topic Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU in Understanding FICO® Scoring

23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Bonzoled — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 01:41:19 GMT

Just received and alert that my score droped from 721 to 698 in TU, and that my new AMEX

Gold is showing... as a CC with my whole usage for last month as 100% utilization!

Still no update on EX or EQ though.... any light you can shed on the subject?

Best,

Bonzoled

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 02:06:36 GMT

I'm not too familiar with the Amex product line, but is that a charge card? If so, my understanding is that for utilization purposes it looks to your current balance against your highest balance. If the card is new, your highest balance is likely equal to your current balance, thus rendering a 100% utilization for the first reporting in the eyes of the FICO algorithm.

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

SouthJamaica — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 03:13:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm not too familiar with the Amex product line, but is that a charge card? If so, my understanding is that for utilization purposes it looks to your current balance against your highest balance. If the card is new, your highest balance is likely equal to your current balance, thus rendering a 100% utilization for the first reporting in the eyes of the FICO algorithm.

Yes it's an Amex charge card. And I'm going to follow this very closely because I just recently got an Amex Gold card, so new it hasn't reported yet.

I agree that probably it was a reference to the "high balance" as though it were a credit limit, but I thought that FICO had stopped using the Amex charge cards in utilization computations.

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Bonzoled — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 03:17:56 GMT

Yup, it's a charge card. I guess I'll have to wait and see what's reported for the next cycle.

Vantage/FAKO is also moving, but my next FICO report is due 2/6 according to my

membership. Let's see how this progresses.

Best,

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

SouthJamaica — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 03:44:57 GMT

@Bonzoled wrote:
Yup, it's a charge card. I guess I'll have to wait and see what's reported for the next cycle.
Vantage/FAKO is also moving, but my next FICO report is due 2/6 according to my
membership. Let's see how this progresses.

Best,

I will be following it closely since I just got the Gold card, too, and it's my first personal charge card, so I have no experience with how it reports. I was actually fearful of this type of thing, and paid the account down to zero before the statement cut.

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 04:20:45 GMT

What was the age of youngest account before Gold reported? What's the average age of accounts before and after the reporting?

Newer FICOs do not consider charge cards in untilization, the 100% UTI that came with the alert is probably just CMS fluff as BBS likes to call them.

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 18:51:52 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@Bonzoled wrote:
Yup, it's a charge card. I guess I'll have to wait and see what's reported for the next cycle.
Vantage/FAKO is also moving, but my next FICO report is due 2/6 according to my
membership. Let's see how this progresses.

Best,
I will be following it closely since I just got the Gold card, too, and it's my first personal charge card, so I have no experience with how it reports. I was actually fearful of this type of thing, and paid the account down to zero before the statement cut.

I've had my AMEX green card report 100% B/HB four times in the last couple years. Only scoring impact I saw was on Classic EX Fico 98 and its industry option counterparts. It was an individual card impact, not aggregate utilization. No impact on the more recent Fico 04 and Fico 8 models. The reported balances were modest (under $3000 each time) compared to the > $50k approved spend on the NPSL card.

Utilization attribute aside, it does appear that Fico looks at aggregate debt in some form (see below). Thus, if an AMEX charge card reported balance were $30k, it might trigger a score drop on Fico 04 and Fico 8 - (reason code 01). That metric is based on $$$ amount, not utilization %. Note: Charge cards are a subset of credit cards.

As mentioned, Fico 98 does look at charge card utilization (B/HB). The impact can be seen on 3B reports for EX Fico 98 model scores: Classic (mortgage) and industry option. - reason code 10.

Experian codes.jpg

...

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

SouthJamaica — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 18:22:00 GMT

What is SSS?

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 18:52:35 GMT

It is another one of my persistent typos - should have been $$$ NOT SSS.

No doubt my wireless keyboard is to blame

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

SouthJamaica — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 22:04:05 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
It is another one of my persistent typos - should have been $$$ NOT SSS.
No doubt my wireless keyboard is to blame

And here I thought I was going to learn something new again

Re: 23 Point drop - AMEX Gold shows as "100% utilized" in TU

Bonzoled — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 22:46:44 GMT

Thanks for all the help folks. I’ll see what happens next update.

And I agree... too many acronyms here!