Understanding FICO® Scoring

[MsMS]

My EQ score dropped 36 points- from 709 to 673!  I got this message:

This score decrease may be caused by this new reason:

• You have too many credit accounts with balances.

Changes to your credit report  

Your FICO® score went down on a day when there were no credit alerts on your Equifax Credit Report™. This can happen if:

• There was a change on your credit report that lowered your score but did not trigger an alert. For example, the balance on an account might have increased enough to lower your score, but not enough to trigger a balance increase alert.   (Not so)
• You moved from one category of credit users to another as time passed. For example, you may have transitioned from the category "consumers with a new credit history" to the category "consumers with a two- to five-year credit history". As a result, your credit report is evaluated differently, causing a slight change in your score. The good news is that moving between categories like this usually offers you the potential to reach a higher FICO® score in the future.

This is a rebucket, right?

I have the same number of accounts with balances (8) as I did in Nov. when I first signed up for ScoreWatch, and my score was steady at 709 until now.  I pulled a Score Power report, and the things hurting my score (supposedly ranked from most to least important) are pretty much the same, just in a different order.  Old:  Util., New Account (4 months old), # of accounts w/ balances.  New:  # of accounts w/ balances, (2 entries that both look like util to me) "Heavy use of available revolving credit", "Amount owed on revolving too high", New Account (now 6 months old).

Why would # of accts w/ balances go from last to top factor?

Of course, all this happens just when we're about to buy a truck for hubby's work...  Grrr....

Thanks,

MsMS

[Timothy]

Withour knowing if your oldest account had a birthday - we don't know if you got re-bucketed or not- it is posible

My guess is you have - check your open dates

I know "too manay accounts with balances is 20 to 30 points for me. 

Do not allow more than 50% of your accounts to post with a balance- 

This is also saying Account with balances is hurting more than UTL (doubtful)

Now that you have gone 6 months without applying for credit you may have left the "seeking new credit" bucket as well.

If you are going to apply for credit - get 1 or 2 of the accounts paid to zero ASAP.

[MsMS]

My oldest account was opened 9/1995 (student loan).  Next oldest is Discover, 11/1999.  Looking at the open dates, I actually had 2 or maybe 3 accounts turn 6 months old (HELOC and AmEx, both opened 5/07, and Home Depot, opened 7/07).

I know fewer accounts posting w/ balance is better, but I'm trying to aggressively pay down debt using 0% balance transfers...

Message Edited by MsMS on 01-07-2008 07:08 AM

[Timothy]

I hope someone will come along with some kind of answer for you-

I am a bit stumped-

What about your Avg age? Did it change?

[MsMS]

Nope- 12 years for oldest, Avg. age 4 years on both...

I could pay off 2 of the 8 this month, but those are the low/no interest ones (I'd been throwing Triscuits at them while putting big amounts toward what's left on the higher-interest CC's)- and I don't know if they'll report in time to show when we apply for the car loan.  Does app'ing make the balances update?  The 8 are: mortgage, HELOC, student loan, 5 CC's.

[MidnightVoice]

Do you know if the other scores changed?

[MsMS]

I've never pulled EX or TU scores, so I wouldn't have a comparison over time.  I checked both reports fairly recently, and they were accurate.  Would it be worth it to buy my EX & TU scores?

[cobra19]

Ms....................Consider yourself as having being bucketed.

[MsMS]

Okay, my curiosity got the best of me, and I pulled my EX & TU scores.  TU was 717, and EX was 726- I hope the credit union pulls one of those 2 instead of EQ!

Do EX & TU re-bucket as well, using different criteria?

Thanks!

Message Edited by MsMS on 01-08-2008 11:19 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

Yes, they do. When I was re-bucketed, I lost points on them as well, although not as badly as on EQ. I think it was 7 and 8 points vs 15.

It took me a good while to figure out what triggered mine, because the causative event (adding on as an AU and increasing my history from 12 years to 18) had happened a good three weeks before, which seemed like a lifetime at that point, lol.

The message you got is the same one I received. FWIW, my TU and EX scores had recovered and improved from the originals within 4 weeks, and for EQ, it was 6 weeks. Pretty traumatizing at the time, though!