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This is not exactly a complaint about the FICO score simulator. After all, I didn't pay anything for the simulator and it's not the reason I purchased my FICO score. Still ...
My FICO score is 740, which is nothing to be ashamed of. But according to the FICO score simulator, there is nothing I can do to improve my score. If I pay off all my outstanding debt today, my FICO score will not change, according to the simulator. If I do that and pay off all my credit accounts in full every month for the next 24 months I can still anticipate no change to my FICO score.
If I do both those things and I age my account 24 months forward, guess what? The revolving circle still stops at 740. This makes me wonder if I should place any confidence at all in the FICO score simulator.
I'm just guessing at this because I'm pretty new here, but is there something on your CR that has created a ceiling? It's my understanding that if you have a baddie on your CR such as a 90 day late or a BK, that until it falls off will cause your score to be held at a certain level.
I haven't used the score simulator so I don't know what options it gives you. Is it possible to remove any baddies/negatives on your account and then see if your score improves when you pay off debt, age accounts, etc?
My comments in blue below.
@Anonymous wrote:This is not exactly a complaint about the FICO score simulator. After all, I didn't pay anything for the simulator and it's not the reason I purchased my FICO score. Still ...
My FICO score is 740, which is nothing to be ashamed of. But according to the FICO score simulator, there is nothing I can do to improve my score. If I pay off all my outstanding debt today...
Do you mean revolving debt only? Or are you including installment debt as well? What are your revolving tradelines, what is the balance and credit limit on each? E.g.
Card 1. Balance = ____ Credit Limit = ____
Card 2. Balance = ____ Credit Limit = ____
Card 3. Balance = ____ Credit Limit = ____
etc.
Paying all revolving debt to zero is fine, but only if you then use a credit card for something small immediately. You will incur a scoring penalty if all cards report $0.
my FICO score will not change, according to the simulator. If I do that and pay off all my credit accounts in full every month for the next 24 months I can still anticipate no change to my FICO score.
While Paying in Full (PIF) is an extremely laudable habit, and one we urge people to adopt, it has no effect on your score. What affects your score is your CC utilization. A person can PIF every month but have a 3% utiliztion one month and a 77% another month.
If I do both those things and I age my account 24 months forward, guess what? The revolving circle still stops at 740. This makes me wonder if I should place any confidence at all in the FICO score simulator.
The simulators one obtains through pretty much any credit monitoring service are typically worthless. A better strategy for someone wishing to improve his score is to describe his profile in detail and then get advice from the folks in the forum.
@Anonymous wrote:This is not exactly a complaint about the FICO score simulator. After all, I didn't pay anything for the simulator and it's not the reason I purchased my FICO score. Still ...
My FICO score is 740, which is nothing to be ashamed of. But according to the FICO score simulator, there is nothing I can do to improve my score. If I pay off all my outstanding debt today, my FICO score will not change, according to the simulator. If I do that and pay off all my credit accounts in full every month for the next 24 months I can still anticipate no change to my FICO score.
If I do both those things and I age my account 24 months forward, guess what? The revolving circle still stops at 740. This makes me wonder if I should place any confidence at all in the FICO score simulator.
No you should not place any confidence in it at all.
To me it's value is fun.
Simulators are garbage. If you do absolutely nothing your score would increase above 740 within 2 years simply based on your file aging... your AAoA would increase, your AoOA would increase, any new accounts (AoYA) or inquiries would no longer adversely impact your score, etc.
If your current utilization is > 9%, you are leaving points on the table today by not having it below that number. In this case the simulator would be 100% wrong, as if you paid down (but not to $0) your reported balances you would most certainly see a scoring increase.
Also, if you don't have an open installment loan and employ the SSL technique, you could scoop up around 30 points within a month or so; you're definitely not at a ceiling or anything with respect to score.
For a simulator to be at all accurate IMO, it would need to ask far more questions than the standard 10 or so that they ask in order to generate scoring predictions based on profile-changing events. 10 basic questions is no where near enough.