topic Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS in Understanding FICO® Scoring

FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:48:53 GMT

My FICO score went down today. EQ- 770 to 735 for no reason. TU- 752 to 713 again for no reason.

Nothing changed on my reports. Can anyone help me understand this. I have not had any changes at all for over 6 months and all of a sudden today it dropped 35 and 40 points.

Thanks.

The only thing that happened over the weekend was that a vendor tried to put a charge on my Cap One account. It was supposed to be $ 600 but they put it through as $ 60,000 so Cap One declined the charge. I called Cap one and the vendor and told them that it was supposed to be $ 600 and that the charge was OK.

Could the $ 60,000 declined charge have caused the drop??

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:03:48 GMT

Mine went down 20 pts today as well for no reason. As a matter of fact, it should even include an almost 1/2 reduction in my revolving debt (no cards were closed, just ballances paid down). TU just got pullted 4 days ago and it was where I expected. EQ is not where I was expecting, and I have no idea why.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

MattieNumNums — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:06:41 GMT

Mine did this a few days ago. 40 point drop even though the only change was a collections account being changed to PAID IN FULL!

Maybe a glitch?

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:14:16 GMT

bigcheeze & MattieNumNums

It sounds like you guys were rebucketed. You're being compared against others with similar credit profiles, and therefore you drop a few points. Give it some time and you'll more than recover those points.

As for OP, are you sure nothing changed? No balances paid down? I know it's strange, but sometimes a positive change will cause a slight drop initially.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:49:39 GMT

do you consider 35 to 39 points a slight drop?

What does rebucketed mean and how will the score back up ?

Could the $ 60,000 declined charge have caused the drop??

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:51:42 GMT

It's certainly not slight.

BungalowMo explained rebucketing very well here.

Another possible explanation for such a large drop is an old closed account aging off of your CR and lowering your AAoA.

I really don't think a declined charge can lower your score; maybe somebody else would have some insight on this.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:23:04 GMT

that is a possibility of an old closed account aging off. It would be hard for me to verify that but I guess I could.
I wouldn't think my AAofA would go down that much to cause a 40 point drop.

Very depressing!!

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:57:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
that is a possibility of an old closed account aging off. It would be hard for me to verify that but I guess I could.
I wouldn't think my AAofA would go down that much to cause a 40 point drop.
Very depressing!!

It's not too bad, actually. It's just a matter of opening both CR's and comparing the data. Old accounts dropping off are kinda easy to spot when you compare them side by side.

I have to say though, that DH and I have both had lovely old accounts age off during the last year or so and have never seen a score drop like that. Of course YMMV.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:37:09 GMT

Thanks BMU. I've looked at the reports and there does not appear to be any account that dropped off. In fact when I compare a Score Power I got last October with a 756 score compared to the 735 one I pulled yesterday ( after my score was 770 the day before), the 735 score Power looks better than the 756. My util is lower on the 735 score. I really dont get it. Nothing else changed. The only thing it could be would be if something fell off but I would not think it would drop it 40 points.

I really dont understand this bucketing either but it does not appear I should drop 40 points from rebucketing either.

I'm frustrated because my three scores before this were EQ- 770, now 735; TU- 752, now 713; Exp- 758, dont know now.

I had received many very good Pre approved CC offers from Citi Diamond Preferred and Platinum and I was going to apply. I only have one Inq in the last 12 months.

Now I'm afraid to apply because of this big score drop, I dont think I would get approved or I would get a much lower CL than what I would have gotten.

I have worked so hard to get my scores where they were and now for this to happen when I did not apply for anything, I did not increase utilization, I did not miss any payments, I did not close any accounts.

This just makes no sense at all and I am very frustrated.

Thanks, for letting me vent.

Any advice for me.

I did think of one other thing I did recently. Back in early June 2011 I paid off an installment loan. Now I dont have any installment debt. But that was early June and my score did not change till July 3rd.

Should I go out and get an installment loan??

Thanks.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:31:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
bigcheeze & MattieNumNums

It sounds like you guys were rebucketed. You're being compared against others with similar credit profiles, and therefore you drop a few points. Give it some time and you'll more than recover those points.

Never heard of rebucketing before... and I don't really like it. Sounds dishonest, and sounds like it's main purpose is to keep our scores as low as possible so that lenders can charge us as high as posslbe intrest rates. Things like FICO scores are meant to be used to compare everyone equally, specailly since all they give is 1 number. It's not like they give a braket and a number, it's just a number. And I haven't had this low of a number since 2008, and my profile looks a LOT better than it did then (when I was still recovering from a divorce). I currently have 1 30day late that is 6 1/2 yrs old, about 20% credit usage and a history of 19 yrs! Back then I had a 90 day (hello Mrs. Divorce) my credit usage was about 80% (closed accounts, still trying to pay off balances from my ex, etc..), and a lower income (by about 30%-40%).

Its no wonder I hate credit card companies, and comanies such as FICO who do everything in their power to hide their activities from us.Sounds like it might be time to contact congress...

