topic Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code in Understanding FICO® Scoring

“Credit Seeking” negative reason code

CreditPoor — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 14:25:04 GMT

What causes this reason code and how much will it affect a new app? All that changed was

1. Paid off a small loan balance

2. Decrease in utilization to 1%

3. CL increase of $1000

No new accounts and no new inquiries.

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

SouthJamaica — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 16:02:01 GMT

@CreditPoor wrote:
What causes this reason code and how much will it affect a new app? All that changed was

1. Paid off a small loan balance
2. Decrease in utilization to 1%
3. CL increase of $1000

No new accounts and no new inquiries.

Only new accounts and inquiries would trigger that one.

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

CreditPoor — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:15:54 GMT

Definitely no new accounts and no new inquiries. Got a 46 point increase, so it looks like when there is nothing negative on your report FICO will just hit you with a random code to keep your score somewhat suppressed

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

GZG — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:17:48 GMT

@CreditPoor wrote:
What causes this reason code and how much will it affect a new app? All that changed was

1. Paid off a small loan balance
2. Decrease in utilization to 1%
3. CL increase of $1000

No new accounts and no new inquiries.

what are your new accounts/inquires /6, /12, /24?

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

CreditPoor — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:34:30 GMT

My new accounts have been

1/6

2/12

2/24

That reason code has not appeared there prior to changes. Because there was nothing negative there to list, that reason was generated

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

Thomas_Thumb — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:38:47 GMT

So, you have been seeking credit!! Any new accounts and inquiries under 12 months are flagged as new credit seeking by Fico.

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

CreditPoor — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 17:47:07 GMT

Lol, can you really say with a straight face that 1 account in 6 is seeking? That reason code was never there prior, including when I got the new account.

Prior it said loan balances and accounts with balances, so I pay off loan and reduce revolvers from 2% to 1% and those disappear. Score jumps 40 some odd points to 779 and bam "seeking credit" appears. Nothing else negative

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

GZG — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 19:02:11 GMT

@CreditPoor wrote:
Lol, can you really say with a straight face that 1 account in 6 is seeking? That reason code was never there prior, including when I got the new account.

Prior it said loan balances and accounts with balances, so I pay off loan and reduce revolvers from 2% to 1% and those disappear. Score jumps 40 some odd points to 779 and bam "seeking credit" appears. Nothing else negative

not being 0/12 in FICO terms literally puts you into a scorecard (bucket) with other "credit seekers" regardless if you are 1/12 or 10/12.

you're not at 850, so negative reason codes need to grab at something, so it's negative, but only in the sense that it's not optimal rather than it being "bad" or an indictment of your activity or anything

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

Thomas_Thumb — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 21:35:50 GMT

@CreditPoor wrote:
Lol, can you really say with a straight face that 1 account in 6 is seeking? That reason code was never there prior, including when I got the new account.

Prior it said loan balances and accounts with balances, so I pay off loan and reduce revolvers from 2% to 1% and those disappear. Score jumps 40 some odd points to 779 and bam "seeking credit" appears. Nothing else negative

That reason code is associated with your file whenever you have accounts/inquiries under 12 months. It was lower down on the list so not displayed. Depending on the service providing the score, only the top 2-4 reasons are displayed. You likely have another 4-8 not displayed.

A revolving account under 12 months age typically dings score 15-20 points

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

Barkius — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 20:07:45 GMT

Exactly. OP's other reason codes dropped off and that was bumped up. If you have really irrelevant reason codes, that means your score is pretty good.

Re: “Credit Seeking” negative reason code

mgood — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 23:21:35 GMT

@Barkius wrote:
Exactly. OP's other reason codes dropped off and that was bumped up. If you have really irrelevant reason codes, that means your score is pretty good.

I agree with this.

When I start seeing something about "Consumer Finance" accounts in my reason codes, I think "Oh, I'm doing pretty well. They had to dig deep to find something negative."