topic Re: Starting to question MyficoM in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 01:58:53 GMT

Ok, I'm having a hard time understanding and now be leaving in Myfico ..how do I go from a 651 to 626 after paing my utility down from 72% to 30% and getting a 61/2 year old baddie dropped off my report?

This score decrease may be caused by these 4 new reasons:

You have a short credit history.
You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
You have not established a long revolving credit history.
You've recently been looking for credit.

# 1 the past few alerts haven't said this, why all of a sudden does it state short credit history, it's been 5 months since I opened my first 2 cards.

# 2 I just paid it down to 30% from 72%

# 3 it gets longer and longer each month. Granted 5 months ain'tlong but why throw this at me now?

# 4 haven't append for a card in 5 months and that's my only 2 I have.

Again I'm starting to question this site. Can anyone share some info?

Re: Starting to question Myfico

llecs — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:06:27 GMT

@Sneekn4u wrote:
Ok, I'm having a hard time understanding and now be leaving in Myfico ..how do I go from a 651 to 626 after paing my utility down from 72% to 30% and getting a 61/2 year old baddie dropped off my report?

This score decrease may be caused by these 4 new reasons:

You have a short credit history.
You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
You have not established a long revolving credit history.
You've recently been looking for credit.

# 1 the past few alerts haven't said this, why all of a sudden does it state short credit history, it's been 5 months since I opened my first 2 cards.
# 2 I just paid it down to 30% from 72%
# 3 it gets longer and longer each month. Granted 5 months ain'tlong but why throw this at me now?
# 4 haven't append for a card in 5 months and that's my only 2 I have.

Again I'm starting to question this site. Can anyone share some info?

Was the baddie a CA or an OC? If an OC, what was the open date on that account and what's your AAoA after the change?

Why did the account drop? Was it due to a dispute, or did it ever have a dispute comment on it?

Congrats on paying down debt! Were any of the CCs that you paid off closed?

This looks like it came from a SW alert. Have you pulled EQ since this score alert? And did this alert come this weekend?

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:26:32 GMT

The collection I had dropped was a old 61/2 year T Mobile from a CA, it had a $0 balance but after sending 2 DV letters with no response I called them to ask if they were stupid for not responding since I live in Tx and they said to dispute with the CB's since they no longer do T Mobile's collections and they won't reply to them as well causing it to drop, which it did last week.

I haven't checked the AAoA yet.

The 2 credit cards I paid down are not closed, I owe $42 on my Cap1 and $140 on my other (was $176 and $230) and paid down my Macy's from $180 to $100.

Yes this was a SW alert and no I have not pulled my EQ since I got the alert about a hour ago...I was waiting till my Cap1 and other 2 reported before I spent the $$$ to pull it.

Is SW something I should trust as far as my score or do I need to spend the $ and do the pull with EQ to get the real deal?

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Simply827 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:06:01 GMT

@Sneekn4u wrote:
Ok, I'm having a hard time understanding and now be leaving in Myfico ..how do I go from a 651 to 626 after paing my utility down from 72% to 30% and getting a 61/2 year old baddie dropped off my report?

This score decrease may be caused by these 4 new reasons:

You have a short credit history.
You've made heavy use of your available revolving credit.
You have not established a long revolving credit history.
You've recently been looking for credit.

# 1 the past few alerts haven't said this, why all of a sudden does it state short credit history, it's been 5 months since I opened my first 2 cards.
# 2 I just paid it down to 30% from 72%
# 3 it gets longer and longer each month. Granted 5 months ain'tlong but why throw this at me now?
# 4 haven't append for a card in 5 months and that's my only 2 I have.

Again I'm starting to question this site. Can anyone share some info?

Well 5 months is a short time, no matter how you look at it. It possibly didn't show up before because the collection and utility were your primary reasons for a low score. Remember that your FICO score is only a snapshot of how your file looks at a particular moment. Continue paying down your balances and let your cards age and your score will gradually increase.

The score you get from EQ website most likely won't be your FICO score. And if you do pay for your FICO score there, it should match what is here.

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:11:46 GMT

Score was 648 last month with this

MacYsdsnb		11/2012	$200	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Icul Disc		9/2012	$267	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Cap One		10/2012	$188	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Conn Credi	XXXXX4430	11/2011	$982	Pays account as agreed	No	Details

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:13:55 GMT

This month 629 and 3 of the acctsstill haven't updated the new balances

MacYsdsnb		11/2012	$179	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Cap One		10/2012	$194	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Icul Disc		9/2012	$164	Pays account as agreed	No	Details
Conn Credi	XXXXX4430	11/2011	$879	Pays account as agreed	No	Details

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:15:18 GMT

And had a collection taken off..lol...I'm going backwards here.

