How accurate are the ScoreWatch simultors?

[Anonymous]

I ran a simulator, telling it that I made a lump sum to pay off about 90% of my revolving credit, bringing one card to 30% and the others to $0 balances.  The simulator gave me an improvement range of 40-80 points...wow!!  I know that the creditors have to report it for it to do any good and there are other factors in the score, but how likely is it that I will see this big of an increase, optimistically assuming all the creditors report right away?

[Anonymous]

I do keep track of the simulations I run, and where I've been able to follow a simulation (and not change it by opening or closing accounts) -- my score has been within the stated range.

Scoring is complicated, though, and it's always possible to do something that will change it.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the simulators are worth a hoot...I ran mine three months ago, it said I would gain 12 points just by paying my bills on time...I have and my score so far has actually gone DOWN. Of course, this might be because the FICO system is designed not to let scores go up, but only down...

[yoreljm]

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TheNewWorldMan wrote:
I don't think the simulators are worth a hoot...I ran mine three months ago, it said I would gain 12 points just by paying my bills on time...I have and my score so far has actually gone DOWN. Of course, this might be because the FICO system is designed not to let scores go up, but only down...

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Hilarious

[Anonymous]

And now I re-checked my simulators, and again I'm getting more rosy predictions of ever-increasing FICOs, if only I pay my bills on time and reduce my CC balances.

My FICO has seen modest improvement lately. However, this is likely to be blown away when the Soviets running the child-support agency put their judgment on my CR sometime soon. That'll fix things until sometime around the middle of the century. Admittedly, the simulator can't take into account Communist attacks, so I can't really fault it for that.

[Tuscani]

I would say they are "mildly" accurate.

[Anonymous]

Haven't you already got your scores into the 600 range? If so you know the rules of the game by now. Two years of ontime payments with no delinquencies with cc util ind and overall under 10%. You will gain well over 100 points according to simulators.

My simulators tell me I stand to gain 60-100 points within three months of paying off debt so I will keep you posted.

[Mindnumb]

I'm not impressed. I was told if I paid a large lump sum (to bring my usage from 60% to under 10%)my score would go up 40-80 points. I paid this amount, but so far only 1/3 has posted. My score went up 12 points and I re-simulated. Now the projection tells me that when the other 2/3's of my payments post, my score to go up from 0 - 20 points.

So, I go from a projected improvement of 40-80 points to 12-32 points.

For the simulator to work, someone would have to actually understand the vodoo that is the FICO scoring system. If it were science, someone that understood the system could perdict results. If FICO can't do it with the secret code (as shown by their simulations) who can? . FIOC clames to be alot of things, but so do most canidates running for politial office. They both claim to be Mom and Apple Pie, but they usually come up pretty short. Both greatly effect your life, and usually disapoint you. But FICO keeps the press out of thier closets.

[Anonymous]

I still think it has something to do with the doing the right thing at the right time. If the simulator says that X will cause y to happen it doesn't account for you doing xyz123. But I do believe ou can see the increases.

My theory is the longer the account hx and if it is maxed paying it down will have a high impact. Perhaps whereas a new card (under a year) paid down to 0 may not bring such a big increase. Well, something like the above, I believe the right combination opens the lock and in this case it would give you the score simulator points! 

[Mindnumb]

Lady, I do hope you are right!

I' waiting on some 8 year old balances to go down to 1% & its been 38 days (April 1) since AmEx's (Optima) last update.

Oh the frustration.