Buckets/Scorecards ?

[Anonymous]

So I am new here and I keep hearing about buckets/scorecards. How do these buckets work and how can you tell what bucket your in? How do you move up a bucket?

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forums!

1. No one knows how they work exactly, but various patents and other texts have alluded to their existence.
2. You can't know what scorecard you're in, you can only assume/estimate based on the data points others have
3. It appears scorecards are affected by the age of your old account and possibly the age of your newest account, plus whether or not you have any derogatories (and how many).

If you really want to rabbit hole, use the searchbar and dig in.  Search for scorecard or bucket or rebucketing -- there are hundreds of threads and thousands of comments based on theory, data points and assumptions!

The basic idea of a scorecard is to delineate the maximum score you can have.  As you climb into better buckets, your maximum possible score goes up.

To me, at least, it seems the best way to get to the top scorecard is to let your oldest account age a long time, don't apply for new credit for 2 years, and make sure you have no derogatory information.  This doesn't guarantee you a higher FICO score, it guarantees you a higher POSSIBLE FICO score.  You need other data in your profile to actually get the highest score in your bucket.

FICO8 seems to have 4 negative scorecard groups and 8 positive ones.  

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the response
I will be using the search button today lol

[Anonymous]

Ok one more question
On myfico gives me reason codes for what is hurting my credit. The reasons always say "most high achievers " have this or that.
So does that mean I'm in a higher bucket since I'm be compared to high achievers or does everyone reasons compare to "high achievers " ?

[Thomas_Thumb]

No, it does not. Those are default statements that always show up. Also, those particular generalizations are not Fico scoring criteria.

BTW - # of scorecards associated with various Fico models is well documented and widely published. However, the specific details regarding scorecard assignment have not been published. That is where deduction based on observed behavior by posters takes over. Fico 8 has 12 scorecards with 4 being dirty while the older Fico 4 and Fico 98 models have 10 scorecards with 2 being dirty. Fico 9 added a 13th scorecard (for consumers with a high amount of revolving debt)

An illustration of a simplistic segmentation is shown below

Note: The weight given to various scoring factors is dependent on scorecard - particularly the dirty/clean segmentation as shown below. Please be aware the below is only an illustration of how segmentation works and is purposefully misleading to avoid disclosing actual specifics of the model algorithms.

Below is a guestimation on how Fico 8, Fico 9 may be segmented