topic Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:10:30 GMT

I have a myFICO membership since 12/5/2018, and I get alerts you are all familiar with.

On 12/14/2018, Experian gave me +9 points when the balance on one account went down by $126 (from 48% to 47%).

Since 12/14/2018, I have gotten alerts that Experian has received notifications from the CCC that 5 other balances have decreased by more significant amounts. And yet, Experian has not given me a score boost at all since in almost a month now. Is this an issue of the myFICO alerts? Or an issue with Experian not budging more points?

I tried to call Experian to ask, but I just cannot get a live person. All I get is a "for instructions on how to prevent fraud..." message. I don't know if they have blocked me or I just can't figure out how to get an actual agent.

These are the 5 balance changes with the alert date

From 23% to 22% - 12/20/18

From 10% to 0% - 12/24/18

From 33% to 23% - 12/28/18

From 43% to 27% - 1/1/2018

From 47% to 26% - 1/5/2018

Overall CU: From 20% to 15%

Any suggestions?

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:21:31 GMT

FICO isn't going to update your score every second unless you pay for it. Did I answer your questions?

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Revelate — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:22:10 GMT

Depending on your scorecard there may be no score changes with any of those utilization changes.

Alerts are triggered by various things, balance changes being one of the primary ones; however, unless you cross a breakpoint in revolving utilization metrics, your score will stay flat with the exception of aging factors as a general rule when it comes to credit card balance changes.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:25:36 GMT

Do you have other cards with balances?

Your aggregate UTI did not cross over thresholds, individual UTI depends on if you have other cards with UTI greater than 28.9%.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

SouthJamaica — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:28:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a myFICO membership since 12/5/2018, and I get alerts you are all familiar with.

On 12/14/2018, Experian gave me +9 points when the balance on one account went down by $126 (from 48% to 47%).

Since 12/14/2018, I have gotten alerts that Experian has received notifications from the CCC that 5 other balances have decreased by more significant amounts. And yet, Experian has not given me a score boost at all since in almost a month now. Is this an issue of the myFICO alerts? Or an issue with Experian not budging more points?

I tried to call Experian to ask, but I just cannot get a live person. All I get is a "for instructions on how to prevent fraud..." message. I don't know if they have blocked me or I just can't figure out how to get an actual agent.

These are the 5 balance changes with the alert date
From 23% to 22% - 12/20/18
From 10% to 0% - 12/24/18
From 33% to 23% - 12/28/18
From 43% to 27% - 1/1/2018
From 47% to 26% - 1/5/2018

Overall CU: From 20% to 15%

Any suggestions?

MyFICO alerts don't provide reasons for a score change. There are certain events which trigger MyFICO alerts.
If there happens to be any difference between your present score at that particular bureau and the previous score reported to you from that bureau, the score change is tacked on to the alert. There is not necessarily any connection at all between the score change and the alert substance.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:31:10 GMT

As SouthJamaica said but there prob is a a connection between the alert and score.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:31:58 GMT

Thanks Revelate!

Pardon my lack of knowledge. When you say scorecard, are you referring to my "credit report" (i.e. credit file) with each bureau?

The 5 accounts were revolving accounts: credit cards. The size of the payments was nearly $5,000 - although I am sure the $$ don't matter as much as the %.

However, I thought going under 30% utilization individually was as important as well as having an overall utilization under 30%.

Perhaps I was wrong, and the explanation to the lack of score change is that the overall utilization didn't cross a breakpoint since it only went from 20% to 15%.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:46:51 GMT

Thanks SouthJamaica!

I see now. I had correlated the alerts to score changes.

So, technically, my Experian score may be better now (last I heard from them was 1/5/19), but no alert has been triggered since then and therefore, I don't know about it.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:39:42 GMT

Hi Oldman87 -

Those were my only 5 revolving accounts with balances. I paid one off, so now I have 4 - all under 27% utilization.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:42:42 GMT

So, technically, my Experian score may be better now (last I heard from them was 1/5/19), but no alert has been triggered since then and therefore, I don't know about it.

Prob not

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:44:59 GMT

Thanks BrandonLane!

I certainly don't want to pay for it to change every second , but I was thinking about calling Experian to ask for an update and willing to pay for it - I just don't know if I can ask for a FICO calculation update or how.

My score reports will be pulled soon to close on my mortgage by Feb 14th. I have worked hard the last few months, and specially in December, to pay off cards and get all individual utilizations under 30%. So, anything I can do to get Experian to give me a little credit for paying off so much debt, I'm willing to try.

Re: Experian - MyFICO Alerts but no change in Score

Revelate — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 03:59:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks Revelate!

Pardon my lack of knowledge. When you say scorecard, are you referring to my "credit report" (i.e. credit file) with each bureau?

The 5 accounts were revolving accounts: credit cards. The size of the payments was nearly $5,000 - although I am sure the $$ don't matter as much as the %.

However, I thought going under 30% utilization individually was as important as well as having an overall utilization under 30%.
Perhaps I was wrong, and the explanation to the lack of score change is that the overall utilization didn't cross a breakpoint since it only went from 20% to 15%.

The FICO algorithm separates files into scorecards: based on age, based the presense or lack of negatives, possibly a few other things.

I did a lot of utilization testing when I had my tax lien on my report (public record scorecard), but I didn't have any individual revolving tradeline breakpoint at 30%. Yeah, FICO 8 is all on percentages it appears.

SJ recently did post a datapoint which certainly looks like there is a breakpoint somewhere in there, whereas I didn't see a drop till north of what he had. So based on what you have in your file it might make a difference or it might not... scorecard dependant.