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Cause of EQ FICO Score Increase.

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Ubuntu
Regular Contributor

Cause of EQ FICO Score Increase.

This post is half to save a record of a pretty small report change and it's corresponding score change versus a two week old report and half to ask what you think triggered the score Increase.

 

On May 30th when myFICO changed form FICO 04 to Fico 8 they gave me an EQ report with a score of 732. The week prior, accoding to ScoreWatch, my score was 802 and I had been steadily hovering in the low 800s or high 700s for two years prior to that except for a 5 month dip when I had two hard pulls while opening my first primary card which dropped me into the 750s.

 

My report is very simple with only 4 CC accounts, 2 young primaries, and 2 old AUs... no missed payments ever, no derogatories, and nothing else at all. When the change went into affect I was able to conclusively determine that the drop from 802 to 732 was largely because the two AU accounts had been factored out of my AAoA and UTIL. I won't go into that in any more detail here because I've already posted about it in another thread. 

 

Today I pulled another EQ report because my ScoreWatch is about to renew and I didn't want to lose a free report.  It came with a score of 748 which is a jump of 16 points in two weeks. There were only two minor changes from the previous report:

 

1) On the previous report 1 of 4 accounts had a small balance (an AU account).  On the new report 2 of 4 had small balances (1 AU and 1 Primary). I normally PIF but this happened accidentally because something hit my card between the due date and the statement cut date which are usually about 4 days apart.

 

2) On the previous report my AAoA was 9 months and on the new one it's 10 months. This was due to one of my primary accounts reporting for May. For the record my AAoA had been 6 years prior to the change from FICO 04 to FICO 8 which is how I can tell my AU accounts are no longer being factored into my score. Others have confirmed that this has not happened to them.

 

My question is what do you think triggered the 16 point jump in my score? One potential cause could be having a balance on one of my primary cards. Another potential cause could be the increase in my AAoA but a one month increase seems trivial although it is an 11% increase based on 9 month AAoA which would be significant from a relative perspective. A third possible cause could be that 2 of my 3 hard pulls aged from 10 months to 11 months. i guess "all of the above" could easily be the answer.

 

Any thoughts on those or other possible causes? Thanks.

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
-NewGuy-
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Cause of EQ FICO Score Increase.


@Ubuntu wrote:

This post is half to save a record of a pretty small report change and it's corresponding score change versus a two week old report and half to ask what you think triggered the score Increase.

 

On May 30th when myFICO changed form FICO 04 to Fico 8 they gave me an EQ report with a score of 732. The week prior, accoding to ScoreWatch, my score was 802 and I had been steadily hovering in the low 800s or high 700s for two years prior to that except for a 5 month dip when I had two hard pulls while opening my first primary card which dropped me into the 750s.

 

My report is very simple with only 4 CC accounts, 2 young primaries, and 2 old AUs... no missed payments ever, no derogatories, and nothing else at all. When the change went into affect I was able to conclusively determine that the drop from 802 to 732 was largely because the two AU accounts had been factored out of my AAoA and UTIL. I won't go into that in any more detail here because I've already posted about it in another thread. 

 

Today I pulled another EQ report because my ScoreWatch is about to renew and I didn't want to lose a free report.  It came with a score of 748 which is a jump of 16 points in two weeks. There were only two minor changes from the previous report:

 

1) On the previous report 1 of 4 accounts had a small balance (an AU account).  On the new report 2 of 4 had small balances (1 AU and 1 Primary). I normally PIF but this happened accidentally because something hit my card between the due date and the statement cut date which are usually about 4 days apart.

 

2) On the previous report my AAoA was 9 months and on the new one it's 10 months. This was due to one of my primary accounts reporting for May. For the record my AAoA had been 6 years prior to the change from FICO 04 to FICO 8 which is how I can tell my AU accounts are no longer being factored into my score. Others have confirmed that this has not happened to them.

 

My question is what do you think triggered the 16 point jump in my score? One potential cause could be having a balance on one of my primary cards. Another potential cause could be the increase in my AAoA but a one month increase seems trivial although it is an 11% increase based on 9 month AAoA which would be significant from a relative perspective. A third possible cause could be that 2 of my 3 hard pulls aged from 10 months to 11 months. i guess "all of the above" could easily be the answer.

 

Any thoughts on those or other possible causes? Thanks.


Most of it was probably from having one of your primary accounts report a small balance. Having all cards at zero will drop your score, with optimal scoring occuring when all cards are zero and one is between 1-9%. The AAoA and inqs aging could have contributed a point or two, but doubtful all 16.

Message 2 of 4
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Cause of EQ FICO Score Increase.


@-NewGuy- wrote:

@Ubuntu wrote:

This post is half to save a record of a pretty small report change and it's corresponding score change versus a two week old report and half to ask what you think triggered the score Increase.

 

On May 30th when myFICO changed form FICO 04 to Fico 8 they gave me an EQ report with a score of 732. The week prior, accoding to ScoreWatch, my score was 802 and I had been steadily hovering in the low 800s or high 700s for two years prior to that except for a 5 month dip when I had two hard pulls while opening my first primary card which dropped me into the 750s.

 

My report is very simple with only 4 CC accounts, 2 young primaries, and 2 old AUs... no missed payments ever, no derogatories, and nothing else at all. When the change went into affect I was able to conclusively determine that the drop from 802 to 732 was largely because the two AU accounts had been factored out of my AAoA and UTIL. I won't go into that in any more detail here because I've already posted about it in another thread. 

 

Today I pulled another EQ report because my ScoreWatch is about to renew and I didn't want to lose a free report.  It came with a score of 748 which is a jump of 16 points in two weeks. There were only two minor changes from the previous report:

 

1) On the previous report 1 of 4 accounts had a small balance (an AU account).  On the new report 2 of 4 had small balances (1 AU and 1 Primary). I normally PIF but this happened accidentally because something hit my card between the due date and the statement cut date which are usually about 4 days apart.

 

2) On the previous report my AAoA was 9 months and on the new one it's 10 months. This was due to one of my primary accounts reporting for May. For the record my AAoA had been 6 years prior to the change from FICO 04 to FICO 8 which is how I can tell my AU accounts are no longer being factored into my score. Others have confirmed that this has not happened to them.

 

My question is what do you think triggered the 16 point jump in my score? One potential cause could be having a balance on one of my primary cards. Another potential cause could be the increase in my AAoA but a one month increase seems trivial although it is an 11% increase based on 9 month AAoA which would be significant from a relative perspective. A third possible cause could be that 2 of my 3 hard pulls aged from 10 months to 11 months. i guess "all of the above" could easily be the answer.

 

Any thoughts on those or other possible causes? Thanks.


Most of it was probably from having one of your primary accounts report a small balance. Having all cards at zero will drop your score, with optimal scoring occuring when all cards are zero and one is between 1-9%. The AAoA and inqs aging could have contributed a point or two, but doubtful all 16.


Agree 100%: if your AU's are being discounted which it sounds like they are for FICO 8, then having them with a balance is not going to count for number of cards with a balance either... and we know all accounts being $0 is a non-trivial penalty on a clean sheet (or even a mixed file like me though I should test that sooner or later).




        
Message 3 of 4
Ubuntu
Regular Contributor

Re: Cause of EQ FICO Score Increase.

Great! Now I'll have to turn off auto-pay, remember to make a payment every month, and remember not to PIF to keep a balance on one of my primary accounts.

 

It's FICO's world we're all just living in it Smiley Happy

 

I appreciate the feedback. 

Message 4 of 4
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