Calling Customer Service

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I received a Score change alert today, stating my score went down due to the following:

Explanation of Score Change

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.

Negative Factors

The following 4 new negative factor(s) are hurting your score:

• Evidence of being seriously late or having derogatory indicators/remarks on your credit obligations is being reported on your credit file
• The proportion of balances to credit limits on your revolving accounts is too high
• There is evidence of multiple accounts with missing payments or having derogatory indicators/remarks reported
• You have recently been seeking credit or other services, as reflected by the number of inquiries posted on your credit file in the last 12 months

The problem is that I just ordered a report last month out of my 2 free reports and I had to use up the 2nd one to see what information changed, because I know Nothing should have and has not changed on my report, other than payments to my accounts. If anything the score should be going up,  instead of down. The above alert info is erroneous.

I called customer service this morning to dispute the score change and see why this is happening.

The first 3 times calling, I pressed 1 for dispute, the calls got disconnected.

When I chose another selection, in the hopes of getting a human on the other end, waited 20 minutes on hold until I ended the call.  Called back, and waited another 15 minutes on hold. Called again and waited another 5 minutes.

Is this the norm for their so called Customer Service?  It states they are available  between 8am - 3am Eastern time, which is the time zone I am in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[llecs]

If I understood right, you pulled a new report today?

If so, do a side-by-side comparison of last month's report to today's report. Look for any changes. I'd suggest looking at the following:

1) Look at the front page. Any change in status, like from Very Good to Good is indicative of the change in that general area (e.g. new credit, length of credit, etc.)

2) Take a look at the Pos/Neg factors listed on pages 2 and 3. If any of those changed in order (e.g. #4 became #1 or #3 disappeared), then you'd have an idea of something major happening like changes in util, new baddie added, dropped TL, etc. Any changes can result in a significant drop or gain. Even something small, like util changing by a few percent, can throw your score out of shape.

3) Look at the Glance page. Compare the figures side by side. Make sure there are no new flags. Make sure that the numbers precisely line up (e.g. no dropped or added accounts, no additional accounts reporting balances, no new derog info, etc.).

4) Then look at the accounts page. Make sure the open dates all line up. Make sure there are no new TLs reporting balances. Make sure there are no new flags. Make sure the account stati haven't changed, etc.

5) Finally, if all of the above hasn't changed, look at each individual account. Make sure the open dates are the same. Make sure there are no new lates being added. Make sure the CLs reporting haven't changed (e.g. some, myself included, saw large drop in scores after our Macys changed to no CL, others saw drops after their CC "upgraded" them to signature cards and that threw off util and resulted in score drops). Check the balances. Check the account comments. Make sure all of your TLs are still reporting. Make sure the statuses are all the same. If you have any baddies, make sure the DOLA didn't update to a 10/1/2010 date as that can result in a drop.

There can be other reasons, but I bet your source lies within one of the above reasons.

SW alerts should be taken with a grain of salt. If it isn't specific as to the reason, then all you can do is to compare reports. If there was a score change, then the only cause would be that something changed on your CR. You'd have to do some sleuthing to figure that out.

[Barry]

Hello OnThnice2,

Are you sure your SW subscription is through myFICO and not Equifax?  We don't show that you have an active SW account with myFICO.

Also, no, your experience with customer service is far from the norm, as our wait times very rarely take as long as what you experienced.  Did you call 1-800-314-4433?  The reason I ask is that option #1 isn't for disputes and the option for SW alert questions is #4.

-Barry

[Anonymous]

llecs & Barry,

Thank you for your replies, it is much appreciated.

Barry,  yes you are correct, it is SW through Equifax and not MyFico.   I thought they were the same thing.So is this not my real Fico score that I have through Equifax? I thought  Myfico was Equifax owned company.

llecs, the only difference that was on the report was that is listed an extra, "what could be hurting you" which was a credit inquiry by a phone carrier. Which was already listed on the previous report as well, but just not noted in the "cons section. So I didn't understand why it would cause a drop now instead of when it first reported.

The other cons 1) seriously late and  2 ) mulitple accounts missing payments,  happened 6 1/2 years ago. and I haven't been late or missed since then.  Also, wouldn't that be considered the same thing?

The revolving balances are too high, haven't changed other than to be paying them down and were reported on both reports.

The numbers are all the same on " Glance" page.

OnThnIce2

[Barry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

llecs & Barry,

Thank you for your replies, it is much appreciated.

Barry,  yes you are correct, it is SW through Equifax and not MyFico.   I thought they were the same thing.So is this not my real Fico score that I have through Equifax? I thought  Myfico was Equifax owned company.

OnThnIce2

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While SW is a joint product between FICO and EQ, each company administers it's own set of subscribers -- though all of the alert processing originates with EQ.  Yes, the score you receive through SW is a real FICO score.  And no, EQ doesn't own myFICO or FICO.

-Barry