How often is FICO score evaluated

[Anonymous]

Overall I have good credit.  The one thing that is keeping me from a higher FICO score is my debt to credit ratio.  I plan on paying off at least half of my current balances within the next 3 months.  How often is my FICO score evaluated and when should I expect to see a better score?  Is it something that will happen immediately upon payment or is it evaluated every 1, 3, 6, etc. months?

[Anonymous]

Welcome-

Please read the Credit 101 Thread (RTC101T in my signature)

You FICO score is a snapshot at the moment the data from one of the cra's is pulled though the FICO formula. 

While paying down revolving debt you will see a regular increase in scores when the creditors REPORT the lower balances. (usually when the next statement is cut)

Jumps at 50% ,30% 20% 10%

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kmm wrote:

Overall I have good credit.  The one thing that is keeping me from a higher FICO score is my debt to credit ratio.  I plan on paying off at least half of my current balances within the next 3 months.  How often is my FICO score evaluated and when should I expect to see a better score?  Is it something that will happen immediately upon payment or is it evaluated every 1, 3, 6, etc. months?

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[Anonymous]

Iv'e also read the thread you are referring to. When you mean a snapshot at the time its pulled, do you mean just what the cra has on hand at the time? I'm sure they are not going to send a request to anyones creditor for an update correct? It basically means a person just has to wait untill their creditor posts new number to the cra's, would that be correct?

[Anonymous]

Hi load and welcome to the forum!

Yes that is exactly what he means. A CR is generated at that moment in time of your credit file is pulled.

Even though you, for example, paid you cc bill 10 days ago, and you want to pull your CR today, the ccc may not have reported that payment(yet) to the cra, so that payment will not show up(in the form of lower balance and lower utilities, which is a score raiser).

One thing a lot of us do here, is to actually call the ccc and ask them WHEN do they report the activity on your cc. That way you can time when to pull your reports and when to schedule payments.

I hope that makes sense.

[haulingthescoreup]

And even then, once the CCC reports the new balance to the CRA, then you have to wait for the CRA to actually enter the information. Many of us have just gone through a dry spell of a month or more where TransUnion updated nothing. Maddening! (although some of us are finally starting to see some updates.)

[RobertEG]

Monthly FICO reporting is only of immediate importance to the immediate credit seeker.

Which, I must humbly interject, leads to a plan of weaving all the threads of gold spon upon this forum into a more strategegic plan, without fixation on plodding monthly FICOs..  FICO scores are only snapshot monthly intellectual and planning tools until such time as one has to rely upon the score when actually applying for new credit.  Many of the tricks, suggestions, and great info on this site are GREAT  tweaks to the max.  for securing immediate FICO score boosts.  Tactical tools, but not necessarily the best strategic approach. Alll strategic FICO planning must start with only one strategic question, period:

 "When am I actually going to apply for new credit?"  Until then, monthly FICO importance is about understanding and planning, not about a monthly point gain or loss brain orgasm, and certainly no basis upon which to build a sounder strategic plan.  Tactical plans are important, but only come into play three months from the date that your strategic plan fixes as a date for credit application, to allow the CRAs to receive and process the data input.  Then the short term tactics, such as realizing the delay between statement ending dates and CCC reporting dates, PIF strategy, etc. comes into focus.   Until then, it is a matter of indivual plan, and not a monthly FICO obsession. As Ross Perot once said, "Washington has millions of plans, and if I am elected President, I will just find one of those plans, and do it!!!":

Just my FICOanalysis.