FICO is messing with my score

[Anonymous]

For close to 20 years I have had a FICO score in the mid 700s. It's fluctuated between 740 and 760, but it's been pretty consistent. When I signed up for FICO's Score watch in November, my score was 752. Since that time, I've received several alarts and have helplessly watched my score drop 62 points in 6 months. Yes, my debt load is high, but it has always been high. I have never missed a payment and I have credit cards that I opened in the '80s. My most recent alert, received today (5/10) notified me that a balance on one of my cards has increased by $160 and my credit score DROPPED 22 POINTS! It is absurd. I have a great job, have never been late, have a long history of credit and have ALWAYS had a high credit balance. NOTHING IS NEW. Yet in a matter of months I've seen an almost 10 percent drop in my score. It appears that what has been changing are the rules, and nobody bothered to tell us.

[joestay]

Did you get a credit limit decrease.  If so, they would have definately change your utilization.

[Anonymous]

Fico is supplying scores formulated in 1998 and 2005. The last thing they can be accused of is changing the rules recently ...

[Anonymous]

Actually, a representative from myFICO.com told me several weeks ago that due to the recent economic turmoil, FICO was in fact weighting things differently. Seriously, all things being equal, it is the only feasible answer. My debt to credit ratio has not changed so dramatically over the last 6 months to warrant such a drastic drop in my score. Seriously, a 22 point drop for a $160 increase in one credit card? That is less than one percent of the total revolving debt I carry. Look, I don't love the fact that I have a sizable amount of debt, but the reality is that if anything, it has gone down in relation to the amount of credit I have available to me. It just doesn't make sense and it is driving me crazy.

[MarineVietVet]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Actually, a representative from myFICO.com told me several weeks ago that due to the recent economic turmoil, FICO was in fact weighting things differently. Seriously, all things being equal, it is the only feasible answer. My debt to credit ratio has not changed so dramatically over the last 6 months to warrant such a drastic drop in my score. Seriously, a 22 point drop for a $160 increase in one credit card? That is less than one percent of the total revolving debt I carry. Look, I don't love the fact that I have a sizable amount of debt, but the reality is that if anything, it has gone down in relation to the amount of credit I have available to me. It just doesn't make sense and it is driving me crazy.

---

Then don't let it. There are too many other things in this life much more important than a three digit number.

From a BK years ago to:

9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
4/10 TU -772

You can do the same thing with hard work

Credit Scoring 101
Common Abbreviations
Frequently Requested Threads
Whats In Your FICO Score

[Anonymous]

I'd also be interested in knowing if you've had any CLDs. Another thought is that you may have been rebucketed--  your high debt load may be more damaging in a different bucket.

Another thing that you might try is looking at the 2nd page of your FICO scoring report to see the things helping & hurting your score. Compare that to your previous report.

[Jazzzy]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Actually, a representative from myFICO.com told me several weeks ago that due to the recent economic turmoil, FICO was in fact weighting things differently. Seriously, all things being equal, it is the only feasible answer. My debt to credit ratio has not changed so dramatically over the last 6 months to warrant such a drastic drop in my score. Seriously, a 22 point drop for a $160 increase in one credit card? That is less than one percent of the total revolving debt I carry. Look, I don't love the fact that I have a sizable amount of debt, but the reality is that if anything, it has gone down in relation to the amount of credit I have available to me. It just doesn't make sense and it is driving me crazy.

---

Keep in mind that when you get a ScoreWatch alert, it doesn't mean that the score change being reported matches the alert reason they gave you. I once got a notice that my score had gone up a few points. The reason the alert was issued was that I had a new inquiry. We all know that my score didn't go up because of a new inquiry. ScoreWatch picks up the score at the time of the alert...the change in score wasn't necessarily caused by the reason they give for the alert.

Let us know the things that ScoreWatch says could be hurting your score. There are so many moving parts to FICO that it is often difficult to pin down the reason for the changes. Do you have any new accounts? Have you applied for any new credit, which would mean more inquiries? If your debt has remained the same, check that all your credit limits are reporting accurately. As said above, if you have had a credit limit decrease from any of your cards, that will raise your utilization. And, many people get declines without being notified first...so, check what the credit report says.

The only way to sort out what is happening is to sit down with your newest report and an older report (from when you had a higher score) and let us know the differences. You have to check each account.

[marty56]

Even if you PIF, damage to your score is done by the reporting of the  balance.  Variations in your score could be caused by veriations in the reported balances.  Also the # of CCs reporting a balance or an inactive account reporting a balance could also lower your score.

[GregB]

I suggest you spend some more time reading the various posts about how the scores are calculated. If you are picking out a balance increase of $160 and saying that shouldn't drop your score 22 points, you are trying to oversimplify the scoring system. If you are saying that there has been no change in your financial condition then you need to look at those old reports and compare them to your new ones and figure out why the score is different. If you didn't keep the old reports, that is going to become far more difficult. I think it is safe to say that the scoring system has NOT changed.

There have been several times that I have seen a drop of 10-20 points from having a tiny balance report when it didn't leave me enough accounts reporting a zero balance.

Let's say your accounts report $100K balance against $300K total limits. You have10 accounts and each reports a $10K balance. Your score will be lower than if you had 5 accounts report a $20K balance leaving 5 accounts reporting zero. A sixth account reporting a balance, even $1, would most likely make a big difference.