NOTE* This isn't directed at you brainysmurf, to you I thank for letting me know about this!

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

GregB — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:32:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My FICO score went down today. EQ- 770 to 735 for no reason. TU- 752 to 713 again for no reason.
Nothing changed on my reports. Can anyone help me understand this. I have not had any changes at all for over 6 months and all of a sudden today it dropped 35 and 40 points.
Thanks.

The only thing that happened over the weekend was that a vendor tried to put a charge on my Cap One account. It was supposed to be $ 600 but they put it through as $ 60,000 so Cap One declined the charge. I called Cap one and the vendor and told them that it was supposed to be $ 600 and that the charge was OK.
Could the $ 60,000 declined charge have caused the drop??

Your score won't change unless your reports change. You need to look at the reports and look for differences. If you look hard enough, you should find a difference.

A declined charge won't change your score unless it resulted in a change on your reports.

Trying to guess at causes without any details will be impossible.

Lets start with some facts. Compare the two reports line by line and report the differences.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:01:45 GMT

I reviewed the two credit reports side by side and there were no changes to the report.

I have been reviewing my credit reports for over 5 years and I know when something changes.

There were no changes, so I have no idea why the 35 point drop.

I dont know what else to think.

I do not understand this rebucketing people are talking about.

The only change in the last 30 days was I paid off an installment loan from $ 2,670 to $ 0. But even then that was 30 days ago and I can't see why that would make my score go down.

I paid off the installment loan in late May. On June 3 it reported to the CRA. My score went from 773 to 770. My AAofA went from 5 years 9 months to 5 years 4 months.

Then on July 3rd my AAofA went from 5 years 4 months to 5 years 5 months and my score went from 770 to 735.

There were no other changes on my CR.

Like I said I have no idea what happened.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

llecs — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:16:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I paid off the installment loan in late May. On June 3 it reported to the CRA. My score went from 773 to 770. My AAofA went from 5 years 9 months to 5 years 4 months.
Then on July 3rd my AAofA went from 5 years 4 months to 5 years 5 months and my score went from 770 to 735.
There were no other changes on my CR.
Like I said I have no idea what happened.

It has to be asked: Where are you getting your scores from?

I ask because FICO doesn't read X Years and Y Months for AAoA. FICO rounds AAoA down to the nearest whole number. And paying off a loan or closing an account will never ever make your AAoA drop because AAoA factors in all reporting OC accounts, opened or closed, good or bad.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:36:47 GMT

Those AAofA figures are from Equifax Score Watch CR. My scores are from Equifax and from My Fico so I know they are correct.

Don't know what else to do.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

llecs — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:37:41 GMT

Why would your AAoA drop, though? Even EQ's listing of AAoA includes all opened and closed TLs. I'd review your reports per the number of TLs reporting. I'd hazard a guess and say either an account was added or one fell off.

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:07:29 GMT

I went back and checked. 10 TLs on the prior report and 10 TLs on subsequent report. Same number of inquiries, same utilization, everything else the same.

I cannot figure out what happened. I'm at a loss. I anyone else can offer any advice I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

GregB — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:45:21 GMT

I believe that a FICO score will always show AAoA as a whole number of years, rounded down. My AAoA is 9 years 7 months, which displays on a EQ FICO report as "9 years". Other credit reports (non FICO) that also use data from EQ will show AAoA as "9 years 7 months". I am guessing that you are not using the same EQ FICO reports to get all the data. It does seem that you are using EQ Scorewatch for at least the score part of some of this. Is it possible that you are using EQ Scorewatch to get your scores but not the full report?

Do you have a full EQ FICO report showing the 770/773 score and a later one showing 735?

I notice that you quoted an EX score, where you listed that all three scores (770, 752, 758). Were those from an EQ product other than Scorewatch that gave you "EQ scores" for all three CRAs?

Can you post a snip of the title page of each that looks something like this?

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:55:56 GMT

I dont have the EQ My Fico sheet because I got those scores directly from Equifax. I assume its the same score as here correct?

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

MarineVietVet — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:56:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I dont have the EQ My Fico sheet because I got those scores directly from Equifax. I assume its the same score as here correct?

Maybe. Several months ago Equifax started selling their own proprietary "Equifax Credit Score" and that is NOT an EQ FICO score.

Equifax will still sell you a FICO score but you have to look very hard to find it. You can get to it here: www.equifax.com/web-myfico-products/

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 3/11 pulled by lender- 835, EQ - 2/11-816, TU - 2/11-782

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

Re: FICO SCORE GOES DOWN 30 TO 40 POINTS

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:23:55 GMT

I believe OP indicated they have ScorePower, which is a product direct from Equifax which includes a true Fico score and report.

Hard to say what happened, but could have been a time-delay between the installment loan being paid off and finally being included in the Fico scoring. Having no installment loans any longer could have put you in a bucket with other individuals with a similar credit mix.