topic Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑ in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

thornback — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:22:17 GMT

Hey Y'all..

I posted a little over a week ago that I finally won the battle with First Premier and had my paid, 5.6 year old CO deleted from my reports. It was supposed to remain til 2/2021. It took a while for me to post DPs because, while EX and TU deleted within 3 days of the deletion request, EQ didn't delete til today -- I waited to purchase all scores from myFICO til deletion on all 3 bureaus was confirmed.

Anyways... all of my FICO 8 scores dropped. Going from dirty → clean did not yield the score boost for me as it has / does for so many others. I'm fine with the drop --because my goal was to have clean reports.

Quick overview of my current credit profile:

11 student loans
7 primary CCs
1 AU CC (only reported on EQ and EX)
Currently 10% util. on EQ and EX, 13% on TU
AoOA: 8 years with AU / 6 years without AU (Student loan)
AAoA: 2.9 years with AU / 2.6 years without AU
AoYA: 3 months (I have 4 new accounts in the last 4 months)

Prior to removal of this last account, my AAoA without AU was 2.8 years; with AU was 2.11 years.

The First Premier account was my oldest Revolving account (not including the AU).

Now, my oldest Revolving account is only 1.4 years.

My Fico 8 scores prior to removal (dirty scorecard):

EX 747 | TU 745 | EQ 742 *this was with util at around 14%. The highest I was able to get on a dirty scorecard was 780 and that was with 2% util, AZEO, and no new accounts in 12 months.

My Fico 8 scores after removal (clean scorecard):

EX 737 | TU 727 | EQ 712 *this is with util at 10% on EX and EQ, 13% on TU.

My negative reason codes have changed:

EX:
- Short Account History
- Loan Balances
- Short Revolving History
- High Credit Usage
TU:
- Short Revolving History
- Loan Balances
- New Account
- Accounts with Balances (4 revolvers have balances less than 10% of limits at the moment)
EQ:
- Short Credit History
- Loan Balances
- Seeking Credit

I do not know what my FICO 9s were for TU and EX prior to removal of this account.

My EQ FICO 9 was 697 on 1/8/19 (per PenFed) with the main negative reason being the presence of a major derog.

FICO 9 scores after removal (clean scorecard):

EX 739 | EQ 727 | TU 719

So, that's it. I just wanted to post this so folks can see that going from Dirty → Clean is not guaranteed to yield a score boost - and that's not a bad thing. I'd much rather have lower scores and a clean report than higher scores with negative / derogatory info. All I need now is time to age my accounts (and to get my util back down but I'm gardening so don't really care about that...).

Aside: I also experienced score drops on 2/1/19 from accounts aging / assumed segmentation... wrote about that here. So I've seen nothing but score drops from good things recently...lol.

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

calyx — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:42:57 GMT

Congrats on the clean reports!

In the next couple of months, I'm going to try to EE so I will have clean reports. As my derog accounts are my oldest, I expect a score drop as well. But, like you, I'd rather have a lower score with clean reports

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:47:01 GMT

Interesting. Congrats on the now clean reports. I am a bit surprised by the score drops. I understand that scorecard reassignment can cause this, but you'd think a final negative baddie being removed which normally reports a 70-80 point gain would outweigh the loss from scorecard reassignment. This goes to show that every profile is different and it's certainly tough to figure these things out. Have you talked to others that had similar profiles to yours that removed their final baddie, resulting in scorecard reassignment and heard about the impact on their scores?

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

Revelate — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:47:35 GMT

That sounds like a bunch of new accounts and inquiries.

Only thing I can think of is in you're some weird scorecard based on the limited and new revolving history as otherwise you should be likely over 760 TBH.

Not all promotions to the top 8 scorecards produce score increases, and to be fair yours were pretty high anyway, but sit on your hands for a year and see where you're at, I suspect a bunch of that will go away.

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

thornback — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:56:20 GMT

Thank you!! Good luck with your future EEs! To me, it is totally worth the score drops...

@calyx wrote:
Congrats on the clean reports!

In the next couple of months, I'm going to try to EE so I will have clean reports. As my derog accounts are my oldest, I expect a score drop as well. But, like you, I'd rather have a lower score with clean reports

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

thornback — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:58:44 GMT

Thanks, BBS and No, I have not spoken to or read recent posts about a negative impact from the last negative being removed. Most of the posts I have found from others that have experienced that were pretty old -- like 2008/2009. That's really why I wanted to post this, so there would be a recent account of this happening...

@Anonymous wrote:
Interesting. Congrats on the now clean reports. I am a bit surprised by the score drops. I understand that scorecard reassignment can cause this, but you'd think a final negative baddie being removed which normally reports a 70-80 point gain would outweigh the loss from scorecard reassignment. This goes to show that every profile is different and it's certainly tough to figure these things out. Have you talked to others that had similar profiles to yours that removed their final baddie, resulting in scorecard reassignment and heard about the impact on their scores?

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

thornback — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 19:02:31 GMT

My thoughts too... new accounts + short credit / revolving history are the primary culprits. I wouldn't have apped for 4 new accounts in such a short period of time had I known I'd actually be successful in getting that CO removed - I would've waited for clean reports first. I had tried to remove that account so many times prior, I honestly didn't think my last attempt would be successful.

Welp... I'm in the garden for at least Jan. 2020 anyway so I have nothing but time to see where I end up.

@Revelate wrote:
That sounds like a bunch of new accounts and inquiries.

Only thing I can think of is in you're some weird scorecard based on the limited and new revolving history as otherwise you should be likely over 760 TBH.

Not all promotions to the top 8 scorecards produce score increases, and to be fair yours were pretty high anyway, but sit on your hands for a year and see where you're at, I suspect a bunch of that will go away.

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 01:55:40 GMT

Congratulations on the clean reports. No doubt the new accounts and inquiries played a part as well.

Re: Dirty → Clean | FICO 8 ↓ - FICO 9 ↑

thornback — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 02:05:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Congratulations on the clean reports. No doubt the new accounts and inquiries played a part as well.

Thank you! & Yes, definately. My new accounts didn't put a dent in my 'Dirty Scores' -- but my 'Clean Scores' are having a darn conniption!!