topic Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?! in Understanding FICO® Scoring

EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 15:10:50 GMT

I just paid off one of my credit cards. I have 3, and one is reporting a low balance. Why would my EX score go down 8 pts?!

I thought paying this off would increase my scores!!

Frustrated!

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

App_Addict — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:23:03 GMT

People will need MUCH more info. in order to try to help you understand why this would have happened. SOOOO much goes into your FICO score and chances are good that paying off that credit card did not make your score go down, it just triggered the alert that shows your score lower. Is this your FICO score that went down? If you pay all of your accounts down this can happen because FICO like to see at least one account reporting. Sorry couldn't be more help but with the info. provided just no way to tell.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:54:39 GMT

It must be something else then that triggered the decrease. It is an alert from myFICO. All I know is I had a CO recently removed, a CLI of 1500 on one of my Cap cards (not yet reporting), and paid all CC's off except one that is currently at 150/500.

Just a setback. Hopefully temporary...

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 16:55:43 GMT

I really wish myFICO would indicate all triggers to our scores. Is there a way to actually track when things are added, or removed on a daily basis...

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 12:59:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I really wish myFICO would indicate all triggers to our scores. Is there a way to actually track when things are added, or removed on a daily basis...

In answer to your question, no there isn't any way to track every change.

As to why they don't indicate all triggers; you would be bombarded with alerts because your score is constantly changing and if they provided alerts for every change it would reveal far more about their scoring algorithm than they would want others to know. They are a for profit business and have competitors so like any business they are not going to reveal trade secrets.

Its ts really important not to focus on every change up and down. Just like you see a decrease for an alert that seems not to make sense, there are just as many that report increase for something that shouldnt/doesn't cause increases, such as inquiry. It's far better to concern yourself with scores over a much longer time period and what's in your file.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:00:45 GMT

Soooo, what is being said is, we get alerts on things that don't trigger score changes, but get no alerts on things that trigger score changes? Got it. rollseyes

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 13:11:23 GMT

@racer-x wrote:
Soooo, what is being said is, we get alerts on things that don't trigger score changes, but get no alerts on things that trigger score changes? Got it. rollseyes

No one ever said that the alerts are about things that don't cause score changes. No one forces you to use the service either.. You seem unwilling to accept the fact that FICO is not going to explain every detail of the formulas that cause score changes. FICO, if you ready Barry's blog was concerned about this very thing; that providing consumers their scores would cause exactly this kind of confusion.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:00:56 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@racer-x wrote:
Soooo, what is being said is, we get alerts on things that don't trigger score changes, but get no alerts on things that trigger score changes? Got it. rollseyes
No one ever said that the alerts are about things that don't cause score changes. No one forces you to use the service either.. You seem unwilling to accept the fact that FICO is not going to explain every detail of the formulas that cause score changes. FICO, if you ready Barry's blog was concerned about this very thing; that providing consumers their scores would cause exactly this kind of confusion..

uh, nice edit.

I knew I should've quoted it.

SOMEBODY just said that 'chances are, the score drop was due to something else that changed in the OPs report and paying the balance down/off is what triggered the alert, but was not necessarily the cause of the score drop.' In other words, changes that cause score changes aren't reported, but a change can trigger an alert that will then show the score change. In other words, I stand by my statement. I"ve read that 'reasoning/explanation' of score drops many many times on here.

"Oh, oh, your score didn't drop 20 pts because you went from 40% util to 2 % util on one card, it was some hidden change that you're not allowed to see.;

Is obama running myfico too? Transparency right?

I coulda swore somebody posted that prior to me making my comment. It's early, probably just me. My bad.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:09:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@racer-x wrote:
Soooo, what is being said is, we get alerts on things that don't trigger score changes, but get no alerts on things that trigger score changes? Got it. rollseyes
No one ever said that the alerts are about things that don't cause score changes. No one forces you to use the service either.. You seem unwilling to accept the fact that FICO is not going to explain every detail of the formulas that cause score changes. FICO, if you ready Barry's blog was concerned about this very thing; that providing consumers their scores would cause exactly this kind of confusion.

