topic Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit." in Understanding FICO® Scoring

FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:21:08 GMT

In August of 2009, my FICO score on Equifax went from 806 to 797, where it remains today. According to myFico.com, the reason given was "You've recently been looking for credit". But I have not. I have not applied for any credit cards or store accounts or loans of any kind. Nothing. And nothing appears in the inquiries section of my Equifax report to indicate that I have been looking for said credit.

So what gives? Anyone else see this type of "explanation" before for a drop in score?

Much thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

MarineVietVet — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:42:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
In August of 2009, my FICO score on Equifax went from 806 to 797, where it remains today. According to myFico.com, the reason given was "You've recently been looking for credit". But I have not. I have not applied for any credit cards or store accounts or loans of any kind. Nothing. And nothing appears in the inquiries section of my Equifax report to indicate that I have been looking for said credit.

So what gives? Anyone else see this type of "explanation" before for a drop in score?

Much thanks in advance for any advice you can share.

Welcome to the forums.

FICO is a fickle and mysterious creature. I would not give 9 points either up or down a second thought. It will drive you crazy trying to figure it out.

Just my 2 cents.

(myfico)
7/09 TU-742 EQ- 779
8/09 TU-765 EQ- 783
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802

CC interest free as of 8/09
"Hello my name is Sandy and I'm a recovering crediholic".

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

haulingthescoreup — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:11:09 GMT

When your scores are at that level, "recently" is a pretty flexible term. The formula is scraping the bottom of the barrel, looking for negatives.

When was the last time that you applied for anything at all? When was your most recent account opened? Do you still have any inquiries showing on that particular report?

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

llecs — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:46:34 GMT

To add to Hauling's questions, did you request a CLI from any of your CCs?

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:21:25 GMT

Hi all. I'm embarrassed about how long its been since my last visit to the forum ("forgive me forum for I have sinned").

To answer the questions about my 9 point drop: no, I hadn't applied for any credit; nope, didn't have any hard or soft pull inquiries appear on the reports; I did not request nor did I receive a CLI on any account.

A mystery is this FICO beast.

I'll share my experience since last year with my FICO score.

On February 14th of this year, AT&T did a hard pull on EQ because I bought an iPhone and signed up for a plan; 14 point loss. By April 30, the score recovered.

Just yesterday, I applied for a Pentagon Federal CU Visa Promise card and they also did a hard pull on EQ. My score dropped only 4 pts this time.

I am not sure I'll get back to my all time high of 809. I've had only 2 legitimate inquiries in 12 months, but somehow the explanation for the decrease in FICO is "you are seeking more credit". In the case of the PenFed CC, indeed I was. In the case of AT&T, I was just buying a phone. Still, 2 inquiries in 12 months hardly qualifies as someone desperately seeking credit IMHO or trying pyramid or something.

I think the main thing to know about FICO and applying for credit is to know when a company is going to do a hard pull. I didn't ask the AT&T guy who was helping me buy and set up the phone. Next time, I will request a soft pull, which just tells them your score and overview information, not the full credit history. With the Pentagon, I was fully expecting it, as they only grant the card to those with "excellent" credit, and I'd already done the research and heard the stories of people being asked for their W-2s and paystubs and whatnot. It's worth it for %7.5 card I suppose.

Another characteristic that may be influential is that I do not have a mortgage or revolving accounts, only credit cards (3 cards). My credit history is between 18 and 21 years on the 3 bureaus. I carry 0 balances, always. I use my cards, but I am meticulous about transferring funds to cover the balance BEFORE the billing period hits. In this way, I get the benefits of the rewards programs without reporting any balances. In other words, 0% debt is perhaps the *only* thing keeping my score high. So any kind of change, such as a hard pull, or even a $5 balance, maybe makes a bigger impact than it would if I had a longer credit history, with more balances, and/or revolving lines??

Anyway, that's my stab in the dark at to how my FICO scores are calculated.

I hope you're all faring well through these "interesting" times with the credit industry.

Ciao for now,

Angie

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

smallfry — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:30:08 GMT

From 0 to 2 seems to do the most damage. In the case of the phone FICO still unfortunately considers that a credit inquiry. Not fair I agree but you do have 2 inqs under 6 months old and for a score around 800 that might be considered a bunch.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

vanillabean — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:47:52 GMT

smallfry wrote:

"From 0 to 2 seems to do the most damage. In the case of the phone FICO still unfortunately considers that a credit inquiry. Not fair I agree but you do have 2 inqs under 6 months old and for a score around 800 that might be considered a bunch."

I'd be interested in specifics. Something like for 750-799 1 inquiry drops 5 points, 2 10 points, 3 15 etc. For 800-850 1 inquiry 10 points, 2 20 etc. And after 3 monts the drop is at 75%, after half a year 50% etc. Might it work something like that?

Speaking of inquiries, I have a question regarding mortgage. Let's say the mortgage company transfers the service to a bank, The borrower of course has not directly requested the service of the bank, so does it make that the bank pulls a hard inquiry? (It counts separately if outside a certain window of time.)

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:58:33 GMT

@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:
@smallfry wrote:

"From 0 to 2 seems to do the most damage. In the case of the phone FICO still unfortunately considers that a credit inquiry. Not fair I agree but you do have 2 inqs under 6 months old and for a score around 800 that might be considered a bunch."

