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His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense

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Anonymous
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His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense

All of our credit is in both my husband’s and my name.  We share everything.  We signed up for score watch because we want to refinance and take advantage of the lower rates.  Our scores are decent, but low because we try to pay cash for items we purchase and not use credit.  On 8/15, his score was 741--her score was 723.

On 9/8/2012 we both paid off our student loan debt.  His score dropped from 741 to 728.  Her score increased from 723 to 727.  On 9/13/2012 we paid off our 2nd mortgage.  His score stayed the same at 728.  Her score stayed the same at 723.  On 9/20/2012 we started the refinance process.  Bank #1 ran credit report.  His score dropped from 728 to 713.  Her score dropped to 712.  On 9/26/2012 balance on credit card is $49 and his score is raised from 713 to 716.  Her score raised from 712 to 715.  On 10/15/2012 Bank #2 ran credit report.  His score stayed the same at 716.  Her score stayed the same at 715.  On 11/2/2012 balance on credit card is $1,478.  His score dropped from 716 to 702.  Her score raised from 715 to 719.  Note, the credit card is not reported as of the day of the statement (last statement cutoff date balance was zero) nor on the last day of the month (on 10/31/2012 balance on credit card was zero).  My question is why does a credit card charge which equals less than 30% of available credit cause one of the two creditors’ score to drop by 14 points while raising the other creditors’ score?  So we are penalized for managing our credit by acquiring only the amount of credit we need and paying down our debts as quickly as we can afford to and paying for credit card charges in a timely fashion.  These score changes do not make sense.

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4 REPLIES 4
GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense

I can guarantee you that your reports are different. I doubt two people could agree at age 16 to completely syncronize their credit and have identical reports 10 years later even if they put a great deal of effort into the project. You would need to have no credit info of any kind before marriage and only ever open joint accounts. Even if you found one of the few joint CC accounts the student loans are likely to be different. Look at the two original reports and see what is different. Is there no difference?

 

You have also had two banks pull credit reports but you haven't said what CRAs were pulled and which credit score version was used for the scores.

Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense

I am just going by MyFico published score watch scores on the dates the major credit changes occurred, not by the actual scores the banks acquired.  Does the type of report acquried by the bank matter to MyFico?  If so, then as part of the fee for Score Watch, they should be publishing that information.  I am aware that the entirity of our history is different, but the recent history (since our marriage in 1994) is the same, and in particular since we've purchased ScoreWatch, all of the inquiries, payments, etc. are the same.  My point is a payoff of a jointly held mortgage raises one score and lowers the other.  One spouse uses the credit card and it raises one score and lowers the other.  It is surprising to me that his score was in the 740's and the payoffs sent it below 720 and now just using a portion of our credit card sends his score to just barely above 700.  On the otherhand, these same actions to my score raised from what was originally (prior to our purchase of scorewatch in august) the mid 600's to 719.  And, as many have said in other posts, these scores have nothing to do with our liquidity or ability to actually pay for the credit we acquire and/or use.  

Message 3 of 5
vanillabean
Valued Contributor

Re: His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense

Yes, it's necessary to look through the report for each of you using a microscope and then write the details in a big comparison chart. Credit cards, store cards, installment loans, mortgages, inquiries etc. There was a time when the reports for DW and me were far more different from each other than they have become later, and it was hard but also rewarding work to figure out the whole picture. But I can say one thing, and that is that I don't recall one's score ever increasing while the other's decreasing. The score for one might have stayed the same while it for the other went up or down a little, but that's it. For the last year or two our scores have been so much in sync that I almost never bother getting reports for both of us. Oh, and it can be added that a credit score expresses the risk of you paying off credit; it is not a full picture of your financial situation including your salaries and bank accounts. Lastly, it's not optimal to acquire only the amount of credit you need, because then per definition you will on occasion max out that credit.

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GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: His & Hers FICO Scores don't make sense


@Anonymous wrote:

I am just going by MyFico published score watch scores on the dates the major credit changes occurred, not by the actual scores the banks acquired.  Does the type of report acquried by the bank matter to MyFico?  If so, then as part of the fee for Score Watch, they should be publishing that information.  I am aware that the entirity of our history is different, but the recent history (since our marriage in 1994) is the same, and in particular since we've purchased ScoreWatch, all of the inquiries, payments, etc. are the same.  My point is a payoff of a jointly held mortgage raises one score and lowers the other.  One spouse uses the credit card and it raises one score and lowers the other.  It is surprising to me that his score was in the 740's and the payoffs sent it below 720 and now just using a portion of our credit card sends his score to just barely above 700.  On the otherhand, these same actions to my score raised from what was originally (prior to our purchase of scorewatch in august) the mid 600's to 719.  And, as many have said in other posts, these scores have nothing to do with our liquidity or ability to actually pay for the credit we acquire and/or use.  


As long as you are comparing a Scorewatch Score ( EQ Beacon v5.0) to another Scorewatch Score that will help. Same CRA and same score version.

If all pre-marriage accounts were closed at least 10 years ago and have dropped off the reports, that will make the reports much more similar. Are the "Your oldest account was opened X Years, Y Months ago"  or "Credit history X Years" numbers the same? How about AAoA? Does one person have a negative and the other no negatives? Derogatory and Non-Derogatory Scoring Buckets are very different. Are the number of accounts and all the other numbers in that box on your EQ FICO report the same?

 

Most married couples have one user as Primary User and the other as AU on CC accounts. There are a few (very few) CC that are "Joint" accounts, at least in some places. PU and AU may be scored differently. Look at each account and see if the "Account Holder" is exactly the same. The same account may be identified differently when reported to different users. You would have to insure that every account is reporting exactly the same way to the CRA.

 

I have to believe that student loans are individual. Are the both almost exactly the same in amount, date, etc.?

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