(LONG post, sorry) Well, to think that just last night, I was starting to feel the tiniest bit jealous of lilacteapot and her surprise score change. I was wondering if I would ever progress to the point where I would move up into a new bucket. Well, surprise surprise, the text msg came today.
Your FICO score decreased to 636 on October 15, 2007. (<--another 15 points gone, wave bye-bye)(Then comes the scary bit about how it might have dropped because I have lates--duh--or because I've missed a payment, which I haven't. I learned from the last time that this section is a junk section.)
Then comes this:
Your FICO® score went down on a day when there were no credit alerts on your Equifax Credit Report™. This can happen if:
- There was a change on your credit report that lowered your score but did not trigger an alert. For example, the balance on an account might have increased enough to lower your score, but not enough to trigger a balance increase alert. (<--didn't happen)
- 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.
So, lucky me, I've been promoted, and lost another 15 points from my EQ score, which is battered enough already. I pretty much grasp what's going on. It's like I played sweeper for my AYSO team and got picked up by a club team. Now instead of starting every game, I'm stuck on the bench, picking splinters out of my butt, until I start getting some playing time and moving up again. So I'm reasonably calm about this, other than the pencil that snapped in my fingers when I got the you've-just-lost-15-points text message. I sure am glad that I had read about this in the last several weeks, or else the portable defibrillator hanging on the office wall would have been called into use.
Luckily, I suppose, I had just bought a FICO EQ score and report 8 days ago. Literally, nothing has changed, other than EQ finally got around to posting our September mortgage payment. I don't see any anniversaries, either of opening accounts or lates getting older, with the possible exception of our current mortgage (a re-fi) almost turning 5 years old, but that shows as being opened in 11/2002, not 10/2002. Could that have been enough to trigger a bucket change? --because there really isn't an iota of difference anywhere else on the report--balances, inqs, new accounts, you name it. They have already all been posted. So it's either moving into a bucket of people with older mortgages, or moving into a bucket of people who now owe 90.813% of their original mortgage loan amount.
So now, two questions (well, sorta):
- Do EX and TU re-bucket also? My EX score recently dropped 8 points (691 --> 683), but I assumed that was the HELOC posting, but the HELOC only cost me 3 points in EQ. So do they re-bucket, too? (I guess they would have to, wouldn't they?) And since EX does everything else more quickly, maybe they re-bucketed me sooner also. I don't want to pull TU quite yet, because I'm waiting on TU and EQ to post two updated accounts that showed up on EX 10 days ago.
- How long before my scores start to recover, and is there anything I can do to help them move along, other than keep doing what I'm doing? No collections, no judgments, 2% util, a mix of mortgage, installment, and revolving credit, 14 lates (yeah, I know, I know) that I'm working on, all accounts current.
I was hoping to apply for one more major card in first quarter 2008, but I won't have reached 700+ by then. The high 300's, maybe, the way I'm going.
haulingthescoreup wrote:(LONG post, sorry) Well, to think that just last night, I was starting to feel the tiniest bit jealous of lilacteapot and her surprise score change. I was wondering if I would ever progress to the point where I would move up into a new bucket. Well, surprise surprise, the text msg came today.
I'm reminded of that old George Goebel quote:Did You Ever Feel Like the World Was a Black Tuxedo and You Were A Pair of Brown Shoes?
fused wrote:It's possible to be in different buckets amongst the three. Bucket changes can occur if your file gets thicker or thinner, changes in credit length (not sure what the cutoffs are), having a serious derog added or dropped, even late payments.With your scores, I would have to think it's better you don't app. This is one way to outdo the others in your bucket. It seems the folks in the higher buckets are far less likely to app. Get rid of lates...any success yet.There's no telling how long it will take to rebound but you already understand what is good and what is bad. Just don't do anything that would lower your scores.
Thanks, fused, I guess I'll just sit here and fume. 
I wasn't in a burning hurry for a new card, but it was fun to think about getting one as a prize for good behavior. I suppose this is good for my character, deferred gratification and all that. Meanwhile the GW's are out there, wandering around somewhere, sitting on desks, I hope not being shredded.
I wasn't in a burning hurry for a new card, but it was fun to think about getting one as a prize for good behavior. I suppose this is good for my character, deferred gratification and all that. Meanwhile the GW's are out there, wandering around somewhere, sitting on desks, I hope not being shredded.However, if anyone wants to chime in with guesstimates of how long it will take my scores to recover, you're more than welcome! hmmpfh 
lilacteapot wrote
I'm reminded of that old George Goebel quote:Did You Ever Feel Like the World Was a Black Tuxedo and You Were A Pair of Brown Shoes?
LOL --thanks, that helped! and I just happen to be sitting here in my scuffed brown clogs. Ah, well.
Hauling, I think it's cool that you're in a "new" bucket! It can only get better from here! Just let everything age and before you know it you'll be rolling with the "high rollers" baby"!!!!!! P/S) if it makes you feel any better I'm only in the low 600 club so keep your chin up!
P/S) if it makes you feel any better I'm only in the low 600 club so keep your chin up!
haulingthescoreup wrote:Then comes this: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.I am curious as to why the report I paid for on the 11th didn't say this somewhere on it considering the major drop in points. It had the same help and hurt sections as the report last year and basically told me to keep doing the same thing to get a higher score. Duh!!! Somehow this is NOT giving me warm fuzzies!!On the other hand, if it had said something, I might NOT have found these boards.