topic Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

llecs — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:06:36 GMT

Got a new Amex Green card and started reporting on TU today. I last pulled TU FICO on 8/15 and pulled it again today once Amex reported on TU.

Drum roll on the point change ....................

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51 Points Lost from 716 to 665 ! ! ! !

Oh well. FYI, there were a couple of changes. Obviously the score dropped and there was a new TL added ($180 balance). There was a new neg. factor added as #4: I had a short revolving history at 7 yrs and 8 months. And there was a new account added w/ a balance. There was also a flag added, I think, to accts opened w/in the past year.

All other items remained the same like balances and util.

ETA...here's the power of a FAKO score. My TransRisk score via NCIDP stayed the same at 680. Maybe if I believe in a FAKO I'll feel better.

Message Edited by llecs on 08-22-2009 03:06 PM

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:09:15 GMT

That's breathtaking! Good thing we know that's going to wear off fast. Brutal!

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

Red1Blue — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:29:06 GMT

Hopefully your scores will go back up again in the next few days. I did not think your scores can go so low with one new card. I must have applied for 40-50 new cards in the last 18 months and I even had 72 inq's on my EX at one point. My scores did not change much all these years and stayed study aroune 670-690. I am hoping I'll make it into 700 club by next year.

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

fused — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:17:21 GMT

I'm not surprised to hear this. I bet the util is what killed your score, TU 98 includes Amex charge cards in util. I'm guessing if your highest balance and your current balance are the same, this is what did you in.

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

llecs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:18:47 GMT

fused wrote:
I'm not surprised to hear this. I bet the util is what killed your score, TU 98 includes Amex charge cards in util. I'm guessing if your highest balance and your current balance are the same, this is what did you in.

Nope. Can't be utilization. A $180 balance added to a total CL of over $17k on all other CCs is a tiny drop in the bucket. Util remained the same between both CRs.

I think it boils down to the added account (first in over 9 months) and the added TL w/ balance (from 7 to 8, I think...or maybe 6 to 7?) No matter. The added account w/ balance resulted in a new flag.

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 05:26:52 GMT

I recently allowed one more card to report a very small balance plus my overall UTIL went from 9% to 12% and it cost me 22 FICO points on EQ. Sometimes these seemingly minor changes can have nasty results. Other times you get pushed a point or two one way or the other by things you would have thought are much more significant. Good thing it all seems to even out in the long run.

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

manyquestions — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:02:33 GMT

@llecs wrote:
@fused wrote:
I'm not surprised to hear this. I bet the util is what killed your score, TU 98 includes Amex charge cards in util. I'm guessing if your highest balance and your current balance are the same, this is what did you in.

Nope. Can't be utilization. A $180 balance added to a total CL of over $17k on all other CCs is a tiny drop in the bucket. Util remained the same between both CRs.

I think it boils down to the added account (first in over 9 months) and the added TL w/ balance (from 7 to 8, I think...or maybe 6 to 7?) No matter. The added account w/ balance resulted in a new flag.

The utilization on the card could have been reported as %100. How does it look on your report? If it says current balance $180 and high balance $180, TU could be looking at that as a maxed out card. Have it report a zero balance next time and see if your score goes up. I think that was part of it along with the new card hit.

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

fused — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:58:49 GMT

llecs wrote:
fused wrote:
I'm not surprised to hear this. I bet the util is what killed your score, TU 98 includes Amex charge cards in util. I'm guessing if your highest balance and your current balance are the same, this is what did you in.

Nope. Can't be utilization. A $180 balance added to a total CL of over $17k on all other CCs is a tiny drop in the bucket. Util remained the same between both CRs.

I think it boils down to the added account (first in over 9 months) and the added TL w/ balance (from 7 to 8, I think...or maybe 6 to 7?) No matter. The added account w/ balance resulted in a new flag.

I'm a little confused, so I'm sorry. LOL! This new Amex card is a charge card, right? If so, what is TU reporting as the highest balance?

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

llecs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:38:27 GMT

Manyquestions and fused, I didn't see it that way. I do now. Thanks. Double ouch. I guess there's never really any way around that, is there? Should my goal be to use as much as possible to get it to report as much as possible, or if I PIF before the statement, will it still report the high balance?

Re: Adding a new Amex cost me dearly

llecs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:49:55 GMT

OK....I've really fallen off the deep end with this CC. What a curse! With my luck they will close it because of the score drop.

I just pulled EQ and that dropped exactly 50 points!

Arggghhhhhh!

I had pulled EQ on 8/15 and again today. Nothing else is different other than the added Amex, a new flag w/ accts opened in the past year, and a new neg. factor in regards to a new account reporting. Everything else is exactly the same including balances, util, number of TLs (besides Amex), etc.

I need an education................

OK, it was my understanding that Amex does not factor into util except for TU98. TU98 likes to factor it in using the balance in relation to the prev. high balance, right?

EQ and EX don't factor the balance or the high balance at all, right?

I can see it for TU is suddenly one of my CCs shows 100%. That'll kill a score in a hurry, but what about EQ?

BTW, it should be noted that within the past 2 or 3 months, my scores shot up by 50 points. There was no reason to it but I figured it was due to moving into a new bucket with regards to history. The change came exactly on the 1st (June or July).