topic Re: Curious about scoring in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Curious about scoring

krit — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 06:13:51 GMT

I have a question. I have 16 accounts, 10 open that have perfect payment history, five closed that have perfect payment history and one collection that is 6 years old. My utilization is showing at between 1% and 0% every month, $43k total credit, and my AAOA is 4.5 years. My TU score is 650 and my EX is 670.

There are people with BK's whose scores are in the 700s. I know the collection is doing the most damage and the AAOA is low, but why can't I break 700? I see others with 2-3 collections with scores over 700.

What's going on in your opinion? Thank you for any insight.

Re: Curious about scoring

FireMedic1 — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 08:29:18 GMT

@krit wrote:
I have a question. I have 16 accounts, 10 open that have perfect payment history, five closed that have perfect payment history and one collection that is 6 years old. My utilization is showing at between 1% and 0% every month, $43k total credit, and my AAOA is 4.5 years. My TU score is 650 and my EX is 670.
There are people with BK's whose scores are in the 700s. I know the collection is doing the most damage and the AAOA is low, but why can't I break 700? I see others with 2-3 collections with scores over 700.
What's going on in your opinion? Thank you for any insight.

Can you clarify the 1 and 0. Are you doing AZEO? Having 1 card at 1% and the others at 0%? Any consumer finance loans? Doesnt look right as you say. Pull your real reports from annual credit reports. There must be something hiding.

Re: Curious about scoring

SouthJamaica — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 13:47:59 GMT

@krit wrote:
I have a question. I have 16 accounts, 10 open that have perfect payment history, five closed that have perfect payment history and one collection that is 6 years old. My utilization is showing at between 1% and 0% every month, $43k total credit, and my AAOA is 4.5 years. My TU score is 650 and my EX is 670.
There are people with BK's whose scores are in the 700s. I know the collection is doing the most damage and the AAOA is low, but why can't I break 700? I see others with 2-3 collections with scores over 700.
What's going on in your opinion? Thank you for any insight.

I agree that your scores seem a little low for someone whose only negative is a 6 year old collection. Would need to know the limits and reported balances on the revolving accounts, and the loan amounts and balances on open loans if any, to give you advice on how to juice up your scores.

On another note, I would work on getting the collection removed, by sending verification letters to the bureaus.

Re: Curious about scoring

NYC_Fella — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 14:04:51 GMT

OP, do you have a lot of recent inquiries? The only other thing I can think of is the zero utilization. You need to have at least one (and ideally just one) card showing a small reported balance on the date your report is pulled.

Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 05:31:07 GMT

Sometimes I'll have an account with maybe a $100 balance on a card but it will show as 0%. Usually it's 1%. The biggest utilization in the past year was 3%. No open loans. Nine inquiries on EX and 5 on TU.

Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 05:35:10 GMT

I've tried every way possible to get rid of the collection and it always comes back as verified. I just checked my Amex EX score tonight and it's dropped over 20 points. I can't find out why. I just got my paper reports a few months ago and that one collection is the only one there. I'm really frustrated.

Re: Curious about scoring

FireMedic1 — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 08:27:44 GMT

@krit wrote:
Sometimes I'll have an account with maybe a $100 balance on a card but it will show as 0%. Usually it's 1%. The biggest utilization in the past year was 3%. No open loans. Nine inquiries on EX and 5 on TU.

There ya go. Your missing out on 20-30pts with no loan. Is there a way you can into NFCU for their SSL. Also PENFED has a SSL. Each time you dispute and it comes back verified. That hits your score causes it to update as new. So the CA is also dinging you. Whos the CA? You might have one that PFD.

Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:27:38 GMT

It's DRS.

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Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 00:34:57 GMT

Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 20:46:28 GMT

Ok, I opened a small loan with my CU to be paid out of my bank account every month. Hopefully that will eventually help my scores.

While I had the lending department on the phone I requested a CLI on my MasterCard using the same pull and got it more than tripled!!! They also lowered my APR to 15.9. I still can't believe it. They used Vantage 4.0. They have always used TU in the past. But my Vantage score is almost 100 points higher than my TU score so that works for me.

Thank you for the advice about the loan.

Re: Curious about scoring

FireMedic1 — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 21:37:24 GMT

Congrats on the loan, CLI, and APR reduction! You hit a triple!!!!!!!

Re: Curious about scoring

SouthJamaica — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:05:24 GMT

@krit wrote:
Ok, I opened a small loan with my CU to be paid out of my bank account every month. Hopefully that will eventually help my scores.
While I had the lending department on the phone I requested a CLI on my MasterCard using the same pull and got it more than tripled!!! They also lowered my APR to 15.9. I still can't believe it. They used Vantage 4.0. They have always used TU in the past. But my Vantage score is almost 100 points higher than my TU score so that works for me.
Thank you for the advice about the loan.

Now if you pay the loan down to 9% of the original loan amount, you'll see a bump in your FICO 8 scores. Then pay it down as slowly as possible without being late on a payment.

Re: Curious about scoring

krit — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:11:48 GMT

Thank you, SJ. I read the long thread about SSL and was wondering if just having an open installment loan would help ANY? Or do I have to pay it down to 9% to see any score increase? Because I just did a $500 loan for 12 months (I didn't know about the method at the time). I set up autopay too. If I pay it to 9%, it looks like the loan will be closed in a month or two. I guess I messed up. So will just the loan by itself help? Thanks.

Re: Curious about scoring

FireMedic1 — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 10:36:02 GMT

Yes. But next time try PENFED or any family members served in the military so you can join NFCU? Thats where the true SSL sits.