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Does FICO care about past util?

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pdxuser
Contributor

Does FICO care about past util?

If I were at 100% util every month, paying only the minimum, then paid it down to 1% util one day, would my FICO score be the same once that low util reported as if I had been at 1% all my life? I know recent high utils would be noticed in underwriting anyway, I'm just creating a hypothetical to ask the question, does FICO care about past util?

Less dramatically, but much more likely for me, if I had a zero balance two of three months, but made sure I had 1% util reported whenever applying for credit, would my score be just as high in those 1% months as it would be if I were doing the continuous plate-spinning routine of consistently very low balances on less than half of my cards, rotating which cards have balances each month?

Message 1 of 24
23 REPLIES 23
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

Unlike payment history, there is no such thing as historical utilization (or util history) as far as FICO scoring goes. So to answer your question, FICO does not care, love or have any infatuation with past util.
Message 2 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Does FICO care about past util?



fused wrote:
Unlike payment history, there is no such thing as historical utilization (or util history) as far as FICO scoring goes. So to answer your question, FICO does not care, love or have any infatuation with past util.


That FICO ... so cold ... Smiley Sad
Message 3 of 24
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

Not only does FICO not care about past utill in your current scoring, it is not reported in any manner in your current credit report  The only way anyone could get such iinfo is to obtain older, prior credit reports, and with the milions and millions of pieces of data reported to each CRA each month, I would highly doubt that they even archive any individual %util data or reports once updated data is received, for they are now useless for their commercial purpose.  So I would venture to say that even a subpoena from the U.S. Supreme Court could not produce such information!
Message 4 of 24
pdxuser
Contributor

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

Actually, Hauling posted a section of her full report to show that it does indeed show all past balances as well as the different credit limits for different time periods. It also shows the historical high balance, even if that high balance was PIF before you ever got your statement. So even if you're maxed out on a card for just one day, all your creditors get to know about it. Do you think they'd care? I tend to think so, but in my case, it's not a high balance I'm concerned about, it's having a list full of goose-eggs, punctuated only occasionally by a very small number.
Message 5 of 24
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

Wow!  Very interesting!  I just assumed, with the wisdom of an idiot, that FairIsaac did not retain prior account balance history, but what you post shows that they clearly do.  I realize that the consumer version of our credit reports provided by the myFico consumer division of FairIsaac was trimmed down from the full report they provide creditors, particulary in the new inq category, I had no idea that they were maintaining and reporting historical balance information that is no longer used in their actual credit scoring calculation..  So that begs my next question....  the portion of the full report posted that is made available to creditors for their review only seems to show indiv. account balance history back for one year.  Does it extend back further?  If so, how far?
What I thought was invisible because it was not seen by me appears to be but an illusion of invisibility.
This appears to be but another great example of pulling ones CR once a year from annualcreditreport.com in addition to myFICO to see the details of what the consumer product that we pay regularly for is not what our creditors see.
Thanks for another breath of enlightenment!


Message Edited by RobertEG on 02-27-2008 04:21 PM
Message 6 of 24
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Does FICO care about past util?



RobertEG wrote:
So that begs my next question....  the report posted only seems to show indiv. account balance history back for one year.  Does it extend back further?


Balance history shows on a full CR for two years.

 
Message 7 of 24
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Does FICO care about past util?



pdxuser wrote:
Actually, Hauling posted a section of her full report to show that it does indeed show all past balances as well as the different credit limits for different time periods. It also shows the historical high balance, even if that high balance was PIF before you ever got your statement. So even if you're maxed out on a card for just one day, all your creditors get to know about it. Do you think they'd care? I tend to think so, but in my case, it's not a high balance I'm concerned about, it's having a list full of goose-eggs, punctuated only occasionally by a very small number.


This info from Hauling is not FICO. FICO util is a snapshot and nothing more.
Message 8 of 24
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

Thanks Cheddar!  I can see how a prosepctive lender might use that info, without us even being aware that it was provided.    Just goes to show all of us once again that the current FICO score is not the begin and end all for creditor decisions, reinforcing the fact that one cannot, and should not, peg their FICO score to their qualification for any new credit.  The credit report in full can be just as iimportant, and we dont see the full report through evern the hallowed myfICO!
I shall no longer preach the simplistic mantra that prior %util and account balances have no effect.  Sure, it has no effect on current FICO algorithm score, but it can sure have an effect on a creditor evaluation of any applcation for new credit!
I have been lulled into too much reliance on current FICO score.  I am now seeing a bigger picture.
 
Edit in response to Fused' reply....  Sure, the FICO SCORE alone is just a snapshot, but that is not the issue.  FairIsaac provides credit reports and scores to its customers that include far more than just shapshot data needed to compute their snapshot score..  The issue is simply that they apparently provide far more in their credit reports to lendors than they do to consumers, and far more than is actually used in their mathematical algorithm to generate the simple three digit number.  As a lendor, I would be far more interested in reviewing the prior history stuff that, even though is not included in generating the three digit score that they buy, that might give much greater insight into consumer patterns that many of us have assumed are not provided to lenders.  I for one, maybe naively, was not aware of the extent of creditor data that they receive in their credit pulls.


Message Edited by RobertEG on 02-27-2008 04:42 PM
Message 9 of 24
fused
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Does FICO care about past util?

The OP's original question is, does FICO care about past util? And the answer is still no! FICO doesn't care if a person had a card nearly maxed-out 2 years ago, only the here and now matters. What matters is what the report says when it's yanked. FICO scores are still the starting point with the majority of lenders.
Message 10 of 24
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