Not getting traction in my fico score

[gingerdad]

FICO was 694 on 10/15 and, after 2 old inquries dropped off, is still at 694 on score watch. What gives? 

Credit utilization on revolving has gone down from 6-7% to almost zero - $4 to be exact - (I am paying off my credit cards biweekly) and in the section that indicates what is impacted score, everything is very good except recent inquries, which went from "not good" to "good".

EDIT - NOTE THAT I HAVE MY SCOREWATCH SET TO 695 (MOVEMENT OF 1 POINT UPWARDS) AND HAVE RECEIVED NOTHING YET.

Is scorewatch not a real FICO score pull?  Also wondering if the inquiries dropoff will take a couple of weeks to register (they just dropped off in the last 10 days); still disappointed I have not got any movement at all in 2 months despite apparently only moving things in the right direction.

[Cdnewmanpac]

Inquiries dropping off won't cause an alert, so you have ot wait for them to drop off (which can take a week through myfico), then wait for the every 10 days or so score check to see a change. So could be a few weeks if the timing works out.

Also, there is no guarantee that inquiries falling off will raise your score. Most of the penalty for inquiries is removed at 6 months. Depending on your 'bucket", you may have already maximized your score (say, if you have a bunch of collections) and may not see a bump until those things disappear.

Going from 9% to 1 or 2% could potentially LOWER your score, again depending on bucketing. Many people find their maximum fico score having 5-9% utilization reporting on one card, all the rest at zero. So it is also possible the drop from lower utilization offset a bump from inquiries falling off.

The score here is real, but the algorithm used by fico is very complex. There is no guarantee that an event which should raise your score will raise your score.

That being said, give it two weeks to be sure.

[gingerdad]

Cool - thank you for the response.

I have exactly one negative in terms of payment history or collections - 6-yr old medical collection of $150.  Irritates me to no ends.

Plan to tackle the old collections with a GF letter and tackle 2 of 3 inquiries that are still on there by pointing out they are really inquiries into a business I am starting.  Getting above to 700 is fairly important for me over the next 6 months, if not over the 720 as the financing I am looking at for my new business will likely require me to cosign.

[Jutz]

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@Cdnewmanpac wrote:

Inquiries dropping off won't cause an alert, so you have ot wait for them to drop off (which can take a week through myfico), then wait for the every 10 days or so score check to see a change. So could be a few weeks if the timing works out.

Also, there is no guarantee that inquiries falling off will raise your score. Most of the penalty for inquiries is removed at 6 months. Depending on your 'bucket", you may have already maximized your score (say, if you have a bunch of collections) and may not see a bump until those things disappear.

Going from 9% to 1 or 2% could potentially LOWER your score, again depending on bucketing. Many people find their maximum fico score having 5-9% utilization reporting on one card, all the rest at zero. So it is also possible the drop from lower utilization offset a bump from inquiries falling off.

The score here is real, but the algorithm used by fico is very complex. There is no guarantee that an event which should raise your score will raise your score.

That being said, give it two weeks to be sure.

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Aye, +1.  Also I'd suggest making your target score the score that SW has you listed at right now, just in case of a minor drop as well.