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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Must be a bucket thing?
It could be. Do you get rebucketed crossing the 800 mark? That has often happened to us in the last some months.
AFAIK, buckets aren't score-driven. Instead, the scores are influenced by the bucket you're in. For instance, if you have some really awful negatives, or if your history is brand-spanking new, you might not be able to go above 760 (making up numbers here), no matter how good everything else is.
I think that for the most part, buckets are age-driven, and then we do know that there are two negative buckets, according to whether you have serious baddies (60-day or worse lates, charge-offs, collections, etc.) and/or public records (BK's, liens, judgments.)
We don't know what the various ages are that move you to a new bucket, and whether they're AAoA or oldest account or both, but we do like to speculate. 2 years, 5 years, etc., although every time we seem to figure one out, we see another example showing that we're probably wrong. I'd say it's the most closely-guarded secret of the score formulas, lol.
There's probably some other buckets, but simply moving into the 800's doesn't mean going into a new bucket, as best as I've been able to see.
Just happened to me today, and not for the reasons most have mentioned. Since I live on my VISA, and pay it off every month, FICO was viewing it as a never-changing $4,000 or so debt. In order to outfox FICO, I recently began paying the balance a few days before the closing date (This is especially important in the case of my VISA, since it is a "no pre-set limit" card, which reports as a zero CL.) I have a few other cards that I maintain just to get a decent total CL. I try to use them every now and then to let the creditors know I still have them. Last week, though, I charged $20 on one, then paid it a couple of days later, just to show some activity on the account. When the statement arrived it was for $0.00, but the damage had already been done. FICO dropped me seven points for using a card that had been dormant for three months. It is especially annoying because the charge was for a negligible amount and there was no balance on the statement. Apparently FICO's algorithm is just "activity=drop in score." I am going to try to remember to use each card at least once a month as see if I can recoup my seven points by Christmas.
@DD60 wrote:Apparently FICO's algorithm is just "activity=drop in score."
Not at all. FICO doesn't view a zero balance as the card being any less active than a plus balance would. Inactivity is determined by the separate red flag. Charging $500 and paying it off before the statement date results in a zero balance just as not using the card. There's no penalty whatsoever in using your card this way, unless of course you use all your cards this way; you want would want one card with a small plus balance.
Dormant is not good; all kinds of bad things can happen to your card because of it. Having it closed by the CCC for instance. SImply put a monthly bill on it or something.
I just had mine drop because I used a card that had been dormant for more than three months. It was apparently not because of the balance, though, because I paid off the balance before the closing date. The account had a zero balance on the statement, but my score still dropped, and using the previously dormant card was cited as the reason. If your score rebounds once the balances are zero, please let me know.
@DD60 wrote:I just had mine drop because I used a card that had been dormant for more than three months. It was apparently not because of the balance, though, because I paid off the balance before the closing date. The account had a zero balance on the statement, but my score still dropped, and using the previously dormant card was cited as the reason. If your score rebounds once the balances are zero, please let me know.
I don't understand the "once" in the last sentence above. The account was at $0 while dormant and still at $0 while being used again, correct? I assume by "the closing date" you mean the statement date, not the due date.
But the rest of what you said is clear. I should add I don't speak from experience in this matter. But I would like to.
I'm thinking of applying for a card that I don't plan to use often. If I get it, I can let it go unused for four statement cycles and then charge something on it and pay it down in full before the statement date. Unfortunately, we won't know the result for at least half a year!
The account was zero while dormant. I charged $20 on 4 August and sent payment to the CCC on 8 August. When the account closed (when the statement was issued) on 12 August it was for a zero balance, showing a $20 charge and a $20 payment. Three days later I received an alert from FICO and found that my score had been docked 7 points because "a previously unused account had been used." That was my reason for stating that FICO apparently will lower one's score just for activity on a previously dormant account regardless of the balance (or lack thereof, in this case). I had no other dormant accounts, so I know FICO was refering to this account.
As for the last sentence, I was trying (apparently unsuccessfully) to respond to the original post, where the author speculated about the possibility of his scores returning to the 800 level when he had paid the balances down to zero.