Re: Starting to question Myfico

traveler2005 — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:22:37 GMT

You had a collection account that was 6.5 years old, paid that was taken off, so you AAOA probably went down to 5 months. Thus dropping your score. Sometimes its best to leave paid accounts alone if they are older than the rest of your accounts. Nice to get a negative off your report, but when older accounts disappear, then the AAOA also goes down. Anyone else feel free to speak up?

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:42:33 GMT

Alert:

The balance on one of your accounts has increased by $6

Score Watch alert/Changes to your FICO® Score

Your FICO® score has gone up to 651 on February 11, 2013.

lol..I also got a alert on Feb 11th that my Cap1 balanced increased by $6 lol...and my score went up..go figure.

Thanks for the input guys and I understand about the AAoA and I guess I to just have to blame it on that...looks like its time for a seasoned trade line to replace that loss.

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:40:19 GMT

let me chime in here for a second:

1. You are paying down balances thereby lowering util- 30% is better than 70% to be certain. However 30% is still considered "heavy" usage. FICO won't lower your score as much for 30 percent as it will for 70% but if you take those balances down to below 9% you will enter an area of util that FICO likes a lot.

2. Losing a 6.5 year old account from your AAoA when your next oldest is 5 months, will drastically change your score. 6.5 years is not long by FICO standards to start with. 18 years is long. 5 months is a newborn to FICO.

3. The windows for AAoA are 6 months, 18 months, 2 years 6 months, 3 years and 1 month and upward in chunks from there. Right now you have AAoA of 5 months. Down from probably 4 years would be my guess. (Remember its Average age of accounts)

The key here is don't get disenchanted thinking its MyFICO. You can pull other scores from other monitoring businesses but they are not FICO scores. Essentially most of those places will try to tell you what you want to hear instead of what the real picture is.

My score on Credit Karma this morning was 735. I still have three cards which need to report and all of them were at 90% util before I paid them off last week. When they report, my score will increase to be sure because I paid them all the way off and will only have a balance of less than 5% reporting on just one of my cards. The rest are paid to 0. So I know that my score on Credit Karma is bogus.

I ran the MyFICO simulator earlier today and subtracted the balances which will report in a couple weeks from my current balance total and it told me that my score will jump to 749-799. I call BS on that because I know that my AAoA is not going to be enough to push me that close to 800. Its nice to look at that number but its not one I will see just yet.

Don't get discouraged. You are on the right track and BELIEVE me a mid range 600 score with NO baddies is better than a low range 700 with baddies.

I hope this helps and I don't mean to sound harsh if it does come off that way. FICO scores can make us all pull our hair out, but you are doing good by paying down those balances. Before long you will see the rewards in a more tangible and intense manner.

Re: Starting to question Myfico

llecs — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:47:01 GMT

OP, for clarity, you received a SW alert on EQ for a drop in score. If you haven't pulled EQ since the alert, how do you know the drop in score included a dropped baddie? Could the collection still be reporting? In other words, did the 648 exclude the collection already?

T-mobile never reported, right? If it was the CA that dropped then AAoA never changed since it isn't factored in.

Going from the before and after util probably wouldn't result in too much of a FICO change since util is still high plus you are carrying balances on all of your accounts. Get 2 to report $0 and you'll see a nice boost.

Re: Starting to question Myfico

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:40:41 GMT

Thanks Pilot...I just got a little hot there when I got the SW report. I guess the moral of the story is Your dammed if you do and Your dammed if you don't lol...Get rid of the baddie and loose AAoA or keep it and have it show on your report. My balance on my Macys store card will be $0 on next months report and on the 2 credit cards one will be $0 and the other will be 9%, that is my goal and then leave them alone till June, by then I want to app for a real cc (not secured) (unless you guys think I shouldn't) I will then have 8 months of never missed or late payments, 9%Util, 2 IQ and a installment loan that will be 18 months with no lates or missed payments. Again, do you guys think I'll be ready and if so who should I app with? I know this is getting a little off subject for this forum (sorry) my Macy's is $300 limit, $250 on my Cap1 and $300 on my Matrix cc...I just want you guys to understand the full picture of my report. My EX shows all the same except a 6year acct with no missed or late payments but only reports to EX. Would being added to one of my friends cc as a AU help me? He has a few with average AAoA of 5-7 years with excelent history and low utility.

