Fico Score Simulator Accurate?

[Anonymous]

I ran this on TU and Efax, 664 and 694 respectively.

It says my revolving credit usage is $7100 and lets me type in a # to pay off. I chose 4500 because 4300 of that is Amex which is reporting from last month and is paid off.

It says my score on both of them shoots from 714 to 784. That seems patently impossible. Has anyone simulated an action and then follow-up on it?

Also how does Amex get thrown into my revolving credit lines?

[Scamp]

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nyccc2 wrote:
I ran this on TU and Efax, 664 and 694 respectively.

It says my revolving credit usage is $7100 and lets me type in a # to pay off. I chose 4500 because 4300 of that is Amex which is reporting from last month and is paid off.

It says my score on both of them shoots from 714 to 784. That seems patently impossible. Has anyone simulated an action and then follow-up on it?

Also how does Amex get thrown into my revolving credit lines?

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I can only respond to the last question, assuming your AmEx is one of the charge cards:

The CRA's seem to have problems coding the charge cards correctly.

I disputed with all 3 CRA's, TU & EQ via fax, with a letter that read approximately like this that was based on someone else's successful letter that I found on here after running a search on AmEx reporting:

"This account appears to be incorrectly coded/described as 'Credit Card'  This is NOT a revolving-type credit card and should instead be coded/described as 'Other Account'."

I actually did the letter through myFICO's sytem, but instead of mailing it, faxed it.

Good luck.

Message Edited by scapegrace13 on 04-24-2008 06:31 PM

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. It begs the question; will removing the Amex help or hurt? If they are using Amex as revolving then I'd imagine they use the highest balance ever ($6500) as CL. So since I almost never have the balance that high ($4300) maybe this helps in the long run, i.e. if balance is down to $1k this month, then I have helped my utilization, and if I remove it from my revolving lines I lose that 'balance'. For now I am going to keep it on and see what the payments do to affect my scores.

[Anonymous]

hello friend i dont think the score simulator is accurate because i have zero balance on all my credit card and when i pull my report and simulate my report it say to pay all my card then i will have a score increase on that note alone tell me the simulator have a burg.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

hello friend i dont think the score simulator is accurate because i have zero balance on all my credit card and when i pull my report and simulate my report it say to pay all my card then i will have a score increase on that note alone tell me the simulator have a burg.

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Are these zero balances also showing on your reports? So the sim says to pay down your $0 balance over 24 months?

That is odd, but it might be that this statement is supposed to mean get util down and keep it as low as possible for 2 years, and let the natural aging of all your account raise your scores.

I really, really wish they would rewrite this --it's equally confusing when you have a $22 balance.

[RobertEG]

The real question is not how accurate they are, but rather how useful they are.

The problem with all the score sims is that are primarily one-dimensional.  You put in one change, knowing that is not the only action you will be taking.  So it is a very limited projection of reality.  If you have only one limited action to siim, then it is useful.  But if you are a two-dimensional consumer, then it aint of much use.

The advantage to the score sims is that they are run against the scoring algotithm of the source of the sim.  Hopefully, you use the myFICO sim, for that is FICO-based.

But, for the most part, I have no use for them due to their limited ability to put in multiple category actions.  Can you put in changes in each CC account balance, along with a new inq or a new or closed account, and a payment of an installment loan, in a single simulation, along with a period for evaluation of the sim?  No way.

[haulingthescoreup]

Good point! I use them for two things:

I want to see what this particular CRA formula thinks would be most beneficial for my long-term planning. For instance, I thought it was interesting when my "best-case" scenario changed from no more lates to pay balances down over 24 months. Since my balances were already down, that meant to keep on keeping on.

I'm bored to death and I want to play with numbers!

To manipulate multiple variables, I use the Estimator instead (see my siggy.)