topic Re: CFA notation in Understanding FICO® Scoring

CFA notation

800goal800 — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:13:58 GMT

How do I know if an account I have is being categorized as a CFA ? Where would I see this ?

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 14:36:35 GMT

@800goal800 wrote:
How do I know if an account I have is being categorized as a CFA ? Where would I see this ?

Unfortunately, no way to know. It will be an installment loan and not a revolving account.

It generally is accounts straight through the manufacturer, like Honda/Ford or places like Ally, many student loan companies like Great Lakes or State ran SL servicers, short term "easy" loans like Affirm, or loans from places like SoFi, etc.

It took until all my SLs from 1 servicer aged off 10 years after they were closed to find out it was them that were the CFAs and the CFA negative reason code dropped from my reports.

Who do you have installment loans with? Open or closed, it does not matter, just as long as they are still on your CRs.

Re: CFA notation

800goal800 — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 14:44:24 GMT

@Anonymous Im assuming by the names, these are CFA: American First Finance and CheckNGo. I just never knew they were in their own " less desirable " category. I have/had auto loans but I'm assuming those are different.

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 14:51:44 GMT

@800goal800 wrote:
@Anonymous Im assuming by the names, these are CFA: American First Finance and CheckNGo. I just never knew they were in their own " less desirable " category. I have/had auto loans but I'm assuming those are different.

These are certainly possible but it also doesn't exclude major auto loan companies from coding as a CFA. List everything on your report that is installment based. Also, what scoring models/bureaus are you seeing these on?

Re: CFA notation

800goal800 — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 14:58:54 GMT

@Anonymous

These are all installment based and are either open or closed auto loans except for the two in the original post.

Commerce Bank - Auto Loan

BofA - Auto Loan

Cap One Auto Finance

Volvo Car Financial Services

All of this is from MyFICO

Together Credit Union - Auto

Global Lending Services - Auto

VW Credit

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 15:21:26 GMT

@800goal800 wrote:
@Anonymous

These are all installment based and are either open or closed auto loans except for the two in the original post.

~~Commerce Bank~~ - Auto Loan
~~BofA~~ - Auto Loan
~~Cap One Auto Finance~~
Volvo Car Financial Services

All of this is from MyFICO
~~Together Credit Union~~ - Auto
Global Lending Services - Auto
VW Credit

It would be my guess that the ones remaining have potential to be a CFA along with the 2 in your original post. There is no way of knowing right now which one(s) are coding as a CFA as already mentioned.

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:31:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@800goal800 wrote:
@Anonymous

These are all installment based and are either open or closed auto loans except for the two in the original post.

~~Commerce Bank~~ - Auto Loan
~~BofA~~ - Auto Loan
~~Cap One Auto Finance~~
Volvo Car Financial Services

All of this is from MyFICO
~~Together Credit Union~~ - Auto
Global Lending Services - Auto
VW Credit
It would be my guess that the ones remaining have potential to be a CFA along with the 2 in your original post. There is no way of knowing right now which one(s) are coding as a CFA as already mentioned.

I would also believe the culprit is Volvo amd VW. Maybe this global lending you list, too.

As mentioned above, it doesnt have to be a sleezy lender. Directly through auto manufacturer financing is generally considered a CFA.

Like I said abive, Ford, Honda, etc. This would include Volvo and VW.

Subvented financing (i believe) thru manufacturers, where you can get 0% financing, and generally have pretty low requirements to get financing, inclhding their "top tier" for 0%, is often a CFA. I have seen DPs of 660+ scores getting 0% financing.

Finances before fico. You want 0% financing, you should consider that over losing points on your score. For me and my SO the points were fairly significant, 20-40+ pts (depending on bureau and which score), but I would still say finances over fico. I also believe the hit could vary on the scorecard you are in. Many say it is likely a "small number of points", but we just don't have the DPs, and this was my own personal experience seeing the CFAs come off.

Re: CFA notation

800goal800 — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:28:31 GMT

So leasing or financing a car with the manufacturer is a potential "negative "

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:39:21 GMT

@800goal800 wrote:
So leasing or financing a car with the manufacturer is a potential "negative "

Absolutely. The problem is that not every loan will code the same for every person. Some have claimed that Honda Financial has coded as a CFA, others have not. I know for a fact that on my reports, Ally(GM Financial) codes as a CFA. Maybe others do not have this designation on their reports. I know that I will never take the chance of adding another CFA on my reports. It's like gambling and the question is "Do you feel lucky?"

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 01:40:57 GMT

Just a data point, I have 3 different American Honda Financial loans on my CR and none of them were coded as a CFA / I've never had a CFA related negative reason statement associated with my file.

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 04:40:03 GMT

Guess you was lucky

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 03:08:10 GMT

I suppose so if others have referenced them being presented as CFAs. I honestly hadn't heard of that or even considered it.

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 03:16:56 GMT

I mean lucky either way. Either lucky it’s not a CFA or lucky if it is that you didn’t get tagged.

Re: CFA notation

AzCreditGuy — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 02:47:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@800goal800 wrote:
So leasing or financing a car with the manufacturer is a potential "negative "
Absolutely. The problem is that not every loan will code the same for every person. Some have claimed that Honda Financial has coded as a CFA, others have not. I know for a fact that on my reports, Ally(GM Financial) codes as a CFA. Maybe others do not have this designation on their reports. I know that I will never take the chance of adding another CFA on my reports. It's like gambling and the question is "Do you feel lucky?"