This. It's time for this to end. In recent days, I've come across too many posts saying the same thing; I paid off my credit cards and my score..."

And much of it is nothing more than window dressing; people looking to sooth their inner sense and seeking validation that they did what was right; manage their debts.

The monitoring service works. It will not always seem logical where it goes down when you thought it would go up or vice versa, but it neithertheless works.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:12:53 GMT

@racer-x wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@racer-x wrote:
Soooo, what is being said is, we get alerts on things that don't trigger score changes, but get no alerts on things that trigger score changes? Got it. rollseyes
No one ever said that the alerts are about things that don't cause score changes. No one forces you to use the service either.. You seem unwilling to accept the fact that FICO is not going to explain every detail of the formulas that cause score changes. FICO, if you ready Barry's blog was concerned about this very thing; that providing consumers their scores would cause exactly this kind of confusion..
uh, nice edit.

I knew I should've quoted it.

SOMEBODY just said that 'chances are, the score drop was due to something else that changed in the OPs report and paying the balance down/off is what triggered the alert, but was not necessarily the cause of the score drop.' In other words, changes that cause score changes aren't reported, but a change can trigger an alert that will then show the score change. In other words, I stand by my statement. I"ve read that 'reasoning/explanation' of score drops many many times on here.

"Oh, oh, your score didn't drop 20 pts because you went from 40% util to 2 % util on one card, it was some hidden change that you're not allowed to see.;
Is obama running myfico too? Transparency right?

I coulda swore somebody posted that prior to me making my comment. It's early, probably just me. My bad.

No clue what you are talking about. I didn't edit anything. We get it, you're not happy with the explanations.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:24:27 GMT

Answer this question then: does myfico provide us with alerts that are not indicative of a score change?

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:39:31 GMT

@racer-x wrote:
Answer this question then: does myfico provide us with alerts that are not indicative of a score change?

Some alerts show score changes, but some do not. The problem you are having is that you assume incorrectly that the reason for the alert is the score change when it's not. You get alerts for a very few predetermined factors that are available for us all to see. We will never see every reason for a score change no matter how much we wish that that we would. If you accept the fact that the alerts and scores shown are independent from each other then you won't get frustrated that a balance decrease also shows a score decrease. They aren't related even though on the surface it seems that they are because of the way FICO shows the alert.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:45:59 GMT

Firstly, i dont have have a problem nor am i frustrated. Thanks for being in my heart and mind.

Secondly, you just stated what i stated.
We may have a 30 pt drop but never know why unless we were the fico programmers.
But we may get an alert that is very minor and insignificant.

I would then suggest that myfico isnt providing the most valuable data to us that we are buying.

If i buy a 2lb hamburger, i want it to weigh 2lbs.

Foller me?

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 14:49:43 GMT

Should we not get the real info in an alert that is most ctitical and important to us? I.e. A major score drop or increase?

I got alerts across the board for a 30pt increase but it didnt say why. "Your eq has increased by 30 pts." Gee thanks, but why?

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:15:44 GMT

Where is my "Beating a Dead Horse gif"?

I'm not in your heart or mind racer, but this is getting old. And me thinks much of the whining stems from mismanaged expectations. My score have dropped 15 points respective across all CRAs. And I knew this mentally going into February. I applied and was approved for four new cards since Jan 26th. So at the end of February I get alert saying new accounts, decrease in accounts, new account balances,etc. For me, this one more is a blip. Over the next 2-4 months I expect my scores to be back at the 750s or greater. Too many of these types of threads are actually whining about things not going their way.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 16:57:37 GMT

When posters are trying to understand and find the reasons for score drops, i wouldnt call that whining. Lets call it inquisitiveness. Especially me. Im just rebutting the same song and dance answers.

Question: my score dropped 30 pts when the only thing that changed was i paid my overall util to 1% and on only one card. Why?

