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I decrease my debt % from 7% to 0% my score goes down 13pts I raise my % from 0% to 7% and my score goes down 3pts. If FICO has no memory I should have gained the points I lost last month. I just give up.
I've improved everything and my FICO hasn't moved. I think it may be a crock of shat. I'm very disappointed in my purchase.
My scores were stuck in a rut for a year; essentially no movement even though I had added new accounts, kept util very low, paid everything faster than lightening. They recently began to move steadily and incrementally upward. Patience, people.
I have to agree with the first two post. IM DONE my scores were 650 and now down to 597 crazy i did what was said to like util around 1% then scores down then i did 0 bal they went down again. then i carried a balance at 6% they went down. and no i have no new accounts or negatives, sorry but i think paying 20 amonth for myfico is bull im going to cancel.
@LADYBUG7788 wrote:I have to agree with the first two post. IM DONE my scores were 650 and now down to 597 crazy i did what was said to like util around 1% then scores down then i did 0 bal they went down again. then i carried a balance at 6% they went down. and no i have no new accounts or negatives, sorry but i think paying 20 amonth for myfico is bull im going to cancel.
What did the simulator say you should do and when did it say it would work? For instance, I purchased my EQ score on 128/15. The simulator showed that I need time to improve my score. Nothing else maters. In three months my score will go up. Basically at 3, 6, 12, & 18 months. Paying down balances will not improve it without also getting a passage of time.
I'm not saying you should be paying $20 per month, but you should use the simulator, while you have access to it, to determine what you can do to improve your credit score. The information the rest of us provide in the forum is generalities. The simulator is more tailored to your situation on the date of your Bureau report.
@HiLine wrote:
Yeah monitoring your FICO score too closely can bring you undue headache. It's like following every movement of the stock market. Largely futile and unnecessary. It's the long term plan that you should pay attention to.
Ah, but it's exciting to see that alert eMail arrive!
We're all suckers.
I paid $20k in CC debt in the past few weeks. Scores went up 30 pts across the board.
A few days later, I had an alert of a $44 balance increase on an account, -5 pts.
So I paid $19,956.00 in debt only to gain 25 pts. ( 1 paid $165 derog 5 yrs old on TU only).
This week, a balance on a CC dropped $600 to sub 30% utiliz and no movement in score. w t frig
@Anonymous wrote:I decrease my debt % from 7% to 0% my score goes down 13pts I raise my % from 0% to 7% and my score goes down 3pts. If FICO has no memory I should have gained the points I lost last month. I just give up.
Hold the phone. OP, your scores went from mid-500s in November to over 700 in two months? And now you are concerned about a drop of 13points?
You need to reset your expectations, my friend. FICO does change, it does recalculate. You got a HUGE run up in score very recently. Now there is a bit more adjustment going on as things get refined.
Chill.
As your credit profile changes, the relative weight of any one category of your credit profile on your credit score changes. FICO's scoring model is not a simple 35% for category A, 30% for category B etc model. The relative weights of the categories change as your profile changes. While payment history is worth 35% of the general population's FICO score (think of this as average person), none of our profiles likely track exactly with the general population. In fact, the chance that we track exactly with the general population is infinitely small even if we have the average score. Why? Maybe I have 531 payments in my history with a perfect record, but the general population has 530 or 555, or 999, or 231. And we are merely talking about one single factor in FICO score (i.e. payment history) and one particular factor within the payment history category of FICO scoring (i.e. number of payments rather than number of missed payments or percentage of missed payments).
Source: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/WhatsInYourScore.aspx
Relevant quote: "These percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the general population. For particular groups—for example, people who have not been using credit long—the relative importance of these categories may be different."
What Does It Mean?: FICO scoring is dynamic and not based on a simple to follow formula. It is one of the reasons why other scoring models do not exactly track with FICO scoring. In fact each FICO scoring model is different, but that is a whole different topic.
FICO scoring is complicated. Most people won't understand it. Mathematical experts are unable to duplicate it because the formula is proprietary. The scoring model works relatively well, which is why it is used. Major banks would not use a scoring model that is not effective at determining risk. While the model is not perfect, it does work. FICO tries to simplify the scoring methodology by breaking it down into categories with relative weight and basic things to do to improve your score. While the information is correct, it is oversimplified. They know they can't explain calculus to someone in the first grade (using a simple analogy...I don't mean to say the average American is like a first grader or that calculus is hard, but merely that calculus would be close to impossible for most first graders). They have to simplify the explanation so it makes sense. They provide more detailed information about the scoring methodology for people who are interested, but they don't publicize their scoring algorithms since it is how they make their money.