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OK. First, I realize I have little room to complain. Second, the score that I'm using, as I understand it, is a "Credit FICO" from Washington Mutual. I assume I would see something similar happening to my FICO score if I paid for it.
Here's my situation:
Month Score
May 834
June 834
July 824
August 823
September 817
October 808
The only think that I have done any differently recently is open the WaMu card, which has given me the scores above. I've never been late on a payment in my life, paid off card balances every month. My spending patterns are the same as far as I can tell. The only thing that's changing is my balances on home and auto loans are going down as I pay them off.
I've read a bit that credit scoring matches you against your peers, and that scores can jump dramatically when you move to a different category (ie you just opened a credit card, so you move into a category of others who recently opened an account). This looks more like a slow and steady decline, though.
Any ideas or education for me?
Thank you in advance
I am trying to remember when WAMU started using the 04 Version of PFICO-
Very little room to complain, that is an extremely high score. The new card can drop scores like a rock, but within a year or two of steady use, it will recover.
I am also dealing with a steady decline, but it's mostly due to focusing attention on one single cc with high util.
Dan
@Anonymous wrote:as I understand it, is a "Credit FICO" from Washington Mutual. I assume I would see something similar happening to my FICO score if I paid for it.
More specifically it is a "bankcard" Fico score and from TransUnion at that. I have found that TU FICOs don't behave in the same way as my EQ and Experian scores. I would examine my revolving card usage such as utilization. My guess is that at the highest scores you might have had only one credit card report with a balance. Additional cards reporting a balance can cause 6-10 point dings. I have also discovered that having too small of a balance (below $150) on that one card will still cause a few points reduction.
Don't assume that your other FICO scores behave the same. Don't even assume that your other FICO scores are that high. I would buy all three FICO scores from MyFico at least to determine how the regular consumer version of the TU score compares to Experian and Equifax.