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Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util report

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jamie123
Valued Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor

Yeah, I have noticed the same thing happens to my score. For each card more than 1 that reports a balance your score will take a hit no matter how small the reporting balance is. I lost 10 points for 1 month when a second card reported a $2.99 balance.


Starting Score: EQ 653 6/21/12
Current Score: EQ 817 3/10/20 - EX 820 3/13/20 - TU 825 3/03/20
Message 11 of 16
cashnocredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor


@cashnocredit wrote:

@cashnocredit wrote:

Got a score alert today. FICO has climbed from 703 to 738.  There has been absolutely no change to my credit report since the drop last week to 703.  This is not rebucketing. This is FICO with a software bug.

 



Correction. This 35 point rebound resulted from WF reporting a 0 balance from a couple hundred reducing the number of cards reporting a balance. No net affect on Util. Apparently, having the newest card being 1 y/o has resulted in rebucketing and greatly increasing the impact of "number of cards with balances"  In the past this made much less difference, perhaps dropping FICO 5 to 10 points. For instance all of my cars reported small balances a few months ago with a FICO in the 750's. Now it is THE major negative factor and dropped EQ FICO to 703 though the TU FICO is still up in the 750s.

 

Very strange behavior. I might add another card just to see if the bucket changes.


Util went from 2% ish to >80%, No other changes. EQ FICO up 6 points to 744. Go figure.

Ok, the Util is where it is because a charge card reported and now is above my total CLs and 20 times higher than when my FICO plummeted to 703..  Obviously Charge cards make no difference at all. This suggests the initial huge drop was purely some sort of rebucketing that is gradually correcting itself.

 

FWIF, the Citi EQ FAKO has been and remains stuck at 757, exactly where FICO was before its inexplicable plunge. At least it is also ignoring Charge card balances.

 

Very odd how FICO flips out during bucket changes. If that's what it was.


I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.

WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy18k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k
Message 12 of 16
cashnocredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor

Today WQ FICO has returned to 755 from the drop to 703. Two of three credit cards now reporting a zero balance. A fourth charge card is reporting >50k balance but that seems to have no impact on FICO scores.

 

Looking over this it appears that rebucketing, either once the oldest account reaches 4 years or the youngest 1 year, resulted in a dramatic drop in an apparent extreme but new sensitivity to having all the CCs reporting a balance, even though they were very small ones. Prior to this the same sort of reporting would only result in about a 10 point drop. Interesting.


I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.

WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy18k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k
Message 13 of 16
BlueNightStar
Regular Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor


@cashnocredit wrote:

Today WQ FICO has returned to 755 from the drop to 703. Two of three credit cards now reporting a zero balance. A fourth charge card is reporting >50k balance but that seems to have no impact on FICO scores.

 

Looking over this it appears that rebucketing, either once the oldest account reaches 4 years or the youngest 1 year, resulted in a dramatic drop in an apparent extreme but new sensitivity to having all the CCs reporting a balance, even though they were very small ones. Prior to this the same sort of reporting would only result in about a 10 point drop. Interesting.


Thank you for sharing this information. If I understand this correctly, the youngest account aging to 1 year results in a rebucketing that takes a harsher look at number of CCs with balance. This may explain why I never gain or lose points for the number of CCs with balances (that I can tell). Since I am rebuilding I've added multiple cards in the last two years. The only thing that seems to move EQ for me is inquiries/new accounts. BTW, I have 1 card >10 years and 1 >7 so the 4 year oldest theory would not apply to me. Although I will say that EQ seems to weigh the length of accounts heavily, I got an 11 point increase when the oldest card reached 10 years and nothing else changed on my report.  My EQ score never moves more than 5 points in either direction.

Message 14 of 16
cashnocredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor


@BlueNightStar wrote:

@cashnocredit wrote:

Today WQ FICO has returned to 755 from the drop to 703. Two of three credit cards now reporting a zero balance. A fourth charge card is reporting >50k balance but that seems to have no impact on FICO scores.

 

Looking over this it appears that rebucketing, either once the oldest account reaches 4 years or the youngest 1 year, resulted in a dramatic drop in an apparent extreme but new sensitivity to having all the CCs reporting a balance, even though they were very small ones. Prior to this the same sort of reporting would only result in about a 10 point drop. Interesting.


Thank you for sharing this information. If I understand this correctly, the youngest account aging to 1 year results in a rebucketing that takes a harsher look at number of CCs with balance. This may explain why I never gain or lose points for the number of CCs with balances (that I can tell). Since I am rebuilding I've added multiple cards in the last two years. The only thing that seems to move EQ for me is inquiries/new accounts. BTW, I have 1 card >10 years and 1 >7 so the 4 year oldest theory would not apply to me. Although I will say that EQ seems to weigh the length of accounts heavily, I got an 11 point increase when the oldest card reached 10 years and nothing else changed on my report.  My EQ score never moves more than 5 points in either direction.


It isn't clear whether the rebucketing was from the oldest account reaching 4 years or the youngest 1 year. They both happened at the same time. I will find out when I add another CC in a month or so. Seeing FICO drop from 757 to 703 when the only thing that happened was a slight increase in my Amex was rather shocking.And then watching FICO recover when Amex reported >10x that balance, well, it leaves one questioning the quality of these FICO engines.

 

In any case these things matter much more with a clean report. Lower scores when negs are present tend to respond less to inqs, balances, and such.


I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.

WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy18k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k
Message 15 of 16
cashnocredit
Valued Contributor

Re: Updated! Major drop - FICO now lower than 2 years ago when I had a PR on a clean, low util repor

The change and big drop has been verified to be rebucketting. After reducing the number of revolvers reporting a balance to 1 from 3 EQ FICO returned to 755. I then increased the number (stopped prepaying) and let the 3 return with somehwat higer balances (15% overall util) . FIC dropped to 690. which is lower than it was when I had a PR and CAs with only a 2 year history and 2 cards both reporting.

 

Obviously this "bucket" is a strange one.


I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.

WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy18k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k
Message 16 of 16
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