Answer: The reason is really simple math. If tom picks 700 apples and gives 30 apples to dic k and then dic k gives them to harry, then harry will have 670 apples. See how simple that is children. The same goes for myfico scoring and alerts. Besides, benjamin franklin and thomas efison really didnt intend for you to understand and know the arithematic behind it"

Im a nuts and bolts, yes or no, win or lose kinda guy,..i build highways , bridges and concrete structures...there is no in between gray area bs in my head.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

racer-x — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 19:31:07 GMT

Blacklace- how does your example of your acquisition of 4 new accts and you being 'mentally' prepared for the oncoming point drop compare to somebody having a CO removed, a SP CLI, PIF'ing an account, and lowering utilization on one card and having only that card report a balance, thus resulting in an 8 point drop when 4 very good/positive changes took place?

Id say its very obvious to. 99% of myfico members that a score decrease would result after acquiring 4 new accts, aaoa decreasing, and additional inq 's.

How would you 'mentally' prepare yourself if you had a CO removed, you PIF'd an acct, you got a SP CLI, and you lowered your utilization on your single acct that was reporting a balance?

Would you personally black, been prepared for an 8 pt score drop or would you have expected a nice bump in score?

.....exactly as i thought.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 20:20:38 GMT

Another 7 pt drop to my EX, and a 13 pt drop to EQ. Something is definitely VERY wrong. I recently GW'd a 30 day late on my student loan from Feb 2014. I'm thinking they must have reported it as a dispute, and then verified the validity of that same 30 day late, just updated on my report. UGH! I'm starting to wish I left it alone.

Also, I ordered a new TU report, and a CO that Comenity told me they were deleting (also a letter sent), is now reporting 2x. I attribute the score drops to this, and the updated 30 day late on my AES student loan. This is just such a setback. But, I remain positive. I just received another CLI of $600 on my Fingerhut account (currently @ a zero balance). So this CLI along with my $1500 CLI on my Cap1 card, and all CC's reporting zero except one CC @ 50% (soon to be zero as of this coming Friday).

My intention for this post wasn't to receive reassurance in regards to what I am doing. Just venting is all. My guess here is that all of my progress is just slow moving, and since I am still relatively new to all of this, I am a bit impatient.

My goal....my hope, if you will, is to continue to update this thread with updates (good news hopefully), to reflect that maybe sometimes it just takes more than a month to get things going in an upward motion again. I also have a newer account reporting since November 2014 that I could have taken a ding for over the past couple months, but I have high hopes this will actually help my scores in the long run.

Question: How long does a new account negatively affect your scores before starting to be an asset to your credit file?

PS: I appreciate everyone's input - good - bad, or indifferent. I take it all in, and am learning as much as I possibly can.

Thank you all for your comments.

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

NRB525 — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 20:46:03 GMT

OP, you should go back and re-read your first post. There was no mention of any charge offs or other problems in your file.

Until those baddies are removed or fall off, you are not going to get consistent results out of MyFICO alerts and FICO scoring because those negatives are smothering everything else.

Just keep working on getting the negatives fixed, and eventually, with no further lates or problems with payments, your scores should trend upward, slowly slowly.You have already seen some increase from the mid-500's to where you are now.

Credit buildling is a long journey. Good luck!

Re: EXP down 8 pts - WHY?!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 21:06:29 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
OP, you should go back and re-read your first post. There was no mention of any charge offs or other problems in your file.

Until those baddies are removed or fall off, you are not going to get consistent results out of MyFICO alerts and FICO scoring because those negatives are smothering everything else.
Just keep working on getting the negatives fixed, and eventually, with no further lates or problems with payments, your scores should trend upward, slowly slowly.You have already seen some increase from the mid-500's to where you are now.

Credit buildling is a long journey. Good luck!

Wow! Well if my credit was sqeaky clean, I wouldn't be in the rebuilding forum, would I? The CO's are from 2011, and while I know I need to work on getting them removed (1 to be removed, and 1 removed already), I sincerely thought working on my UTIL would help as well. So I won't see consistent results. Good to know.