topic Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Neblett — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:03:13 GMT

As of 11-11-15, my Equifax credit score was 741, but in the past week a newly opened credit line posted to my account, which significantly decreased my credit utilization ratio. This morning, I got a credit alert and checked my score, and it dropped 128 points to 616 (from Very Good to Poor rating). Nothing else has changed - all my accounts are in Paid as Agreed status, no late payments.

When this new account posted to Experian and TransUnion, my scores went up to above 750. I expected perhaps a minor short-term score drop with a new account, but I'm confused about such a major bottoming out of this one score.

My two main questions:
1 - Has anyone else had this happen to them when dealing with EQ?

2 - How long did that low score last? Did it correct itself within a month or two?

Thank you!

Robert

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

bdhu2001 — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:12:50 GMT

@Neblett wrote:
As of 11-11-15, my Equifax credit score was 741, but in the past week a newly opened credit line posted to my account, which significantly decreased my credit utilization ratio. This morning, I got a credit alert and checked my score, and it dropped 128 points to 616 (from Very Good to Poor rating). Nothing else has changed - all my accounts are in Paid as Agreed status, no late payments.

When this new account posted to Experian and TransUnion, my scores went up to above 750. I expected perhaps a minor short-term score drop with a new account, but I'm confused about such a major bottoming out of this one score.

My two main questions:
1 - Has anyone else had this happen to them when dealing with EQ?
2 - How long did that low score last? Did it correct itself within a month or two?

Thank you!

Robert

Someone else reported a blip or mistake that had their score report incorrectly. Unless you have a collection or something that posted out-of-the-blue, I think yours is the same. If you haven't aleady utilized your free credit report, pull your EQ report from annualCreditReport.com and make sure nothing else has occurred. In the other thread, there was an immediate rebounce because it was an error.

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

tntexans72 — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:22:20 GMT

Could be a collection or a late payment to have that kind of significant impact on your score.

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Neblett — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 19:30:50 GMT

No collections or late payments.

No derogatory marks on my report.

No new inquiries since the last report.

Credit Card Utilization is 17% (dropped from 31% on 11-11-15).

Payment History is at 100%.

Age of Credit History hasn't changed.

Frustrating.

Robert

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

ddemari — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:50:44 GMT

that definitely makes no sense what so ever. are did you pull your reports and make sure nothing negative or a high utilzation has posted to your CRA's. If you did and I missed that, sorry. but that is super weird.

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

tntexans72 — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:57:46 GMT

@Neblett wrote:
No collections or late payments.

No derogatory marks on my report.
No new inquiries since the last report.
Credit Card Utilization is 17% (dropped from 31% on 11-11-15).
Payment History is at 100%.
Age of Credit History hasn't changed.

Frustrating.

Robert

Well that is a stinker. Something triggered it, like op stated, you may want to pull a new report in a few days to see what cause that huge dropped. We know that payments and utilization account 65% total of fico scoring so....good luck with the results.

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 21:47:42 GMT

Thats absurd, this whole credit scoring model BS is nothing but a scam to get people to sign up for services to check your scores and nothing but scare tactics. Check your credit report once a year and dispute what you need to and clean your report. Build your credit up and forget about it. SAVE YOUR MONEY..

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 01:20:58 GMT

Where are you getting the EQ score from?

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:29:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thats absurd, this whole credit scoring model BS is nothing but a scam to get people to sign up for services to check your scores and nothing but scare tactics. Check your credit report once a year and dispute what you need to and clean your report. Build your credit up and forget about it. SAVE YOUR MONEY..

Not a scam, Just Big Business doing the hard sell.

I agree that you don't need to know your credit scores to establish a solid credit history that delivers top tier scores. The fundamentals for getting there are well defined.

But, what the heck, $14.95/month or $19.99/month for credit monitoring is fairly cheap entertainment compared to season tickets for professional sports.

OP - I would suggest just continuing your good payment habits and see how things settle out. Wait another 30 days and see if the large score variation remains. If so check for differences amoung your credit reports. [perhaps Equifax has something on its file that the other CRAs do not].

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

Anonymous — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 06:28:00 GMT

You'll regret saying check your report once a year when you find out you have had a collection sitting on your report for the last 9 months when you could have caught it the sameday and addressed it.

Re: Equifax Score Dropped 128 Points After New Credit Line Added - Anyone Else Have This Issue?

StartingOver10 — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 15:10:50 GMT

@Neblett wrote:
As of 11-11-15, my Equifax credit score was 741, but in the past week a newly opened credit line posted to my account, which significantly decreased my credit utilization ratio. This morning, I got a credit alert and checked my score, and it dropped 128 points to 616 (from Very Good to Poor rating). Nothing else has changed - all my accounts are in Paid as Agreed status, no late payments.

When this new account posted to Experian and TransUnion, my scores went up to above 750. I expected perhaps a minor short-term score drop with a new account, but I'm confused about such a major bottoming out of this one score.

My two main questions:
1 - Has anyone else had this happen to them when dealing with EQ?
2 - How long did that low score last? Did it correct itself within a month or two?

Thank you!

Robert

Two comments:

1) This sounds like a Vantage 3.0 reaction. I have found that Vantage scores are much more reactive to new accounts than FICO. Credit Karma is a vantage score.

2) Or, if this is a FICO score, than something else reported on your EQ report - a derog that you haven't seen yet. Pull your full report to see.