topic Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes??? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

thankfulheart — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:05:02 GMT

My mortgage finally reported and a $10K line of credit reported as well. Here are the details:

LOC lowered UTIL from 50% to 40%. AAOA went from 4.1 to 4.0. No score change.

Next day, mortgage reported, AAOA went from 4.0 to 3.9. No score change.

Seems to me that my score should have budged at least a single point in some direction with these kinda significant items showing up??? BTW, the INQ from the LOC NEVER showed up on my MyFICO EQ report, although USAA picked it up. My FAKOs have been happy with the changes, why not FICO?

I am so confused...

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

llecs — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:22:22 GMT

The good cancelled the bad, or vice-versa? Some report gains when their first mortgage reports. I had a loss personally. Util changing from 50% to 40% probably wouldn't do much. Who knows...maybe the small loss of the mortgage was offset by the gain of the util? Who knows. Is util listed in the #1 neg. slot?

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

thankfulheart — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:07:48 GMT

Yes, UTIL is listed #1, followed by new account, 2 accounts with lates (30/60 from 2007), and inquiries. That's why I thought the UTIL adjustment would have at least bumped me SOMEWHERE so I could see some movement in my score.

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

bobebob — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:24:07 GMT

I think that it's probable that your score actually bumped up slightly.

ScoreWatch seems to do a good job of giving you immediate feedback on negative news. Not so good on the positive.

From the ad:

Track your FICO Score via an easy-to-understand chart. Get a full explanation of your FICO Score and understand the positive and negative factors in your score.

Credit score monitoring alerts you when your FICO Score hits your goal, or qualifies you for a different interest rate on a home or auto loan

I.E. you will see rapidly whenever a new negative factor is reported (inq, raised Util, ect).

To see positive changes you have to tweak your settings tab. After I get a new score on SW, I always reset the "target score" to one point higher than the current one. That way if any positive information hits my record and bumps my score even one point, I'll see it.

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

thankfulheart — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:37:00 GMT

I keep my score set right at the current score so that ANY movement triggers an alert. Sadly, neither of these events did. I don't think I will ever understand FICO scoring...

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

bobebob — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:17:40 GMT

Ok. Then I don't know what's going on. Per ushe.

I started refinancing my house a couple of weeks ago. And the 2 Inq's I got had no impact on my score. I thought that was a little weird.

I got the notifications on SW that the inq's hit my report. But my score remained the same. Ehh, works for me.

Re: Score didn't budge with mortgage/UTIL changes???

llecs — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:22:01 GMT

@bobebob wrote:

Ok. Then I don't know what's going on. Per ushe.

I started refinancing my house a couple of weeks ago. And the 2 Inq's I got had no impact on my score. I thought that was a little weird.

I got the notifications on SW that the inq's hit my report. But my score remained the same. Ehh, works for me.

Not every inquiry will impact your FICO. Also, if coded as a mortgage inquiry, FICO will ignore the inquiry per scoring purposes until the duplication window passes. On your EQ FICO that's 30 days. So, at the end of 30 days from the first mortgage inquiry, FICO will score it. But again, not every inquiry will hurt your FICO (coming from someone who used to have 30+ on EX and EQ, each).