topic Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:56:11 GMT

Two days ago my EQ fico score was 720 and now its 665, I was expecting a score drop but not this much, i'm not very happy at all. I recently got approved for a 10,500 LOC and BT most of my cc which in short term made my score rise to 720. I had been waiting on this new account to hit my reports to see the damage but I had no idea it would cause this much. At the same time, a closed a $0 balance BBRZ MC cc, which only took $300 from my revolving utility....55 points though, really!?

I'm currently reporting:

12 cc, 6 zero balance.

My Alerts says I have too many accounts with high balances which is true, the remaing 6 accounts have very high balances:

Chase - maxed out

Capital One - Maxed out

(Both have been pif but and now i'm waiting for them to report (chase is now closed))

NFCU LOC - 9,427, 10,500CL

NFCU CC - 1,366, 1,500CL (not reporting $460 recent payment).

Pottery Barn - 4,027, 6,100CL

The Room Place - 3,893, 9,500CL

51% Utility

History - 30yrs2mo

AAoA - 4yrs, 8mo

14 Inquiries, 9 in the last 12mos.

Could closing an account with zero balance and $300CL really cause a lot of damage?

Could this new account cause this much damage?

I believe my utility increased about 10% since my last report 2 days ago.

Could this been a rebucketing issue as well.

I was planning to apply for PSECU when my welcome packet came in the mail, looks like I don't stand a chance now with this score. When should I anticipate a rebound of my points?

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:59:20 GMT

@Kiwill wrote:
Two days ago my EQ fico score was 720 and now its 665, I was expecting a score drop but not this much, i'm not very happy at all. I recently got approved for a 10,500 LOC and BT most of my cc which in short term made my score rise to 720. I had been waiting on this new account to hit my reports to see the damage but I had no idea it would cause this much. At the same time, a closed and $0 balance BBRZ MC cc reported, which only took $300 from my revolving utility....55 points!?

I'm currently reporting:
12 cc, 6 zero balance.
My Alerts says I have too many accounts with high balances which is true, the remaing 6 accounts have very high balances:
Chase - maxed out
Capital One - Maxed out
(Both have been pif but and waiting for them to report (chase is now closed))
NFCU LOC - 9,427, 10,500CL
NFCU CC - 1,366, 1,500CL (not reporting $460 recent payment.
Pottery Barn - 4,027, 6,100CL
The Room Place - 3,893, 9,500CL

51% Utility
History - 30yrs2mo
AAoa - 4yrs, 8mo
14 Inquiries, 9 in the last 12mos.

Could closing an account with zero balance of $300 really cause a lot of damage?
Could this new account cause this much damage?
I believe my utility decreased about 10% since my last report 2 days ago.
Could this been a rebucketing issue as well.

I was planning to apply for PSECU when my welcome packet came in the mail, looks like I don't stand a chance now with this score. When should I anticipate a rebound of my points?

OK, if I'm reading this correctly, the LOC to which you BT'd is now reporting with the BT'd balances, but two of the now-zeroed cards are still showing the balances, is that right?

If so, it looks like debt is reporting twice, and that you have a new card (LOC) nearly maxed and a lot more total debt.

Do your old and new reports mention the total amount of debt? Did it increase or stay the same?

If what I think I'm seeing is what happened, then you have a temporary situation that will resolve when the now-zeroed CC's update.

But I'd also recommend examining any negatives that you already had and make sure that nothing changed on them.

What are the negatives on screen 2 of your old and new reports?

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:02:31 GMT

haulingthescoresup - thanks for the reply.

So you belive the the highlighted issues are what tanked my score; the maxed out cards.

I was sure to receive CLI's to makeup for the two cc's i closed which resulted in a $900 loss of available credit.

So no rebucketing here. I'm currently working on my utility but it will take some time,

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:12:40 GMT

OK, if I'm reading this correctly, the LOC to which you BT'd is now reporting with the BT'd balances, but two of the now-zeroed cards are still showing the balances, is that right? Yes, this is correct. A total of about $1,300. I closed one of these cards so when it does report, it will report as closed.

If so, it looks like debt is reporting twice, and that you have a new card (LOC) nearly maxed and a lot more total debt. True

Do your old and new reports mention the total amount of debt? Did it increase or stay the same? My old report showed 41% utility, and if I remember correctly, probably 16-17,000 debt and now my new report as of today, shows 51% utility and about 20,000 debt

If what I think I'm seeing is what happened, then you have a temporary situation that will resolve when the now-zeroed CC's update. I hope so.

