topic Re: Why is my score not going up?? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Why is my score not going up??

Ewalker33 — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 21:09:08 GMT

I have been paying down on my revolving debt and haven't missed a payment and my score never goes up. It actually dropped 4 points just because I paid one account balance down to zero! i hate the way this credit system works.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

SouthJamaica — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 21:50:05 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
I have been paying down on my revolving debt and haven't missed a payment and my score never goes up. It actually dropped 4 points just because I paid one account balance down to zero! i hate the way this credit system works.

I don't hate it, only because it's fun to try to improve one's score playing by FICO's not-always-rational game rules.

So that we can help your game, tell us:

1. how many revolving accounts you have, with limit and last reported balance

2. how many open installment accounts you have, with original loan amount and last reported balance

Once we know that, we can tell you how to add some points.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 22:16:58 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
I have been paying down on my revolving debt and haven't missed a payment and my score never goes up. It actually dropped 4 points just because I paid one account balance down to zero! i hate the way this credit system works.

Your score wouldn't drop from paying an account balance down to zero unless it was your only account with a balance. But, if that were the case, you'd lose much more than 4 points... likely 15-20. I would guess that the 4 points you lost was from something else going on.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Ewalker33 — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 22:23:32 GMT

When I received the alert from the MyFico App, it stated the 4 point drop was because I paid the account balance down to zero. It doesn't make since to me.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

SouthJamaica — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 22:38:53 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
When I received the alert from the MyFico App, it stated the 4 point drop was because I paid the account balance down to zero. It doesn't make since to me.

It didn't say "because" and it usually doesn't mean "because".

The event that triggers the "alert" may or may not be related to the score change.

(As an illustration, recently I got an alert that one of my credit card balances on EX had decreased by $59. And it contained an indication that my score had increased 20 points. Do you think that the score increase and the $59 balance reduction were related? They were not. I know exactly why the score increased 20 points. It was a totally unrelated event, that the decrease of my installment loan balances from 39% to 9% had also been reported. But for some reason changes in installment loan balances do not trigger MyFICO alerts).

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 22:40:54 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
When I received the alert from the MyFico App, it stated the 4 point drop was because I paid the account balance down to zero. It doesn't make since to me.

It is probably just scorecard rebalance. Give it a month or two and it should go back up if you do not make any changes. It might even go higher then what started with

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 23:20:43 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:

So that we can help your game, tell us:

1. how many revolving accounts you have, with limit and last reported balance
2. how many open installment accounts you have, with original loan amount and last reported balance

Once we know that, we can tell you how to add some points.

SouthJ will be able to help you a lot if you give him the info he asks for above. He's a great guy and very helpful with newcomers.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

SouthJamaica — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 00:09:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
So that we can help your game, tell us:

1. how many revolving accounts you have, with limit and last reported balance
2. how many open installment accounts you have, with original loan amount and last reported balance

Once we know that, we can tell you how to add some points.

SouthJ will be able to help you a lot if you give him the info he asks for above. He's a great guy and very helpful with newcomers.

Aw, thank you CGID

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Ewalker33 — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 12:43:17 GMT

Cap 1: $2,550 Balance: $1,825

Barclays: $1,400 Balance: $613

Best Buy: $3,000 Balance: $1,700

Macys: $1,600 Balance: $900

Synchrony: $1,500 Balance: $500

Synchrony: $1,500 Balance: $497

Rooms To Go: $3,000 Balance: $0.00

Auto Loan:

Mortage:

Re: Why is my score not going up??

elim — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 12:56:40 GMT

This might help some advice givers...

Cap 1	$2,550	$1,825	71.57%

Barclays	$1,400	$613	43.79%

Best Buy	$3,000	$1,700	56.67%

Macys:	$1,600	$900	56.25%

Synchrony	$1,500	$500	33.33%

Synchrony	$1,500	$497	33.13%

Rooms To Go	$3,000	$0.00	0.00%

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:08:18 GMT

With 7 revolvers, for ideal scoring one would want 3 or less of them to report a small (9% or less) balance while the other 4 report a 0 balance. All of those revolvers listed outside of the one without a balance have utilizations higher than the second best/recommended "tier" of 11-29% @ 33%-71%. A little quick math shows me aggregate utilization at $6035/$14550 or 42% which is certainly less than ideal.

Paying down $1892 across all accounts would lower aggregate utilization to 29%, into the next best "tier" for scoring.

Paying down $4802 across all accounts would lower aggregate utilization to 9%, into the best possible utilization tier.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Ewalker33 — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 13:59:08 GMT

Awesome!! Thanks for the advice. I have been paying them down all wrong then. Thanks again.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

SouthJamaica — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:38:29 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
Awesome!! Thanks for the advice. I have been paying them down all wrong then. Thanks again.

OK so it's easy to see how you can improve your scores.

1. Revolving credit cards: you do the math on how to get there, but your goal should be 4 of 7 cards reporting at zero balance, the other 3 at 30% or less. At that point you will definitely experience a positive tug on your FICO scores.

2. Installment: if you want, you could pick up some points by doing a share secured loan and paying it down to 9%. The most painfree way I know is take out a $500 or greater savings account with Alliant Credit Union, take out a 48-mo or 60-mo share secured loan secured by the savings account, waive autopay or turn it off, transfer $ from the savings account to pay the loan down to 9%. You will pick up points.

Re: Why is my score not going up??

Ewalker33 — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 20:03:08 GMT

	Credit Limit	Balance Owed	<30%	Amount Needed
Capital One	$2,550.00	$1,818.00	$765.00	$1,053
Capital One	$500.00	$0.00
Barclays	$1,400	$108	$420
Macys	$2,000	$1,331	$600	$731
Best Buy	$3,500	$1,049	$1,050
Sychrony	$1,500	$447	$450
Sychrony	$1,500	$416	$450
	$12,950.00	$5,169.00	$3,885	$1,554.00

I paid a few of them down and this is the updated chart. Hopefully the scores will begin to go up now. Thanks,

Re: Why is my score not going up??

SouthJamaica — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 22:27:29 GMT

@Ewalker33 wrote:
Credit Limit Balance Owed <30% Amount Needed
Capital One $2,550.00 $1,818.00 $765.00 $1,053
Capital One $500.00 $0.00
Barclays $1,400 $108 $420
Macys $2,000 $1,331 $600 $731
Best Buy $3,500 $1,049 $1,050
Sychrony $1,500 $447 $450
Sychrony $1,500 $416 $450
$12,950.00 $5,169.00 $3,885 $1,554.00
I paid a few of them down and this is the updated chart. Hopefully the scores will begin to go up now. Thanks,

Cool. You did do the math. Now you've got one at zero and 4 below 30%, with your overall utilization down to 40% . Now you're cooking.