>0% <9% utilization, one card FICO boost data points: bank card versus store card?

[Anonymous]

My opinion is that a 1 point variation either way is sort of non-consequential.  My TU score for Q3 2016 and Q1 2017 went back and forth a few times by 1 point.  1 point up, one point down.  I wasn't opening up any accounts.  My utilization never changed.  My number of cards reporting a balance wasn't changing.  Basically, there was no explanation for it.  Based on that, I can't ever really trust a 1 point variation as being the result of anything.  It's not a solid enough datapoint IMO.  If I change something slightly on my profile, did that change cause the 1 point movement or did that change not matter at all and my score just fluctuated 1 point naturally for whatever reason like I've seen in the past?  No way to know.

[Anonymous]

UPDATE!

So I left $5 on my Comenity Williams Sonoma store card ($400, my only SCT and wasn't planned for SCT, just was making a purchase).  Statement cut 5/16 but didn't post on CRAs until yesterday or day before that.  MyFico tracking just as useless as always with no real updates, but Credit Check Total updated the balance yesterday on Experian, and I got a notice on Credit Karma about Equifax.

Experian credit score yesterday...stayed the same.  Woof.  585.

But this morning I woke up, logged in and it was up to 611.  26 point increase in 24 hours with no other obvious changes of any kind.  AAoA the same.  Inquiries the same.  Accounts showing all identical.  No other changes whatsoever, just the $5 reported on the store card.

Credit Check Total is weird to me because at 6am it will show a FICO score change but it won't show the updated credit report until later in the day so I can't verify yet that something else didn't actually happen but I can't imagine what since I have no new disputes out.

Will report back once that report shows up, but it was a curious boost in scores nonetheless.

[Anonymous]

So was that $5 that reported going from $0 reported [across all accounts] previously?  If so, 20 points gained would be pretty standard, so the 26 you received would be considered a little better than average.

[Anonymous]

Yep, I paid my Discover off to $0 by accident (I had intended to show $25 on there at statement cut but of course I click PIF and submitted it and forgot).  So for almost a month my report had $0 across the board and the first card to report next was my new WS which never reported before because it was a new account.  So I left $5 and so far Experian has gone up.  Equifax on CK FAKO has gone way up from that, but we know how useless CK scoring is.

Wish MyFico would actually give me alerts.  For $40 a month, it's next to useless and I think after another 30 days it's going in the circular file.  CCT isn't all that much better but at least it gives me alerts for real. 

With any luck once my Alliant SSL reports next month I hope to be 620 across the board, but we'll see.  620 is an important spot for me because I'll get a small insurance drop in pricing across my entire insurance package, which is my only real goal for FICOs in the 720-750 range.  Well, that and getting a solid 2% cash back CC after my Discover first year cashback match is over (in March 2018).

The original topic of this post was asking if store versus bank card mattered, and it appears that store cards may be acceptable under the AZEO rules for FICO maxing.

[Anonymous]

I believe they are. I'm almost certain at one point that my AZEO account was my only store card and my score never changed.