Scoring seems to be off, 57 point drop, and nothing has changed in my credit report...

[FalGra]

My credit score has been increasing each month, however, the past two months for a few days a month it drops quite a bit for a couple days then shoots back up, the other day it dropped 57 points. Without any activity. I assume like last month it will go back to what it should be in a few days, but what the heck is going on?

So I used my free score power report to see what is going on. Nothing has changed except the Understanding your Credit report says I have a late payment within 1 month. That is incorrect, I have not missed or paid late in almost 3 years, there isn't anything on the credit report accounts page saying such a thing either. This is obviously a mistake, I assume it is only the myfico algorithm that is mistaken. I am closing on a house in April so I am watching my reports like a hawk for inaccuracy's.

[llecs]

Do you have any collections or charge-offs? If so, look at the reported date or Date of last activity. In some circumstances, if a baddie updates, it can appear newer and drop your scores. If you do have old baddies reporting, make sure none of them show a recent date of 1/2011.

[FalGra]

no change at all. And today it is back to normal.

[llecs]

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@FalGra wrote:

no change at all. And today it is back to normal.

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That's good news.

[haulingthescoreup]

If this is Equifax, I'd worry about a split file.

If you're willing to pull (= pay for) a report when your score drops, pull one then and see which accounts are on it and if any are missing. There might be a lag, so verify that the report is associated with the low score. If not, you might be able to call myFICO CS and sweet-talk them into another report.

If your file has split, it means that one portion of it is being scored one time, and the other at other times. So your score goes up, down, up, down.

It happens a lot with Equifax, and they (not myFICO) can fix it, but they'll probably need a copy of an intact report if you have one.

Split files occur when there is too much data for the amount of space available, and some of it "splits" over to a second file. This often happens with people who pull their reports frequently, for whatever reason.

[FalGra]

Right, that sounds like what is going on. I "wasted" my second score power report this last time because the drop was so substantial I wanted to see why exactly this was occuring. Data seemed the same as the score power report that was at the higher score. I'll request my free annual credit reports here in a month or so to to see what they show. Can't justify another $15 right now...

[haulingthescoreup]

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@FalGra wrote:

Right, that sounds like what is going on. I "wasted" my second score power report this last time because the drop was so substantial I wanted to see why exactly this was occuring. Data seemed the same as the score power report that was at the higher score. I'll request my free annual credit reports here in a month or so to to see what they show. Can't justify another $15 right now...

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It's worth trying a call to myFICO CS and asking if they could possibly give you another report. That is one of the tricky things about trying to pin down a split file --when you pull a report, it might be the OK one, not the partial one.

Unfortunately, the same thing might happen when you pull your freebie.

Did the report that you pulled have the higher score, or the lower one?

[FalGra]

Lower score on the score power report during the few day window of a lower score. I have no idea what the score power report says now that the score is back to normal as I am not gonna buy another report for a little while. I will call CS and see what they say. Thanks!