FICO 08 - minimal impact of all accounts reporting

[Anonymous]

Since I started this crazy process of building a good credit score I followed the advice I found on of this group which was to pay all revolvers to 0 except for leaving a small balance on one.  As B of A provide my TU FICO 08 score I decided to do a test.  I left a small balance on ALL revolvers.  I have 3 cards and the TU report states 1%, 2%, and 3% (no I didn't plan that) with an overall util of 2%.  The result - just 1 point drop.  Perhaps other FICO models are more sensitive to number of accoutns reporting balance, but in my case FICO 08 does not seem to be.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since I started this crazy process of building a good credit score I followed the advice I found on of this group which was to pay all revolvers to 0 except for leaving a small balance on one.  As B of A provide my TU FICO 08 score I decided to do a test.  I left a small balance on ALL revolvers.  I have 3 cards and the TU report states 1%, 2%, and 3% (no I didn't plan that) with an overall util of 2%.  The result - just 1 point drop.  Perhaps other FICO models are more sensitive to number of accoutns reporting balance, but in my case FICO 08 does not seem to be.

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Fascinating. Thank you for that.

[StartingOver10]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since I started this crazy process of building a good credit score I followed the advice I found on of this group which was to pay all revolvers to 0 except for leaving a small balance on one.  As B of A provide my TU FICO 08 score I decided to do a test.  I left a small balance on ALL revolvers.  I have 3 cards and the TU report states 1%, 2%, and 3% (no I didn't plan that) with an overall util of 2%.  The result - just 1 point drop.  Perhaps other FICO models are more sensitive to number of accoutns reporting balance, but in my case FICO 08 does not seem to be.

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Are you sure the score reflects your current utilization?

I am asking only because I notice on my scores that there is a bit of a lag time for utilization. I am in paydown mode this year because of my daughter's wedding expenses and just gained 10 to 16 points (depending upon the CRA) over the past 30 days by paying down my balances and paying off 2 cards out of 11 with balances. I still have much debt to pay off and had planned to pay off another two cards while reducing the balances on the others.

If it doesn't matter, which is what I gather from your post, then maybe I will just apply the funds equally rather than accelerate the paydown on selected cards.  Did you only check TU or can you also check the others?

[Anonymous]

I get a TU FICO 08 score from B of A as I have a B of A card.  I have not checked other CRAs, or other FICO models.  I checked my TU report (via credit karma) and it reports the balances correctly.  One thing to be wary of is that I had all balances in the few % range, and overall useage at 2%.  The behavior of the FICO model may change with higher utilization.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Since I started this crazy process of building a good credit score I followed the advice I found on of this group which was to pay all revolvers to 0 except for leaving a small balance on one.  As B of A provide my TU FICO 08 score I decided to do a test.  I left a small balance on ALL revolvers.  I have 3 cards and the TU report states 1%, 2%, and 3% (no I didn't plan that) with an overall util of 2%.  The result - just 1 point drop.  Perhaps other FICO models are more sensitive to number of accoutns reporting balance, but in my case FICO 08 does not seem to be.

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If you're relying on Bank of America's score, how often do they update it? My free FICO scores don't update very quickly, sometimes months on end.

The only FICO scores that I can observe with little time lag are the FICO 8's on MyFICO and Experian.

[Anonymous]

The score is updated monthly.  They provide the date on which the score was taken, so I know roughly when they will do the next update.