What the heck is going on?

[haulingthescoreup]

Without knowing it, we are all divided into credit peer groups, made up of people with similar credit profiles, including the length that we've had credit, whether we have a "thin" or "thick" file, if we have a public record showing, if we have bunches of lates, if we have a serious derog. (Scores alone do not assign you to a score bucket.)

This keeps those of us who are slogging along, working on our credit, from being compared to life-long members of the 800 Club, who have never done anything wrong, and haven't for 20-plus years. Otherwise, we would all be stuck at 365 for life.

Periodically, your credit report changes enough that you get re-assigned to a new credit peer group. This generally happens because the last PR or serious baddie has fallen off or been removed from your reports, or your account history has gotten older, for example. Again, it doesn't happen just because you broke 700 (or whatever), but they tend to happen together, because whatever changed your peer group also affected your scores.

One of the slangs for these peer groups is "score buckets", and when you change groups, we call it being re-bucketed. Typically what happens is that you are moving on up into a better group, just like George and Weezy Jefferson, and initially, you don't look so hot compared to your new peers, so your scores drop. The good news is that your new group has a higher "ceiling" for scores, so once you recover, you can now get higher scores than you could before. I was re-bucketed when I added on as AU on my husband's 18-year-old Discover card and gained 6 years of credit history. I promptly dropped from 651 to 636 on EQ, which was pretty upsetting to say the least. But that was in mid-October, and now, 4+ months later, I'm at 728, so I'm pretty happy.

If you have Scorewatch (the myFICO version), you might get this gem:

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

* 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.

[Anonymous]

Excellent explanation by Hauling.

Keep in mind that events affect the people in different buckets differently.  For example, a single 30-day late can drop 100 points from someone with a high score, yet have barely no effect on the socre of someone with a lot of current lates.

[Madison]

Thanks for the explanation about buckets....But to me, it sounds like the Credit Reporting Agencies have come up with plan to move the goal posts....I can't believe they get away changing the rules and criterias for a credit score. Buckets, smuckets! To me, it is just another way to mess with honest hard working people trying to get their credit scores up to get a decent mortage...it couldn't have hit me at a worst time as I am in the process for applying for a new mortage. Now I may have to wait another 30 to 60 days....THANKS EQ FICO!

[haulingthescoreup]

I agree, it can be horrible timing when you are up against a deadline. I hope that your lender understands about how your scores can change due to this, and that it doesn't mean that something has gone wrong with your credit.

When you aren't in a timing crisis, it really is a good thing. If I were being compared to someone like psychic, with perfect credit for umpty-ump years, my scores would be in the toilet. The whole bucket thing is the only means of showing that I have screwed up in the past, but that I'm now being responsible.

I'm sorry, because I know that it doesn't help to hear that one day this will help. Fingers crossed for your mortgage process!

[Anonymous]

Hi Hauling...first of all, you are dating yourself with that "Jefferson's" reference...."movin' on up...to that de-luxe apartment in the sky"...!!!

Regarding the bucket changes, could you re-cap for us what your understanding of the aging buckets are.....

--Less than 2 years

--2-5 years, like you mentioned above

--5- ?

And isn't there bumps at 13 years and again at 19 years?  I seem to recall you saying both of these mileposts in earlier threads....

My long term problem is that my 1987 Discover will fall off around 2015 (yes, major screw up and I closed it many years back) and my then 28 year oldest TL will drop to 20 and then to 14.  Just want to get an idea of the various buckets based on age of oldest TL....

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Hauling...first of all, you are dating yourself with that "Jefferson's" reference...."movin' on up...to that de-luxe apartment in the sky"...!!!

Regarding the bucket changes, could you re-cap for us what your understanding of the aging buckets are.....

--Less than 2 years

--2-5 years, like you mentioned above

--5- ?

And isn't there bumps at 13 years and again at 19 years? I seem to recall you saying both of these mileposts in earlier threads....

My long term problem is that my 1987 Discover will fall off around 2015 (yes, major screw up and I closed it many years back) and my then 28 year oldest TL will drop to 20 and then to 14. Just want to get an idea of the various buckets based on age of oldest TL....

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As best as I can tell, those are the years: 2, 5, 13, and 19, and I'll betcha there's one somewhere around 8 or 9. (The 2-5 reference is a direct quote from myFICO, btw. Hope they weren't trying to misdirect us!)

The problem in figuring this out is that the bucket issue is new enough to so many people here that many don't realize what happened and share the info. So if anyone who has myFICO ScoreWatch (I don't know if you get that message that I quoted up above from the Equifax version) ever has a sudden score change that occurs at the same time as their age changes, please post and let us obsessed data collectors know!

When it comes to remembering old TV shows, I'm starting to remind myself on the forums of the white cop on "Sanford and Son" who spoke incomprehensible cop lingo, and his partner had to translate for him!

[Junejer]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

When it comes to remembering old TV shows, I'm starting to remind myself on the forums of the white cop on "Sanford and Son" who spoke incomprehensible cop lingo, and his partner had to translate for him!

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Good ole Smitty & Hoppy. LOL.

[Anonymous]

We finally got a piece of the piiiiiiiiie ...

There are several factors that determine buckets, not just account age.  FICO holds these real close to the vest.  But we understand there are determinants like the number of collections you have, or a recent BK, etc.

For example, a single bucket could be people (a) with a 10 year credit history (b) with a BK that is 8 - 9 years old (c) who opened 3 - 5 new accounts in the past 12 months and (d) who have 7 -9 inqs.

I'm just guessing at the specifics here, but the point is that there are several common characteristics for dwellers of the same bucket.  We probably won't ever know more so don't stress out over it.  Just keep your head above water and keep swimming!  Dynomite!!

[Madison]

What is frustrating, my FICO Score May 30, 2007 was 569 and I had worked to get it to 691 in late February of 2008 before they put me in some sort of new bucket which dropped me to 673. I am afraid I will kick the bucket before FICO rates me over 700....

Message Edited by Madison on 03-10-2008 10:57 AM

[Anonymous]

Good luck Madison. I've got my fingers crossed for you.