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@Walt_K wrote:What did your score drop from? If your score is bouncing around from something like 815 to 807, it really isn't evidence that the model is broken. It's still scoring you in the 800s. A couple points here and there don't matter as with any score that high, you're getting the best rates.
I believe my score was 810 in 2008, but in the past few years it's slowly jumped around (for no apparent reason) until it's now 779; this occurring AFTER I became debt free. All other spending habits have remained constant for at LEAST that long, so it appears that the simple fact of me having no car loans, mortgages, etc, has actually hurt my score. So I assume I'm supposed to jump through some magic series of hoops that FICO deems necessary for me to have a credit score equal to what I had 2-3 yrs ago? I find that moronic.
@nokturnal wrote:
@Walt_K wrote:What did your score drop from? If your score is bouncing around from something like 815 to 807, it really isn't evidence that the model is broken. It's still scoring you in the 800s. A couple points here and there don't matter as with any score that high, you're getting the best rates.
I believe my score was 810 in 2008, but in the past few years it's slowly jumped around (for no apparent reason) until it's now 779; this occurring AFTER I became debt free. All other spending habits have remained constant for at LEAST that long, so it appears that the simple fact of me having no car loans, mortgages, etc, has actually hurt my score. So I assume I'm supposed to jump through some magic series of hoops that FICO deems necessary for me to have a credit score equal to what I had 2-3 yrs ago? I find that moronic.
I'm not saying it's perfect, but FICO seeks to measure how you manage credit. If you have no installment loans, you're not managing it, you just don't have it. There are some people that specifically get rid of all credit and only use cash because they know they can't manage credit responsibly. So just being debt free doesn't necessarily translate to FICO points. Now, that being said, the person who has no credit because they can't manage it obviously isn't you. I'm guessing you still have credit cards (can't remember what you said above). And you did have loans and you paid them off without ever being late. But that's also why you have a 779 score. I don't think you can look at the FICO model as a precision instrument where each point higher is definitely better. You're above 760. You're an extremely low risk borrower. Creditors want your business. You're winning the FICO game.
+1
Essentially, the score formula tries to predict risk. The more info on your reports, especially currently open accounts, the more precisely it can predict.
When people have few accounts reporting, there's not enough data for the formula to go out on the 800 limb, so to speak.
It's the same as if you tried to predict how someone else would behave in a given situation. The more you know about them, the more confident you generally are in your prediction. The less you know, the less confident.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:+1
Essentially, the score formula tries to predict risk. The more info on your reports, especially currently open accounts, the more precisely it can predict.
When people have few accounts reporting, there's not enough data for the formula to go out on the 800 limb, so to speak.
It's the same as if you tried to predict how someone else would behave in a given situation. The more you know about them, the more confident you generally are in your prediction. The less you know, the less confident.
+2
And, scoring formulas don't have our elephant memories. It can't measure you on past behavior (tradelines) that is no longer available to be weighed.