Mediocre FICO but FAKOs think I'm Golden

[GregB]

I had to run my Revolving Credit up to $147K almost two years ago to finish off a divorce. My EQ FICO dropped to 696. As I have paid off the debt and borrowed some money that doesn't show on my reports my EQ FICO first went up to 701, where it sat for over a year. Paying off $50K had gotton me a whole 5 points. My Revolving Credit dropped to $72K, which got me 3 more points to 704 and now that my Revolving Credit is down to $65K my EQ FICO has finally inched up to 708. Paying off $82,000 in Revolving has gained me 12 points. All the way up to a bit-below-median FICO score.

What is really amazing is that I have now tracked 50 plus score changes for each of the silly consumer scores that i have tracked. They bounce around like kids in a bounce house.

My marginal FICO translates into excellent or better TU TransRisk of 792, TU Vantage of 837, EX Plus of 798. What a complete waste of time to use these scores for anything.

FWIW, my EQ, TU, and EX reports are identical except for one additional 10 year old $7K limit revolving account that still reports on EX. No negatives of any kind, not even an inquiry. AAoA of 10 years, Credit History of 29 years.

[Anonymous]

I assume your util is still high, I think once your util gets to 9% or below your FICO's will really rise. (As I'm sure you already know )

But aside from your scores, I have to applaud you for the debt you paid already, what you have done is just as impressive as an 850 FICO. You keep up the great work, and your scores will rise as your util goes down.

Again Congratulations on paying down what you have in such a short time and your EQ FICO is not "bad" by any means.

[Anonymous]

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@GregB wrote:

What a complete waste of time to use these scores for anything.

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I thorougly agree!  My PLUS scores are worthless but hilarious to watch since I have NO FICO yet.  Interestingly, although there have been changes made over the past 3 months with all 3 CRAs (the same changes) -- EX and EQ report the very same numerical score elevating higher, while TU has made the changes to the credit report but, the PLUS score for TU has not changed even one number since we first started the CMS with USAA Bank.  Talk about fuzzy algorithms--aye, yi, yi.

Congratulations to you for all the hard work you've done in paying down your CC debt.  I am sure when you've paid it ALL off you will want to throw a party! 

[GregB]

Update:

I have now paid revolving down to $55035 and have two less accounts reporting balances. I also now have one Inq on EX from changing one cell phone from ATT to Verizon. My two old Amex cards that I closed 10 years ago now fell off, amazingly off all three CRAs.

EQ FICO went UP from 708 to 741

Plus went DOWN from 798 to 764

TU TransRisk went DOWN from 792 to 778

TU Vantage went DOWN from 837 to 812.

ALL CRAs still show exactly the same accounts except for the same 10 year old closed $7K limit revolving account still on EX only and one new Inq on EX only. All accounts have identical balances except for one being $5 off on a BMW installment loan. BMW must do some strange reporting - one CRA is $3 low and the other two are $2 high. In case anyone is wondering, my accounts report in two batches around the 11th of the month and between the 20th and 28th. This gives me quite a bit of the month where EX, EQ, TU all have exactly the same amounts since this gives the other two time to catch up to EX.

So much for FAKOs even going the same direction as a FICO.

[pizzadude]

----->  So much for FAKOs even going the same direction as a FICO.

Yeah, trying to match FAKO to FICO scores is pretty much impossible ~ they go up and FICO goes down.

[namvet]

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@GregB wrote:

I had to run my Revolving Credit up to $147K almost two years ago to finish off a divorce. My EQ FICO dropped to 696. As I have paid off the debt and borrowed some money that doesn't show on my reports my EQ FICO first went up to 701, where it sat for over a year. Paying off $50K had gotton me a whole 5 points. My Revolving Credit dropped to $72K, which got me 3 more points to 704 and now that my Revolving Credit is down to $65K my EQ FICO has finally inched up to 708. Paying off $82,000 in Revolving has gained me 12 points. All the way up to a bit-below-median FICO score.

What is really amazing is that I have now tracked 50 plus score changes for each of the silly consumer scores that i have tracked. They bounce around like kids in a bounce house.

My marginal FICO translates into excellent or better TU TransRisk of 792, TU Vantage of 837, EX Plus of 798. What a complete waste of time to use these scores for anything.

FWIW, my EQ, TU, and EX reports are identical except for one additional 10 year old $7K limit revolving account that still reports on EX. No negatives of any kind, not even an inquiry. AAoA of 10 years, Credit History of 29 years.  

Wow!   Impressive recovery!   Been in your shoes before and it ain't fun.   What i learned from a divorce was "it's cheaper to keep her".   My fico scores for the most part usually post higher than my faco scores.  I don't spend a lot of time trying to compare them.  That would drive me crazy! 

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[LS2982]

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@GregB wrote:

I had to run my Revolving Credit up to $147K almost two years ago to finish off a divorce. My EQ FICO dropped to 696. As I have paid off the debt and borrowed some money that doesn't show on my reports my EQ FICO first went up to 701, where it sat for over a year. Paying off $50K had gotton me a whole 5 points. My Revolving Credit dropped to $72K, which got me 3 more points to 704 and now that my Revolving Credit is down to $65K my EQ FICO has finally inched up to 708. Paying off $82,000 in Revolving has gained me 12 points. All the way up to a bit-below-median FICO score.

What is really amazing is that I have now tracked 50 plus score changes for each of the silly consumer scores that i have tracked. They bounce around like kids in a bounce house.

My marginal FICO translates into excellent or better TU TransRisk of 792, TU Vantage of 837, EX Plus of 798. What a complete waste of time to use these scores for anything.

FWIW, my EQ, TU, and EX reports are identical except for one additional 10 year old $7K limit revolving account that still reports on EX. No negatives of any kind, not even an inquiry. AAoA of 10 years, Credit History of 29 years.

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+1

It is nice to see very high scores every now and then, even tho it's useless