But I'd also recommend examining any negatives that you already had and make sure that nothing changed on them. I did this, there are no new inquiries and no new derogs, just a closed account and this new account reporting.

What are the negatives on screen 2 of your old and new reports? I have no negatives then or now. Thanks goodness!

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:46:28 GMT

@Kiwill wrote:

...What are the negatives on screen 2 of your old and new reports? I have no negatives then or now. Thanks goodness!

OK, with the other stuff, once everyone updates again I think you should be back where you were, minus any ding for the new account and inq.

By negatives, I meant the scoring factors on the left on screen 2, not negatives in the sense of "baddies" like lates and collections. Even those without baddies have negative factors, like high util or short history ~~or your eyebrows are funny-looking~~ or something. OK, FICO doesn't score eyebrows, but there are 40 different things that the score formula can complain about, some of them remarkably piddly-squat.

Tackling those scoring factors, in order (the most damaging is listed first), is the best way to work on your scores.

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:14:50 GMT

Ok I gotcha, thanks!

I have already been penalized for my recent inquiries as of the previous scoring of 720 so no ding there. So the utility and new account is what did it, what about my AAoA, would that be a factor too?

Myfico says:

1. High Credit Usage

2. Seeking Credit

3. New Account (this was before the new report, before then my newest account was opened 3/2010)

I will be ok if my score increased to at least 700, I was planning to get another cc/loc through PSECU once my welcome packet arrives so that I could BT my pottery barn and room place cards. My plan was to get this last cc/loc and then start gardening with my low interest accounts and grow from their.

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

haulingthescoreup — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:17:43 GMT

@Kiwill wrote:
Ok I gotha, thanks!

I have already been penalized for my recent inquiries as of the previous scoring of 720 so no ding there. So the utility and new account is what did it, what about my AAoA, would that be a factor too?

Myfico says:
1. High Credit Usage = your revolving util, of course
2. Seeking Credit = your inquiries (too many on this report within one year)
3. New Account (this was before the new report, before then my newest account was opened 3/2010) = this will last (I think) 6 months, at least it did for me

I will be ok if my score inreased to at least 700.

There's a fourth one that doesn't display, because at your current score, it only displays three. myFICO has this weird thing where the higher the score, the fewer negatives it displays, even though they're there. (The 800 crowd apparently gets snippy at having a negative display. ) If your score had dropped even more, 4 would display. When you get back up somewhere in the 700's (can't remember where), only 2 display. Higher 700's: one displays. 800: none will display, although they might be there.

Cure for #1: let the cards update to $0, and then keep paying everything down, using whatever tactic works for you.

Cure for #2: time (one year) --this probably isn't more than 5 points, max

Cure for #3: time (six months or one year) --since this one is third, it counts for even less than the inqs

So high util is your only real issue, so if you can keep scrambling up the $$$ to pay down your bills, your score will rise accordingly. You will probably see new negative factors appear as these fall off, which isn't unusual. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say on Saturday Night Live, "It's always something."

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:52:03 GMT

You're right, as usual. The 3 reasons were pulled from two previous reports when my scores hit 710 $ 720 (both EQ), so there are probably four reasons now. I didn't pull my current report from here but I did get it though EQ because I have unlimited reports (not score) with my NFCU membership, so I pull it there when I don't need my score BUT, when I get such drastic changes I do get alerts and subsequently report my recent FICO scores. Perhaps this is because of a subscription to SW or Score Power, but I do know from past experiences, my score there and here match dead on so I know it's a real fico score.

Thanks for helping me figure this all out, I will let you know what my score is once everything report; pif, closed chase account, pif capital one and NFCU CC $460 payment. Chase statement will close on the 6th, capital one on the 9th and NFCU shortly after that, so all of them should report by mid December. Wish me luck!

Re: Lost 55 points at one time, I did not expect this, why?

Kiwill — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:52:27 GMT

As of 12/5, my score has already rebound 19 poins!! I'm still waiting on those two cc's to report zero balances on my reports sometime soon; Chase should report as closed $0 balance this week and Capital One should report $0 balance from being maxed out by early next week. I will keep you posted on the results.