Score Watch..sorry another concern...question

[Anonymous]

I am becoming a bit concerned about the score watch alerts.

Barry I know you helped me out with this last week and thank you however can you please advise the following?

If your CC utilization drops then are we supposed to get an alert? I thought this was the case. I bought another power score today and my score increased 10 points just due to my utilization dropping.

My previous FICO to today's purchase was 614 and of course my settings were set at 614 but also I chose for it to alert when me when my score reach 620 to qualify for a loan.

My Fico shows 624 today. Why no alerts to either utilization or the loan alert?

All based on EQ Fico's of course.

[Barry]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am becoming a bit concerned about the score watch alerts.

Barry I know you helped me out with this last week and thank you however can you please advise the following?

If your CC utilization drops then are we supposed to get an alert? Not unless the drop in util causes your score to increase and your target is set at your previous score. I thought this was the case. I bought another power score today and my score increased 10 points just due to my utilization dropping.

My previous FICO to today's purchase was 614 and of course my settings were set at 614 but also I chose for it to alert when me when my score reach 620 to qualify for a loan.

My Fico shows 624 today. Why no alerts to either utilization or the loan alert? Here's where it gets hard to give you a definite answer.  While SW checks your report daily for credit reporting changes, it only checks for score changes on a weekly basis.  Because of this, and the fact that we don't know when your score actually changed, SW may just not have checked for your score change prior to you pulling your most recent report and score.  And to make this question even more difficult to answer, once you've pulled your new report/score, SW won't alert you to that score change at all.  Make sense?

All based on EQ Fico's of course.

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[Anonymous]

Hi Barry, yes it makes sense thank you. But the one fact remains about this:

 If your CC utilization drops then are we supposed to get an alert? Not unless the drop in util causes your score to increase and your target is set at your previous score

Yes my target score was set to my previous 614 score. My CC is only $200.00 limit. I had a $124.00 balance reporting in April. My balance of May is $35.00 as EQ is reporting the $35.00 now.  I figure that to be a around 70% drop in UTL  and I am thinking that's what made my score increase 10 pts. I'm playing with the balance to see how it affects my score. I'll just be patient and wait to see if I get an alert next month. I've spent enough this month ;-) Thanks for your time.

[BungalowMo]

Tracy....one thing I found out is that it can take 7 or so days to get the alert to you.  I had a CSR explain what was up, but here's how I look at the SW "inner workings"

Your latest sw report is from today........next day you pay off a card in full....5 days later your statement cuts & this acct reports to the big 3.....you see it posted on your equifax report 3 days later....(you wait anxiously to get the alert)  What you don't realize it that SW looks at your report every 7 or so days.  They may likely have done this yesterday...the new, $0 balance hadn't posted yet.  So (in this example) the day it's on your EQ report, SW begins that 7 or so day period when it's not checking your report.  Over the next 5 days you get antsy, buy a new report & there it is...higher score because of a lower util.  You're upset, and understandably so, but if you'd waited 2 more days, (as an example) you'd have gotten the alert.  And since you purchased a new report, this waiting period is reset, and if any other goodies had posted within the last couple days, it will be another week or so until you get an alert.

The best advice I got was this...make sure your target is your current/latest score....and sit back & wait for SW to do it's thing.  It's hard, but that is how it works.