topic Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU) in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:40:54 GMT

Hello Friends and Happy New Year!

I just pulled a new EX 3B report and saw that my TU Fico 08 is -4 points and wondered why since all I'm doing is paying down balances.

Comparing it to the prior report, the only changes are lower balances on 4 revolving cc accounts - with one of those going to Zero.

I confirmed that the total balance of all cc's is -$436 and that there no changes to CLs or Total # of Accts.

What is going on?

I might understand if for some reason my score stayed the same... but go down?

My scores are steadlily going up with each balance decreasing, so I expected to see a bump - especially with 1 less cc with a balance.

Just to clarify, there are no cards with a balance increase, no new accounts...absolutely no changes.

I'm completely baffled! If anyone has an idea of why this would happen, I would really appreciate it if you would share your thoughts.

Thank you!

P.S. Edited to send my heartfelt gratitude to the members of the myFICO community who have helped me reach a huge milestone. I clawed my way from a CH7 BK in 2014 to my first score in the 700 range of 705 (TU) just this past week. The BK was deleted off TU 11 months ago (EE success) but it still took me until now to get over that hurdle. I'm finally in a good place to make real progress as I have a 2nd job now and at most 9 months to wait for the other 2 BKs to drop off. This forum is indespensible & I recommend it every time the subject of credit arises. What a great community with a wealth of knowledge, experience and support!! It has given me so many tools and a tremendous amount of hope when things were really, really tough so I really wanted to share this. Thank you so much! 🙏

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

SouthJamaica — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:22:50 GMT

Something else caused it. You did not lose points by paying down balances.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:43:03 GMT

Thanks for the feedback, SouthJamaica!

I would assume so, but what? I've looked at everything I can think of (noted in OP)

@SouthJamaica wrote:
Something else caused it. You did not lose points by paying down balances.

. Any ideas?

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

SouthJamaica — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 04:44:44 GMT

I don't know how you could know without

(a) knowing the date of the data change being reported

(b) knowing the date of the score changing

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 06:00:29 GMT

@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't know how you could know without
(a) knowing the date of the data change being reported
(b) knowing the date of the score changing
(c) comparing, line by line, the 2 reports from those 2 dates

Hi again, SouthJamaica

I have all the data that is available thru credit monitoring services and have done a line by line.

If the data you're referring to is not accessible except by reporting/receiving agencies, then there's nothing I can do about that I suppose. 😄

Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out in time .. if not, at least my score will eventually be high enough that a small drop isn't as concerning lol.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

SouthJamaica — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 18:29:23 GMT

@pacem_et_libertatum wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't know how you could know without
(a) knowing the date of the data change being reported
(b) knowing the date of the score changing
(c) comparing, line by line, the 2 reports from those 2 dates
Hi again, SouthJamaica

I have all the data that is available thru credit monitoring services and have done a line by line.

If the data you're referring to is not accessible except by reporting/receiving agencies, then there's nothing I can do about that I suppose. 😄

Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out in time .. if not, at least my score will eventually be high enough that a small drop isn't as concerning lol.

Thank you for your thoughts!

You can only know the date of the data change by seeing the report from the day of the change and the report from the day before.

I don't know how you can know the date of the score change with TU other than seeing a MyFICO TU report for the date of the score drop and the report for the day before, which would be prohibitively expensive.

MyFICO alerts don't give you any of this information. And there is often no causal relationship between the substance of the alert and a score change in the alert.

With experian.com you can monitor day to day changes in data and in a number of FICO scores. But that is only for Experian.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 00:31:44 GMT

I see what you're saying, SJ. Well, it's a mystery that will never be solved lol. I can accept that tho' ~ pretty much because I know that overall my scores will only be improving. 😄

Thanks again for your time and thoughts on this!

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@pacem_et_libertatum wrote:
@SouthJamaica wrote:
I don't know how you could know without
(a) knowing the date of the data change being reported
(b) knowing the date of the score changing
(c) comparing, line by line, the 2 reports from those 2 dates
Hi again, SouthJamaica

I have all the data that is available thru credit monitoring services and have done a line by line.

If the data you're referring to is not accessible except by reporting/receiving agencies, then there's nothing I can do about that I suppose. 😄

Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out in time .. if not, at least my score will eventually be high enough that a small drop isn't as concerning lol.

Thank you for your thoughts!

You can only know the date of the data change by seeing the report from the day of the change and the report from the day before.
I don't know how you can know the date of the score change with TU other than seeing a MyFICO TU report for the date of the score drop and the report for the day before, which would be prohibitively expensive.
MyFICO alerts don't give you any of this information. And there is often no causal relationship between the substance of the alert and a score change in the alert.
With experian.com you can monitor day to day changes in data and in a number of FICO scores. But that is only for Experian.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

markbeiser — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 01:27:21 GMT

I've had my TU FICO8 seemingly randomly drop and then later jump up and down by 4 points on a number of occasions.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 01:42:00 GMT

@markbeiser wrote:
I've had my TU FICO8 seemingly randomly drop and then later jump up and down by 4 points on a number of occasions.

Interesting! Thank you for sharing. Perhaps I'll see my score pop back up randomly sometime soon.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

SouthJamaica — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:40:09 GMT

@pacem_et_libertatum wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:
I've had my TU FICO8 seemingly randomly drop and then later jump up and down by 4 points on a number of occasions.
Interesting! Thank you for sharing. Perhaps I'll see my score pop back up randomly sometime soon.

My experience has been that small changes for which no reason is clear to me occur relatively frequently in both my EQ FICO 8 and TU FICO 8. Experian, on the other hand, just seems to sit there. Which is frustrating, since Experian is the only bureau in which I have access to daily reports and might actually be able to determine the cause of the change if a change were to occur.

Re: Lower Balances = Minus 4 Pts?? (TU)

pacem_et_libertatum — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 01:02:28 GMT

Interesting! I have the same experience with EX, where there is just SO little (or no) movement when TU & EQ move regularly with fluctuations that most always make sense to me. Not sure if it's true for you but EX is also always the lowest score, but I think that's pretty much the case for most of us.

Hmm.. It just occurred to me that altho' it's been the case for 11 months, my TU is the only agency that no longer reports my CH7 BK and could very possibly be the X factor where it comes to that -4 dip. Perhaps I was re-bucketed? Not sure if re-bucketing happens that long after-the-fact, but it's the only possibility making sense right now lol.

Well thanks again for all your input..

@SouthJamaica wrote:
@pacem_et_libertatum wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:
I've had my TU FICO8 seemingly randomly drop and then later jump up and down by 4 points on a number of occasions.
Interesting! Thank you for sharing. Perhaps I'll see my score pop back up randomly sometime soon.
My experience has been that small changes for which no reason is clear to me occur relatively frequently in both my EQ FICO 8 and TU FICO 8. Experian, on the other hand, just seems to sit there. Which is frustrating, since Experian is the only bureau in which I have access to daily reports and might actually be able to determine the cause of the change if a change were to occur.

and Happy New Year!