Understanding FICO® Scoring

[rootpooty]

for someone like me whos aaoa is less than a year do fico scores rise every month assuming that util is the same reported and nothing else changes except accounts ageing go up every month or does it just happen every 6 mos to a year? only reason i ask is i sometimes see threads where posters state there scores have been stuck for quite some time now.

[DaveSignal]

My score changes all the time.  For me, it is suprising to go more than a week without a SW alert of some kind.  I have many credit cards and a few installment loans though.

I would imagine if you only have 1 line of credit that it could take much longer to see a score increase, but there are things other than AAoA that will cause the score to increase.  Having a few months of reporting on your current lines of credit with no derogs along with the simultanous ageing of older derogs will definately cause some kind of score increase.  I don't think it is month to month though.  There are some kind of set teirs for this in the FICO algorithm.

[llecs]

I'd imagine you wouldn't see any movement if everything else is equal outside the age of that TL or TLs. On age alone, look to score changes happening on the first of the month as FICO scores your TLs a month older. Most of my score changes, outside util, occurred on the 1st. The usual suspects for a gain would be your oldest CC (if any) and oldest installment (if any). And look on the first of the month when your AAoA turns 1. As far as stagnet scores go, my EQ FICO has been the same for 3 months now with constant util. I've recorded 8 months straight on DW's FICO before, aside from very minor util fluctuations.

[mmmmmm]

I was actually going to post a question like this.  My TU FICO score has risen 59 points in about 3 weeks, and the strangest part is, NOTHING has been reported during that time period.

6/7 - 698

6/24 - 730

6/27 - 757

All 3 reports are identical, and I only have 1 line of credit, which will hit it's one year mark next month, and the one inq I have will also drop off.  I'm really happy as that means my score will probably rise even further.  I'm just a bit baffled as to why they have went up so much.

[rootpooty]

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llecs wrote:

I'd imagine you wouldn't see any movement if everything else is equal outside the age of that TL or TLs. On age alone, look to score changes happening on the first of the month as FICO scores your TLs a month older. Most of my score changes, outside util, occurred on the 1st. The usual suspects for a gain would be your oldest CC (if any) and oldest installment (if any). And look on the first of the month when your AAoA turns 1. As far as stagnet scores go, my EQ FICO has been the same for 3 months now with constant util. I've recorded 8 months straight on DW's FICO before, aside from very minor util fluctuations.

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thats what i was thinking. for example last month my eq was 11 pts lower i let 9% util report and this month 8%. ill try for 7% to see if that makes a difference next month lol. in oct 3 out of 4 cc's will hit a year and my new one will hit 6 mos and 6 out of 7 inquiries dont count on the score anymore. also i have one last baddie due to fall off 5/2013

[OhioCPA]

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llecs wrote:

....And look on the first of the month when your AAoA turns 1.

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Why would this be significant? As I understand, the lowest AAoA is one. He won't see a change in AAoA until the average accounts are two years.

[Revelate]

Rooty: it's such a YMMV question.

Yeah, mine have been going up every month without fail since I started, it's really pretty astonishing to me; however, the age of my accounts has been increasing, and I hit a couple bonuses for mix of credit along the way.  Even at 61% utilization this month, I had several tradelines tick over the six month mark, and my score went from 619 (49% util) to 631 (61% util).  

That said, I just don't really know how FICO is going to grade my individual report and where my bucket limitations are, it's very hard to pull any relevant data out as an individual on this without a lot of analysis of other people's info.  I was very close to thin file status when I started, so I'm guessing I'll flatline in the 670-680 range based on an 8 year old tax lien, and a 30/60 day late from a little over 2 years ago on the single tradeline I had then, but I really can't predict my bucketing.

[llecs]

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OhioCPA wrote:

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llecs wrote:

....And look on the first of the month when your AAoA turns 1.

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Why would this be significant? As I understand, the lowest AAoA is one. He won't see a change in AAoA until the average accounts are two years.

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 By the time I found the realm of credit, I had an AAoA of 4 years, so I never pulled a report with a history less than a year. Maybe others can verify, but if you only have one CC and that one CC is 1 month old and you have no other TLs, AAoA wouldn't be listed at 1 year would it?

[Revelate]

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llecs wrote:

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OhioCPA wrote:

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llecs wrote:

....And look on the first of the month when your AAoA turns 1.

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Why would this be significant? As I understand, the lowest AAoA is one. He won't see a change in AAoA until the average accounts are two years.

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 By the time I found the realm of credit, I had an AAoA of 4 years, so I never pulled a report with a history less than a year. Maybe others can verify, but if you only have one CC and that one CC is 1 month old and you have no other TLs, AAoA wouldn't be listed at 1 year would it?

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I know the myFICO analysis report takes anything under a year and rounds up... and for scoring purposes (on the assumption that a score could even be generated sub six months reporting in your scenario, let's take the tradeline at 7 months instead) that it will report as a year and be scored as such at least from what I've read here.

I think the question is whether it really does round down completely, and as such a 23 month AAoA would still report as one year, making 2 years the magic number I think mathematically.  Personally I think that's incredibly sloppy and an unecessary shortcut which is ultimately detrimental to those new to credit, but I didn't write the algorithm or make the rules.  Life not being fair and all.

[llecs]

I'll add to my previous inquiry in that I was PM'd that for the first day through 1 year, FICO rounds up for AAoA, and then rounds down to the nearest whole number after 12 months. I questioned it because I've never seen a post where someone said their AAoA was 0.