Well, on my Experian (821) it says "there are no actionable negative factors."
On my Equifax (786) the only ding is "You have too many credit cards carrying balances"
and on my TransUnion (796) the only ding is "The balances on your non-mortgage credit accounts are too high." All three pulled 21 March 2008 from myfico.

The positive factors listed are basically what others have posted: no baddies, oldest account (Amex Gold) over 25 years, average age over 10 years, low percent utilization on revolving accounts, and a variety of types of credit.

One thing I do find slightly irritating about the reporting system: there is no distinction made between revolvers and convenience users. Only I and the credit card companies know that I always pay the full balance each month. The only interest I pay is on the car loan (which will be paid in full by July) and the mortgage.

I did read somewhere the suggestion for those convenience users obsessed with getting their FICO score as high as possible, instead of only paying CCs when the monthly statement arrives, right after making any large purchase send them an electronic payment so the balance doesn't accumulate during the month. I suppose I could do this, but it seems like a lot of trouble just for a few points.

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MattH wrote:

I did read somewhere the suggestion for those convenience users obsessed with getting their FICO score as high as possible, instead of only paying CCs when the monthly statement arrives, right after making any large purchase send them an electronic payment so the balance doesn't accumulate during the month. I suppose I could do this, but it seems like a lot of trouble just for a few points.

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And that's a great summary of playing the util game. If your scores are already way on up there, unless there is some specific reason to maximize your points, there's no reason to do this.

After all the debates I've read about this one part of scoring, I think that the sensible thing would be for the CRA's to report the outstanding balance as of midnight at the end of the due date, as opposed to the statement date. For one thing, those of us who know about paying early can game the system something fierce. But if FICO and the credit industry want to think that the balance on the statement date is somehow predictive of consumer risk, that's what we have to work with.

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MattH wrote:

One thing I do find slightly irritating about the reporting system: there is no distinction made between revolvers and convenience users. Only I and the credit card companies know that I always pay the full balance each month.

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ChumChurum wrote:

I know this is OT, but did anyone else get the Hillis / Slack settlement notice?

 

I just got it in the mail and that means 3 months of free Score Watch .

 

Only a credit junkie would be so excited from something as boring as 3 months of free score monitoring.

 

Just for the heck of it, I am gonna run up a few of balances and see if I can force my score to go below 800 and if Score Watch will catch it.

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Message Edited by psychic on 04-06-2008 09:03 PM

Yep, it's on the list, and I even credited it to you!

Fifth one down, under "account age."

Message Edited by Esteban5 on 04-11-2008 04:37 AM

Message Edited by Esteban5 on 04-11-2008 04:57 AM

Message Edited by Esteban5 on 04-11-2008 04:57 AM

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Esteban5 wrote:

Fall from grace....out of the 800 club (for now).

 

I'm OUT!  My score declined today 21 points resting at a dismal 786.  My email notification advising me of this occurrence stated I had too many cc's with balances. 

 

 

EDIT:  The FICO notice also contained some language I found interesting:

 

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.
• 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.

Has anyone else received this message?  I've got a 20+ years history - has FICO made any changes to their scoring that would result in a lower score?

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