topic Re: should an installment auto loan cause a drop? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

should an installment auto loan cause a drop?

JcT21 — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 12:33:15 GMT

for several months, according to fico, one of the key things holding down my score was lack of an installment loan on my reports. well, my new auto loan reported today and i thought that would give me a boost, but it dropped me 13 points on experian. it hasnt reflected on TU & EQ yet but i expect about the same on those.

if fico wanted to see an installment loan, why knock me 13 points for it? is that common?

my utilization prior to the auto loan is at 2%. i do azeo. perhaps it is normal but it sure is depressing.

Re: should an installment auto loan cause a drop?

SouthJamaica — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 13:34:14 GMT

@JcT21 wrote:
for several months, according to fico, one of the key things holding down my score was lack of an installment loan on my reports. well, my new auto loan reported today and i thought that would give me a boost, but it dropped me 13 points on experian. it hasnt reflected on TU & EQ yet but i expect about the same on those.

if fico wanted to see an installment loan, why knock me 13 points for it? is that common?

my utilization prior to the auto loan is at 2%. i do azeo. perhaps it is normal but it sure is depressing.

Yes absolutely.

The good news is that (a) you might not lose as much in the mortgage scores, and (b) once you get the loan paid down below 10% of the original amount, you'll get a good score boost in your FICO 8's and 9's.

Re: should an installment auto loan cause a drop?

sznthescore — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 13:41:00 GMT

It's the new account penalty. Give it some time (6 months or so) as you repay the loan your scores will bounce back.

Re: should an installment auto loan cause a drop?

coldfusion — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 14:02:12 GMT

You have a new loan which is reporting at 100% utilization, hence the ding. The good news is that your scores should start to recover nicely within a few months. [side note - when my current auto loan first reported my FICO 8 scores all dropped between 30-35 points, I recovered them all and more within a year]

Re: should an installment auto loan cause a drop?

OmarGB9 — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 22:19:38 GMT

To add on to what has been said, AZEO applies to revolving accounts only. Installment loans have separate utilization and your 2% utilization as well as AZEO don't apply.