topic Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

YoungMoney06 — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 19:00:59 GMT

I'm sure there's probably very little that can be done, but any advice what to do to counter the "account shift" bug?

First it was Fingerhut earlier this year, when they moved banks and closed the account (that had aged 4 1/2 years) and reopened a new account on my report with their new bank (much to my lack of knowing it was going to happen.)

Knocked my score down quite a bit.

And granted I knew this one in advance, same just happened with Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card. Bank of America (which had aged for a year and a half) has removed the account off my credit report, and FNBO has added their account... again, lowering my AAoA and resulting in a 16 point reduction in my score.

Hopefully no more portfolio or account shifts (I'm sure it'll happen again) anytime soon.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

raisemysc0re — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:26:58 GMT

That is a real bad deal.

Does that also go against your 5/24?

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

Jordan23ww — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 19:34:08 GMT

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you! Hopefully your scores bounce back quickly for you!

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

RSX — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 20:18:36 GMT

ugh - that sucks

you asked for Tips

since there items that will happen to you that are out of your control - then my Tip is to do everything that IS IN your control to mitigate this

now that you have fake/new accounts on your record, wait 6 months to a year before you open a new account - if not longer

once you have some aging on all your current accounts, changes like these won't hit you as hard

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

AndySoCal — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 00:47:12 GMT

@YoungMoney06

On fingerhut account(s) is the date open on both accounts the same ? It should be if not it is a problem

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

YoungMoney06 — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 01:19:21 GMT

I didn't check the BOA to FNBO opening dates.

But as for Fingerhut, I'm pretty sure the new account opening date isn't post dated. So it looks as though it's a "brand new" account.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

SouthJamaica — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 15:02:11 GMT

@YoungMoney06 wrote:
I'm sure there's probably very little that can be done, but any advice what to do to counter the "account shift" bug?

First it was Fingerhut earlier this year, when they moved banks and closed the account (that had aged 4 1/2 years) and reopened a new account on my report with their new bank (much to my lack of knowing it was going to happen.)

Knocked my score down quite a bit.

And granted I knew this one in advance, same just happened with Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card. Bank of America (which had aged for a year and a half) has removed the account off my credit report, and FNBO has added their account... again, lowering my AAoA and resulting in a 16 point reduction in my score.

Hopefully no more portfolio or account shifts (I'm sure it'll happen again) anytime soon.

The only tip I can offer on how to avoid this is to avoid store cards and cobranded cards, as it is more likely to happen with them than with an institution's core cards.

However, it may not be worth it to you. This -- meaning the substitution of a different card + its being treated as the closing of an old account and the opening of a new account rather than as a change in the old account -- is in my experience pretty rare. So it's a risk that's pretty remote. It just happens to have smacked you in the face twice in one year.

I'm not sure but it may have happened to me twice in 9 years, and both instances involved cobranded cards. Maybe other forum members can remind me if the transaction was treated as a continuation of the old card or as a closing + an opening in these 2 cases:

-JetBlue switching from Amex to Barclays

-AARP switching from Chase to Barclays

It might be that neither involved the old account/new account trap.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

YoungMoney06 — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 16:25:46 GMT

So here's some follow-up, and it's a rather interesting play of events:

1) FNBO is reporting all my past payments with BOA on their account they placed on my report.

2) Their reporting to my credit report on a different date than BOA. My BOA would report to the CB's a week after statement closing (in my experience)

3) FNBO reported on October 25th (two days after I ran all November bills through it) a balance of $1800 (on a $3700 CL)

4) Of course this balance has been paid off to just under $100- but this didn't come until yesterday (October 27th)

So this doesn't seem to be a "new case"

situation.

The awkward part is when FNBO opened the account (active October 23rd) I only had a balance of $24.00 from my last statement that was sent from BOA to FNBO - so figured FNBO would report the same balance. Apparently not.

Moralnof the story, always familiarize with when statements are reported.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

SouthJamaica — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 17:01:58 GMT

@YoungMoney06 wrote:
So here's some follow-up, and it's a rather interesting play of events:

1) FNBO is reporting all my past payments with BOA on their account they placed on my report.
2) Their reporting to my credit report on a different date than BOA. My BOA would report to the CB's a week after statement closing (in my experience)
3) FNBO reported on October 25th (two days after I ran all November bills through it) a balance of $1800 (on a $3700 CL)
4) Of course this balance has been paid off to just under $100- but this didn't come until yesterday (October 27th)

So this doesn't seem to be a "new case"
situation.

The awkward part is when FNBO opened the account (active October 23rd) I only had a balance of $24.00 from my last statement that was sent from BOA to FNBO - so figured FNBO would report the same balance. Apparently not.

Moralnof the story, always familiarize with when statements are reported.

So it's only happened to you once, not twice. See, I told you it was a remote risk.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

YoungMoney06 — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 18:02:18 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@YoungMoney06 wrote:
So here's some follow-up, and it's a rather interesting play of events:

1) FNBO is reporting all my past payments with BOA on their account they placed on my report.
2) Their reporting to my credit report on a different date than BOA. My BOA would report to the CB's a week after statement closing (in my experience)
3) FNBO reported on October 25th (two days after I ran all November bills through it) a balance of $1800 (on a $3700 CL)
4) Of course this balance has been paid off to just under $100- but this didn't come until yesterday (October 27th)

So this doesn't seem to be a "new case"
situation.

The awkward part is when FNBO opened the account (active October 23rd) I only had a balance of $24.00 from my last statement that was sent from BOA to FNBO - so figured FNBO would report the same balance. Apparently not.

Moralnof the story, always familiarize with when statements are reported.
So it's only happened to you once, not twice. See, I told you it was a remote risk.

The "new account" situation, yes. But still- a lesson to take away from this whole ordeal. Fine comb your reports when accounts are moved from one institition to another.

Re: Bit By the "New Account" Bug Again - Any Tips?

AndySoCal — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 18:52:52 GMT

@YoungMoney06 Call the creditor and ask why the old date open is not showing on this acocunt.