I'd be interested in specifics. Something like for 750-799 1 inquiry drops 5 points, 2 10 points, 3 15 etc. For 800-850 1 inquiry 10 points, 2 20 etc. And after 3 monts the drop is at 75%, after half a year 50% etc. Might it work something like that? ...

Alas, it's not that simple. (If it were, FICO would go out of business, I suppose.) Many things influence score changes, including length of history --> score bucket, clean vs dirty reports, and so forth.

What many of us have found is that there is no ding for one inq, but you get one for the second. Then nothing for the third, but the fourth one will get you. Then after 6 or 7, no dings. (This is for inqs on just one bureau.) Or you might get dinged for the first inq but not the second, then the third but not the fourth, and so forth. HOWEVER, even if you don't get an inq ding, you will probably get hit for new credit and for dropping the AAoA. (The inq ding is for "seeking credit.")

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

vanillabean — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 02:14:16 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:

"What many of us have found is that there is no ding for one inq, but you get one for the second. Then nothing for the third, but the fourth one will get you. Then after 6 or 7, no dings. (This is for inqs on just one bureau.) Or you might get dinged for the first inq but not the second, then the third but not the fourth, and so forth. HOWEVER, even if you don't get an inq ding, you will probably get hit for new credit and for dropping the AAoA. (The inq ding is for "seeking credit.")"

Thanks. I didn't know about the "every other" mechanism.

Let's say that a year after the date of an inquiry is today. At which point can the bureaus be expected to acknowledge that? In a few days, or maybe after the end of the month?

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:27:12 GMT

More update.

My new Pen Fed credit card account has hit my Equifax report. Simultaneously, I accidently left a $45 charge on one of my other cards. I generally know exactly how to keep my reported balance at $0, but this month, my BART card renewed on the last day of the cycle and I didn't even know it was depleted. Anyway, the score jumped back to 806. I'm not sure now if the $45 balance caused the increase, or the new credit card.

Meanwhile, on Experian, the new account appears, along with the $45 balance on the other card, but the score remains at 795.

I haven't bothered to check TransUnion yet.

Still can't figure out the rhyme or reason, but wanted to share in case this helps anyone else with reverse engineering the algorithm.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:09:55 GMT

The cell phone cos, etc are now pulling hards and they

affect your scores. It affected my EX for 2 years. They

don't have to report anything good either.

I did pick up 8 pts. when the inquiry fell off.

I have verizon and I don't know if this is considered a utility

or a subscription. But they don't report payment history.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:04:24 GMT

Far as I know none of them do ... only report when you fall behind and they go into collections. So with that ur goal is to keep em silent.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:07:34 GMT

lost 8 pts with Equifax and reason given was

short credit history. 802 to 794.

I called them and the real reason they told me

was that I had 3 accts. reporting balances. There

is no reason code for that hence the short credit history reason.

At least I know that the number of balances really

affect your score.

I am having trouble because I don't know

when my accts report. They have changed.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:40:06 GMT

I just lost 9 points when I went from 3 accounts to 4 accounts reporting. I had already lost some for going from 1 to 2. (Dear Scorewatch suggested that the reason might be because of a new late, which caused a pretty impressive coffee spit-take on reading. Upon checking, no new late.)

Believe me, "number of accounts with a balance" does count.

Granted, it can be turned around once all the billing cycles go through, and if you're not immediately looking for credit, it technically doesn't matter, but I like keeping my scores up. You never know when some opportunity might arise when you might want to apply, and it can be frustrating to wait 4-6 weeks for everything to go back to $0.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

vanillabean — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:04:34 GMT

Sorry to hear that, hauling.

And I'm getting impatient after waiting just three days for my ScoreWatch alert. I ran a score report off the EQ site on Sunday, which listed an anticipated score increase, so I don't know what's going on with that missing myFICO alert.

My quota of money to be spent on credit score reports is used up for the time being though. (If I spend more, I too will see more balance reporting!) Any chance Barry can give me a free ScorePower within my ScoreWatch?

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:28:26 GMT

Eh, thanks. It's a combo of a new card reporting, an existing 0% BT that I'm about to pay off, a card that reported earlier than I expected, and a 0% APR from Best Buy for a shiny new 40" Sharp Aquos TV in time for the World Cup.

I'll be back down to one in 2 1/2 weeks. Still, it's a bit unsettling to loose a total of 14 points when going from one account with a balance to 4! But I guess it's pretty much my only excitement these days in credit land.

Re: FICO Score down 9 points for "You've recently been looking for credit."

vjazar — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:12:23 GMT

I RECENTLY (WITHIN THE PAST THIRTY DAYS WENT FROM 780 - TO 760 - AND FROM 780 - TO - 771 - I HAD ONLY ONE APPLICATION IN WITH DISCOVER WHO GAVE ME A PRE-APPROVED LOAN (WHICH I CHOSE NOT TO TAKE AFTERWARDS) SO I APPLIED - WAS APPROVED - BUT DID NOT LIKE THE INTEREST RATE THAT THEY CHOSE TO OFFER ME WHICH WAS MUCH MORE THAN THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY IMPLIED!

PRESENTLY I AM AT 760 AND 771! I AM VERY UNHAPPY AS THE DROP HAS PSYCHOLOGICALLY UPSET ME - HOWEVER, I GUESS IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!

THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOICE MY OPINION AND CONCERN TO HEAR THE VOICES OF PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF!

RESPECTFULLY,

Victor