Thanks guys

And as pulling my hair out of my head, he'll I ain't got much left to pull lol

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:05:34 GMT

Mod....yes the 648 was while the baddie (derogatory) was on my report ( I actually got a score bump 2-3 weeks ago to 651 cause my balanced increased by $6 on my Cap1..still can't figure that out) I did go ahead and pull my EQ last night for the $13 and yes the baddie is gone. I disputed throught the CB online and waited for the 30 day results and last week got the good news that it was taken off. I thought for sure after that and paying down the cards I would of at least seen a 10-20 point increas. I will prob get another alert here in the next week showing a increase in score I'm sure since my Cap1 and Macy's still haven't updated the new balance yet but at the most it will put me back to where I was....no gain Heck my (different scoring/Faco) Credit Karma even went up from the baddie and the difference between last months Utility and what's showing this month so far..lol

They say Myfico is God so I guess I just have to leave it in their hands and see how it all pans out. I just got a little ticked cause I'm going down the right track, kicking ass and taking names and my score went the other way. Deleat the baddies, get a mix of credit and pay down utility....

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

llecs — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:45:06 GMT

OP, you'll get a better idea if you compare your previous reports together. Look at the +/- factors. Look at the Credit At-A-Glance page. And look for any baddies within Accounts, Collections, and Public Records to see if there are any changes, differences, etc. I personally would bet against a score increase on utilization alone since it was still high as of your previous report pull (aside from this weekend). You'll start seeing movement as balances hit $0.

On the collection, if would not have negatively impacted AAoA if it was a CA (e.g. AFNI, Midland, etc.) because CAs aren't factored into AAoA. If it was T-Mobile that reported, then you could see a significant score drop if removed since that's an OC.

Finally, SW (or any service) doesn't alert for dropped baddies. It did it's job with the score alert which prompted this thread. Be sure to reset your target score to that new score from your last report pull. The mystery remains on the score drop but you'll have to do some digging and look for changes. Even something small like an added acct with a balance or status change can drop your score like it did.

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:01:17 GMT

You said Cap One card went up by 6$.

After everything has reported for the month. Maybe try the Capital One Executive office route.

Just google the CEO's email at capital one. Shoot an email to them telling them how long you have had the account and that you really like Capital one but need a higher limit that allows more options for you. Give them a phone number to call you at and they will, quickly. (usually a day or three)

Right now folks are having a LOT of success with Cap One exec office CLI's. Be reasonable with them and be sure to tell them when they call that you are open to a counter offer so they know you are being reasonable.

If you get the CLI, just garden what you have til it hits a year and one day. Then perhaps look to Discover IT for your first card. If you get it, Garden again for another 6 months.

Things will shape up quickly now that you have no baddies. Believe it.

Like I said a mid range 600 with NO baddies easily trumps a low range 700 with baddies.

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:53:10 GMT

Received a SW alert on Feb 11th..i always thought if your utility goes "up" that your score would go "down" but instead i got a 3 point increase for it going up $6 lol and its a secured card Pilot so a CLI is prob not in my cards there. Below is the alert i got.......it was 648 when i got the alert...i think i used it to buy a pack of smokes.

February 11, 2013

Alert:

The balance on one of your accounts has increased by $6

Score Watch alert/Changes to your FICO® Score

Your FICO® score has gone up to 651 on February 11, 2013

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:55:38 GMT

Heck, i should just go buy a carton, think of that increase lol

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

llecs — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:31:50 GMT

@Sneekn4u wrote:
Received a SW alert on Feb 11th..i always thought if your utility goes "up" that your score would go "down" but instead i got a 3 point increase for it going up $6 lol and its a secured card Pilot so a CLI is prob not in my cards there. Below is the alert i got.......it was 648 when i got the alert...i think i used it to buy a pack of smokes.

February 11, 2013

Alert: The balance on one of your accounts has increased by $6
Score Watch alert/Changes to your FICO® Score
Your FICO® score has gone up to 651 on February 11, 2013

SW alerts don't give the full picture. Remember, SW only grabs your latest score at the time of a credit alert (a balance increase in your example). It doesn't mean that a $6 increase in a CC balance increased your scores. It didn't. Something else would have happened like a balance decrease, TL aging, etc. For example, I once got a SW credit alert for a new inquiry with a gain of 20 points. The inquiry didn't increase my Eq FICO by 20, but it was a baddie dropping that resulted in the increase.

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

Sneekn4u — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:30:12 GMT

Ok I'm starting to understand SW....I guess since I got my setting at "alert me if I have a increase of $5 or more, that set off the alert but the increase could of been from lower utility or AAoA.

Thanks again Mod and Pilot for all the help and advice....

Re: Starting to question MyficoM

dddewdrop — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:45:55 GMT

I would recommend focussing on paying down your cards and then not charging other stuff on most of them for a while. See if you can get in the habit of maintaining a lot lower utilisation. Think of the credit cards as tools for the future and put at least one in your sock drawer with a zero balance. That will simplify things for you along with improving your scores. You have a decent number of tradelines. You just need to chill while they age...