@newhis wrote:I'm just learning about FICO scoring, so after getting a 28 jump on TU (Discover statement), I took some time to check what changed from last month to this one.
I know a card that was at $0 for several months now closed with some balance on 11/10. I expected a score drop because of this. I don't know if this made to the score on 11/12 but maybe not.
I have a secured loan, last month it reported as 2 payments left, this month 1 payment left. For the first time Discover Score page didn't say PROPORTION OF LOAN BALANCES TO LOAN AMOUNTS IS TOO HIGH, so I guess I got some points from this.
I have 4 INQ on TU. Last month there were 2 over 1 year and 2 under a year. This month, 3 over a year and 1 under a year (almost 6 months). I guess most points came from this.
Util is almost the same, maybe a little less. I can't find anything else. I expect a big drop next month because my only loan will have $0 balance.
I didn't know that a credit profile around 800 could get a big jump like that with those changes on their credit. Am I missing something?
What is the term on that secured loan?
Installment utilization is a non-trivial factor in FICO 8, change in the number of accounts with balances in small numbers isn't going to cause that magnitude of a change. Yup, you probably lose it next month, though you can pull the typical Alliant 5 year secured loan trick and get the points back again.
Actually 800's get bigger jumps (and bigger drops) from changes; nature of the FICO beast for gold plated reports.
@newhis wrote:
@Revelate wrote:What is the term on that secured loan?
Installment utilization is a non-trivial factor in FICO 8, change in the number of accounts with balances in small numbers isn't going to cause that magnitude of a change. Yup, you probably lose it next month, though you can pull the typical Alliant 5 year secured loan trick and get the points back again.
Actually 800's get bigger jumps (and bigger drops) from changes; nature of the FICO beast for gold plated reports.
It was only 1 year. It is paid now and they will report it on 12/01.
Thank you. I'm not chasing a score right now. I'll consider the loan trick in the future, I want to see how big is the drop next month.
My guess would be 35 points.
Not sure I agree with the not chasing a score right now, it's impossible to forecast all situations where having an optimized score might be useful... for somewhat short-term things like revolving utilization if you're transacting anyway no big deal, but for something like installment utilization under modern models, I'd pretty much suggest to everyone to optimize it if they can (I can't anymore with a recent mortgage without coming up with a massive chunk of cash which would be fiscally dumb given my interest rate) since it's a single account in your case, good for 5 years, that costs pennies in interest when done smartly.
Anyone who's paid a yuppie foodstamp to even check their scores, it should be an obvious thing to do this to actually improve one's scores.
My theory anyway.