topic Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

yapsalot — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 01:37:49 GMT

My FICO 8 score has been at 836 or 838 on EX for a long time while TU and EQ have been consistently at 850.

I really want to find out why EX is lower.

Yesterday I got the Experian 3 bureau report. Here's what it showed.

All three have 6 open credit cards and 2 open installment accounts and nothing to else. Current balance and all other data on the open accounts is identical.

All three have one inquiry in the last year and one inquiry in the prior year. They aren't the same inquiries but the number is the same.

The newest account is an installment loan opened May 2020, identical on all three reports.

AAOA is EX 8.7, EQ 14.8, TU 6.5

Oldest account is EX 22.3, EQ 40.11, TU 21.2

The aging data above was listed on each of the reports, so I don't know precisely how it was calculated but it must include closed accounts because there is no variation in the open accounts.

Speaking of closed accounts, I suspect that data must be the source of the lower score for EX.

Here is the closed account data:

All three show an Amex Platinum card opened in 2016 and closed in 2018. That's the only item listed in TU. There are no late payments on any of the accounts.

EQ shows three individual responsibility accounts opened in 1979, 1985, and 1987 that were all closed in 2013. EQ also has two authorized user accounts: one opened in 1998 and closed in 2013 and one opened in 2004 and closed in 2014. By authorized user, I mean I was the authorized user of a family member's account.

EX has the two authorized user accounts just mentioned and the Amex Platinum account that appears on all three accounts.

Could there be some sort of penalty associated with the closed authorized user accounts that lowers the EX FICO 8 score?

Here is my thinking: TU is at 850 because the authorized user accounts aren't reported on TU and thus aren't dragging down the TU score.

The authorized user accounts are on EQ but it has some very old individual responsibility accounts that bring the score back up to 850 even with the presence of the closed authorized user accounts.

EX, however, does have the closed authorized user accounts, which I hypothesize is lowering the score, but does not have the very old individual responsibility accounts to off-set the negative effect of closed authorized user accounts.

Does anyone know if the closed authorized user accounts could be lowering the EX score or do you see any other explanation for the lower EX score?

Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:33:19 GMT

No, the closed authorized user accounts are not affecting score as long as they have no derogatory‘s associated with them. They do affect age.

You have to give profile information for someone to guess what you could do to better your EX score.

Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:33:59 GMT

Remember even with identical data there can be a 30 point variance between bureaus on Score 8.

Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

yapsalot — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:58:32 GMT

Birdman,

Sure, I'll give profile information, but what is profile information?

Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 18:58:04 GMT

Is your report free of derogatories? If not, please detail them. If your report is clean, then how many accounts do you have open and closed, what is the age of your oldest account, what’s the age of your youngest revolver? And then list your credit cards and loans with reported percentages of utilization and how many inquiries at each bureau. You can just say CC1, CC2 for example

Re: Could a closed AU account lower FICO8?

yapsalot — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:23:12 GMT

Birdman,

some of the info you requested is in the original post but here's the stuff that isn't:

no derogatory items

6 open recovers two open installment accounts. One closed revolver. But some additional closed accounts reported by some of the bureaus, see original post for details.

oldest open account about 20 years but see inconsistent reporting of closed accounts between the 3 bureaus in original post. One bureau shows oldest closed account was opened 1979.

Newest open revolver 4 years.

newest open installment 1 month oldest open installment 4 years

2 inquires on each report in last 2 years

utilization:

Alliant limit $50k balance $900

AMEX cash limit $10k balance $0

AMEX everyday limit $50k balance $0

Bank of America limit $99k balance $0

Chase limit $35k balance $0

Discover limit $40k balance $0

installment loans:

Alliant loan 1 original amount $500 balance $30

alliant loan 2 original amount $4k balance $370

you may have already answered my question when you said FICO can vary by up to 30 points between bureaus with the same data. Didn't know that. Thanks for your response and insight.