Two-thirds of the way

[vanillabean]

This billing cycle, I'm piling up card balances. Dormant accounts are showing left and right. My primary count, for my own accounts, is 4 balances on 6 cards so far, and my secondary count, for the accounts that I am AU on, is 2 out of 3. I figure my EQ 8 of 850 will break some day, just not quite yet.

[Thomas_Thumb]

You can likely report under 9% balances on all your cards (including AU) without a drop in your Fico 8 score of 850. I tested that twice with no impact on Fico 8 due to the buffer. Let us know how your testing goes.

I'd be interested to see what happens on your Fico 8 score if you can get all your AU cards to report zero balances. Are any of the AU cards ones you personally never use? The one I am AU on has not been used by me personally in over 10 years. My AU card expired long ago.

[vanillabean]

I am beginning to think the 850 buffer doesn’t matter much for balances. DW who is triple 850 otherwise picked up an inquiry on EQ from a phone company and has been sitting at 845. Going from 1 balance to 6 balances out of 7 cards dropped her to 841, so that’s less than one point per balance! It can be added that AU utilization has no impact on either one of us.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@vanillabean wrote:

I am beginning to think the 850 buffer doesn’t matter much for balances. DW who is triple 850 otherwise picked up an inquiry on EQ from a phone company and has been sitting at 845. Going from 1 balance to 6 balances out of 7 cards dropped her to 841, so that’s less than one point per balance! It can be added that AU utilization has no impact on either one of us.

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Thanks for the info - Just to clarify have you and/or DW had all AU cards report zero balances at the same time and do you have a Fico 8 score for that situation?

Based on some analysis on my profile comparing Classic Fico 8 scores to Bankcard Fico 8 scores for each of the three CRAs, I see a buffer of 10 to 20 points for each CRA for Classic Fico 8.

For TU Classic Fico 8, 10/2016 was the only month my score dropped from 850  for the time period: 1/2014 to 7/2017. EQ and EX Fico 8 have never dropped. I did have a new inquiry on EQ 6/24/2014 which aged to 1 year 6/25/2015. Also had an unauthorized HP from PenFed on EQ from 11/2015 to 3/2016. No impact on Classic Fico 8 either time. During the 2.5 year time period I had occassion to report a few high utilizations on a BB store card (52% & 75%) + 100% B/HB on an AMEX card. Again, no impact on score.

Reported balances on 6 of 6 cards (or 5 of 5 if AU not counted) a couple times - No impact on Classic Fico 8. By comparison, I saw some movement in Bankcard Fico 8. This supports the commonly held belief of a sizeable potential buffer for the Classic Fico 8 model. 

I have no doubt the AU card caused my drop in TU Fico 8 on 10/2016 although it is not counting in my aggregate CL, aggregate UT or accounts with balances count. Can't figure it out. Best guess is the AU reporting a zero balance was a factor in the drop (as discussed in another thread).

The other possibility: payment on the AU card was 5 days past the October due date shown on the September statement. Perhaps TU has tweaked the Fico 8 algorithm to see if actual payment equals or exceeds minimum required payment. If so and the other CRAs don't look at that metric, that could explain the drop on TU only..

[RobertEG]

As an aside, I would suggest the OP may wish to remove the two AU accounts.

Based on the posted score, you are evidently not in the rebuilding mode, and thus are more likely to be applying for credit that will involve a manual review.

Presence of the AU accounts is resulting in a score that is not representative of your own credit history, and a manual review will inform a potential creditor as such.

That may result in giving less consideration to your "phony" score, which is not based only on your own credit history.

You might be better off, even if the AUs are helping your raw score, removing the AUs and thus securing a "real" score.