilization change of 2% even if it involves crossing a threshold would never result in a 41 point scoring change.  The change to the score of the OP had nothing to do with the utilization change or the CLI.  As the first reply to the OP suggested, something else happened such as a baddie aging off for example.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Congratulations on your score increase! I'm quite interested to see that an uptick in your overall utilization actually seems to have helped your Experian score - my general understanding is that increasing util tends to do the opposite.

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An increase in utilization would never cause such a large improvement in score. There are probably changes to baddies, behind the scenes, causing the score change. 

[rmduhon]

The OP's score could have changed a week ago and this was the first trigger to update the score since then

[Anonymous]

Thanks Everyone!

BBS, you are right. I am convinced something has happened to some of my baddies. Because I have a separate account directly with Experian for monitoring the score increases came in 2 phases. There was a 31pt increase attached to the alert that my student loan balance increased. The 10pt increase was attached to my cc utilization going up.

I do have 2 collections that only show on Experian that are scheduled to fall off by November 15. My plan was to call in August to get them removed through Early Exclusion.

If it matters I also received a 9pt increase with Equifax and 10pt increase with Transunion through myFICO and those alerts were attached to increased utilization.

My next report pull with myFICO is on July 13, so I'll be able to see what my accounts actually look like.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Got an alert this morning through my Experian and myFICO accounts that I have a score increase. Checked Experian account and increase is attached to "credit limit increase" of $3K with US Dept of Education for my student loan and my credit card utilization went UP 2% making aggregate utilization go from 28% to 30%.

Can anyone offer explanation on the student loan increase? I didn't realize it was being treated as a "credit limit". More importantly, my account with Dept of Education was closed back in February due to a consolidation. FedLoan is my new servicer.

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As others have said it was probably something bad that has dropped off.

What I do is use MyBankRate (https://my.bankrate.com/sign-in) to track my VantageScore.  They allow you to do a comparison between reports that they have pulled over the months.  It gives me the ability to see what has dropped off and been added for each pull they do.

At the bottom of the comparison they show me:

• Details of Account Changes
• Items Added to Your [Date Here] Report
• Items Removed from Your [Date Here] Report

It has come in handy over the past year as I have been rebuilding my credit report.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks Everyone!

BBS, you are right. I am convinced something has happened to some of my baddies. Because I have a separate account directly with Experian for monitoring the score increases came in 2 phases. There was a 31pt increase attached to the alert that my student loan balance increased. The 10pt increase was attached to my cc utilization going up.

I do have 2 collections that only show on Experian that are scheduled to fall off by November 15. My plan was to call in August to get them removed through Early Exclusion.

If it matters I also received a 9pt increase with Equifax and 10pt increase with Transunion through myFICO and those alerts were attached to increased utilization.

My next report pull with myFICO is on July 13, so I'll be able to see what my accounts actually look like.

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Sounds like a good plan.  I'm sure when you pull your reports tomorrow you'll see that some things have changed outside of what the alerts told you.  These changes more than likely will be the cause of your score change.

[Anonymous]

BBS, I pulled my new updated reports. I have the Premium plan so everything including my mortgage scores were updated. Note, that I'm more concerned with my mortgage scores as we are in the process of building/buying a new construction home. Lender will be pulling reports again in September. 

On top of the 41 point increase with Experian on my FICO08 scores, I had a 38 point increase with my Equifax, and no change with Transunion. 

There's been no change to any of my accounts besides what I'm pointing out was attached to the alerts with Experian, which is the increased amount on student loans which is showing as a "credit limit increase", and the 2% increased utilization on my credit card. The only thing I can point out is that the increased  student loan is reporting as a new account with a $3K balance with US Dept of Education. I do have other student loans with FedLoan that has a $60K balance that is being reported to all 3 CRA's, so I'm guessing having a new installment loan wouldn't cause an increase like that because I already had an installment loan reporting, right?

The collections are still there, same amount of inquiries are there(4-6 across the board in the past 12mo).