I think thats the problem and how the system is just crap, I contacted SOFI asking them how are they are a CFA? They stated they are not and yet I have them coded as a CFA. Had the loan for over a year now and the damage is done for 10 yrs, I dont care anymore since I have scores above 800 and Im in the garden till my mortgage loan. Too many games Fico plays with consumers CFA is just one of many annoyances.

Re: CFA notation

kittycreditmeow — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 21:22:39 GMT

So basically your only safe rule of thumb is credit cards and credit Union loans?

I have a very small store purchase using Affirm. That's prob def CFA. Crap!

Re: CFA notation

AndySoCal — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 03:32:16 GMT

Based on some research my guess it would be Global Lending Services due to the business they are in.

Re: CFA notation

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 07:26:29 GMT

Banks and credit union loans are fine. CFAs are only loans.

Anything that has the word “finance” or “financial” is suspect, as are loans from a non-bank or non-credit union.

Re: CFA notation

Revelate — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:38:25 GMT

Pretty much what others said: it is hard to isolate CFAs; I only know because mine is on two bureaus and TU has never seen a CFA tag regardless of what scorecard it has been (and that file has been in a LOT of different scorecards over time).

That said if you are in one of the pretty scorecards already it doesn't matter that much and someone already stated the salient: Finances > FICO.

If I ever buy a car again if after negotiating price I can still get a 0% loan from the manufacturer I will take it and don't really care if it codes as CFA objectively, but I am not totally rational and I still gently kick myself for opening up that stupid Cashcall loan to cover a cash shortfall (which I could have done something different to address just would have cost more cash wise but I digress) thought at the time it might help credit mix wise... and even though it is paid / closed / never late tradeline it still counts against me.

That said as of basically today I am sitting at:

EX 2: 780

EQ 5: 779

That is gold-plated in my book and the CFA notation is on both so ultimately it doesn't really matter and there are plenty of people on this forum with stronger credit profiles than I have.

Re: CFA notation

AzCreditGuy — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 16:22:05 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Pretty much what others said: it is hard to isolate CFAs; I only know because mine is on two bureaus and TU has never seen a CFA tag regardless of what scorecard it has been (and that file has been in a LOT of different scorecards over time).

That said if you are in one of the pretty scorecards already it doesn't matter that much and someone already stated the salient: Finances > FICO.

If I ever buy a car again if after negotiating price I can still get a 0% loan from the manufacturer I will take it and don't really care if it codes as CFA objectively, but I am not totally rational and I still gently kick myself for opening up that stupid Cashcall loan to cover a cash shortfall (which I could have done something different to address just would have cost more cash wise but I digress) thought at the time it might help credit mix wise... and even though it is paid / closed / never late tradeline it still counts against me.

That said as of basically today I am sitting at:

EX 2: 780
EQ 5: 779

That is gold-plated in my book and the CFA notation is on both so ultimately it doesn't really matter and there are plenty of people on this forum with stronger credit profiles than I have.

Fico 2
807 No negative factors (I doubt that)

Fico 5 805
short account history
short revolving history
no auto loan activity
consumer finance accounts

Like I said above damage down already for 10yrs plus when I choose to close out my $32.56 balance on my SOFI. I have one of those pretty scores, but annoyed since I rebuilt my credit from past mistakes, but now the CFA will be a stain on my profile. And when I get CLI rejects with the CFA on there? I have to wonder if that is factor even with highs scores?

Re: CFA notation

Revelate — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 17:54:30 GMT

@AzCreditGuy wrote:
@Revelate wrote:
Pretty much what others said: it is hard to isolate CFAs; I only know because mine is on two bureaus and TU has never seen a CFA tag regardless of what scorecard it has been (and that file has been in a LOT of different scorecards over time).

That said if you are in one of the pretty scorecards already it doesn't matter that much and someone already stated the salient: Finances > FICO.

If I ever buy a car again if after negotiating price I can still get a 0% loan from the manufacturer I will take it and don't really care if it codes as CFA objectively, but I am not totally rational and I still gently kick myself for opening up that stupid Cashcall loan to cover a cash shortfall (which I could have done something different to address just would have cost more cash wise but I digress) thought at the time it might help credit mix wise... and even though it is paid / closed / never late tradeline it still counts against me.

That said as of basically today I am sitting at:

EX 2: 780
EQ 5: 779

That is gold-plated in my book and the CFA notation is on both so ultimately it doesn't really matter and there are plenty of people on this forum with stronger credit profiles than I have.

Fico 2
807 No negative factors (I doubt that)

Fico 5 805
short account history
short revolving history
no auto loan activity
consumer finance accounts

Like I said above damage down already for 10yrs plus when I choose to close out my $32.56 balance on my SOFI. I have one of those pretty scores, but annoyed since I rebuilt my credit from past mistakes, but now the CFA will be a stain on my profile. And when I get CLI rejects with the CFA on there? I have to wonder if that is factor even with highs scores?

Even being gold plated doesn't guaruntee CLI or application approvals... and when it comes to denial reasons, yeah it could show up in theory depending on which one they decide to show you.

That said I wouldn't worry about it, you're around 10 points away from perfect (or highest obtainable score) on EQ FICO 5, clearly the CFA can't be hurting you that badly and I doubt anyone that would approve you otherwise is going to worry about the CFA.

Out of curiosity where are your FICO 8 scores? 830+?